Editorial: The Senate misses the point on military rape
The Star-Ledger Editorial Board writes:
Some members of the Senate think that’s quite enough. But this measure, pushed by Sen. Claire McCaskill, stops short of what’s really needed to fight rape culture in our military: To take prosecutions out of the chain of command altogether.
That’s what Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand would have done. Last week, she lost her yearlong battle to require these cases to be handled by independent prosecutors instead of military commanders. Her competing bill won a majority in the Senate, 55-45, but not enough votes to beat a filibuster.
That’s a shame. Gillibrand rightly argued that since fewer than 4 percent of victims report their rapists and most of those who do say they were retaliated against, we must turn these cases over to impartial legal experts.
