>1. I see law as a person is innocent until proven guilty.

Yes.

>2. When you accuse someone of something, you afford the burden
>of proof. She is the accuser, and I have YET to see or hear
>any proof that she was raped.

Also true, by law.

But we also know that the law lets down rape victims regularly. That, routinely, women are sexually assaulted by lovers, friends, and family members, and they are too ashamed/scared to get a rape kit done. That, routinely, women have to seek settlement pretrial or in civil cases, because they realize the system lets down rape victims and they pursue it as the only attainable form of "justice" within reach. That only 40% of rapes are ever reported to the police (if that), and that only 2% of rape charges are determined to be false. That's around the same percent as felony accusations that are proven to be false. If a woman said she was robbed, people don't immediately go "nah, bitch is lying." But they do *so often* about rape charges. Why?

I'm not saying he *did* do it-- that's not for me to decide. But the idea that we should automatically doubt why a woman comes forward and puts herself through the public tribulations of accusing a celebrity of rape? Because the law says "innocent until proven guilty"? Nah. I'm not a jury. I don't have to do that. Neither does anyone else. I don't have to say OJ didn't murder those people, I don't have to say Casey Anthony didn't kill her kid, I don't have to say that wasn't R. Kelly on that videotape.

Instead, I can look at the overall statistics and I can say, "Here's a guy still playing football, still making millions, and here's the woman accusing him, about to be attacked, spit on, and probably sent death threats by thousands of shithead football fans and Very Online Guys. Maybe I *don't* need to post defending the millionaire celebrity here. I can instead believe the woman who isn't in a position of power, and I can reserve the right to be wrong if this is one of those 2% cases."

*shrug*

I realize I won't convince anyone here who isn't already convinced. And I'm confident the replies to this reply will be infuriating. So I'll just bow out. Just remember: when on OKP, a decent rule of thumb is "If I'm siding with ThaTruth on social issues, I should really question my take."