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Curious. Not in a good way.
12/3/10 08:07There's a rather horrific piece in the NY Times this morning about a woman at a bar in New York who rebuffed* the advances of a man on the dance floor, and was subsequently beaten by him in the restroom.
That's pretty horrific. The fact that they mention it on the front page suggests that these things don't happen as much as Law And Order SUV would lead one to believe, but still and all, awful. Apparently, after the woman had been away from the dance floor for a while, a friend went down to the restroom to check on her, and found her, as described above. The calls that went in to 911, however, said that a woman had "fallen in a bar." Fallen badly enough to break her nose and ocular orbit, with her pants half off? The article continues, "It was not until the woman regained consciousness at the hospital at 5:30 a.m., and told hospital personnel that she had been assaulted, that the police were notified that a crime might have been committed."
I am reasonably sure that no one was covering anything up, and I wasn't on site, but--how do you look at a woman in a bathroom (not at the bottom of the stairs, but in the restroom proper, by the description of where the assault took place), unconscious and with one pants leg entirely off, and not at least wonder if something dodgey has taken place?
* The writer in me wants to know what "rebuffed" means in this case--there's a broad spectrum of turn-downs, from "No, thanks, I'm here with friends," to "I'd rather shoot myself than dance with you." Neither one justifies beating another human to a pulp, but it's a storytelling thing.
The woman, 29, rebuffed the man’s advances and went to the restroom in the bar’s basement, the police said.
Minutes later, the man burst through a stall door and began savagely attacking the woman, beating her as he tried to remove her pants, the police said. She fought back, and was able to avoid being sexually assaulted — but not before the man broke her nose and one of her eye sockets, leaving her unconscious and sprawled in a pool of blood.
That's pretty horrific. The fact that they mention it on the front page suggests that these things don't happen as much as Law And Order SUV would lead one to believe, but still and all, awful. Apparently, after the woman had been away from the dance floor for a while, a friend went down to the restroom to check on her, and found her, as described above. The calls that went in to 911, however, said that a woman had "fallen in a bar." Fallen badly enough to break her nose and ocular orbit, with her pants half off? The article continues, "It was not until the woman regained consciousness at the hospital at 5:30 a.m., and told hospital personnel that she had been assaulted, that the police were notified that a crime might have been committed."
I am reasonably sure that no one was covering anything up, and I wasn't on site, but--how do you look at a woman in a bathroom (not at the bottom of the stairs, but in the restroom proper, by the description of where the assault took place), unconscious and with one pants leg entirely off, and not at least wonder if something dodgey has taken place?
* The writer in me wants to know what "rebuffed" means in this case--there's a broad spectrum of turn-downs, from "No, thanks, I'm here with friends," to "I'd rather shoot myself than dance with you." Neither one justifies beating another human to a pulp, but it's a storytelling thing.