The trial for former City of Winona Alderwoman Sylvia Clark, who resigned her Ward 3 seat on Monday, was a fiasco to say the least. With the defense grasping at “strawman” arguments and hardly able to get the case and evidence in order, it’s easy to say that the first-term official never had a chance in felony case against her.
However, The Winona Times would also argue that the case should have never seen trial as a plea bargain would likely have gone much smoother for both parties. The main concern with the defense, as well as Grenada-based attorney Reid Stanford’s arguments, was the constant blaming of the victim that went on throughout the trial. Stanford asked what seemed to be ridiculous questions throughout his questioning of B.J. Edwards, the officer who was assaulted last July during a Board of Aldermen meeting in which Clark represented Ward 3. From asking him if he had shown a visible pain response to even apparently blaming him for Clark’s actions in grabbing him. If the gender roles had been reversed, Stanford would be under heavy scrutiny from all angles. The same would be true if it had been a female cop grabbed inappropriately, sexually assaulted by a male, the courtroom would’ve been filled with commotion and displeasure. Instead, the courtroom was filled with snickers and strangled laughs – a truly disappointing and disturbing sight.
The Times is completely disturbed by how the case was handled on all fronts, as everyone from the jury to the spectators in the courtroom seemed to snicker and make light of the serious situation. Such a thing would never happen for a female sexual assault victim. The audacity of everyone involved who made jokes or slighted comments about the situation is astounding. Even witnesses and elected officials made comments – on the stand in fact – seemingly blaming the victim for his pants being too tight and making a comment about “grabbing a man where it hurts.” In an instance of self-defense from a predatory man, we would absolutely agree. However, there was nothing predatory about Officer Edward’s actions, he was simply conducting his duties of maintaining order in a Board meeting and was in turn victimized in the course of performing that responsibility.
Tragically, male victims of assault are often treated much differently than female victims, gartering such responses. It’s no wonder that an estimated 95 percent of all sexual assault cases involving male victims are not reported, according to the National Library of Medicine. Who would want to report a life altering, traumatic incident when they know they will receive scrutiny and jokes made at their expense? Had the incident not happened in a public place, been filmed, and been “smoothed down” to assault on an officer, it’s a wonder if it would have ever been reported.
At times like this, everyone should consider not only the physical harm done to the victim, but the psychological harm that comes with such an event as well. According to the National Center for PTSD, 10 percent of American men have suffered from trauma as a result of a sexual assault event. With the physical harm done – though lasting significantly shorter – much psychological harm is experienced as well, oftentimes lasting a lifetime. Just as women who experience sexual assault, men who have experienced it often come away with lasting trauma. Male victims also suffer from depression, posttraumatic stress, and many other emotional problems as a result of their assault. Men suffer the same as women, but are laughed at when they seek help.
With these statistics in mind, The Times would like to revisit the case and how the victim was treated. After having been grabbed inappropriately and had derogatory sexual comments made about him, he took the stand in court. He was questioned repeatedly on his level of pain during and after the incident. He sat through a volley of questions concerning an extremely sensitive and undoubtably embarrassing topic. He sat on the stand, not as the defendant, but as the victim, and was questioned and prodded as if he were the one on trial. All of this, for the people in attendance to make light of the situation; to laugh at something that undoubtably caused him undue suffering. For people to make comments about his pants being too tight or that the video did not explicitly and irrevocably show a full-frontal close-up view of the moment he was assaulted.
Consider this, your son, your husband, your brother, your boyfriend or any of your loved ones could have had this happen to them. Consider how you would respond to them experiencing and reliving this trauma. Consider them sitting in wait for months as the case makes its way through the court system, only to be made fun of during the trial. If this hypothetical does not shed a new light on the subject, we don’t know what could.
The point being, America, our nation as a whole, needs to do better for male victims of assault. Male victims deserve the same dignity and care as female victims. There needs to be more decorum with how issues like this are handled for men, for them to feel safer in reporting these events moving forward. This can, and should, start in Winona, Mississippi. Winona should make their men feel safe, not ridiculed. Winona needs to do better, and we think this should be a wake up call for it to start now.
