Time to arrest Jameis Winston.
Despite the FSU football star and Heisman Trophy favorite's claim that he had consensual sex with an unnamed girl, Tallahassee police and prosecutors have dawdled long enough.
As you probably know, FSU's football team climbed to number one in the nation this morning and will play Duke in the conference championship -- then likely continue on to the BCS championship game. And as you also are probably aware, Tallahassee cops have been sitting on a rape complaint against Winston for a full year, since December 2012.
But they found traces of Winston's DNA in the girl's underwear. And the nation has had about enough of Florida's macho football baloney -- courtesy of Richie Incognito and the Miami Dolphins, as well as this sad college campus scenario.
UPDATE: Tallahassee prosecutors announced, after publication of this blog post,, that they had insufficient evidence to charge Winston or prove that the sex was anything but consensual..
I understand that brutality is part of football. I played the game as a kid. But a message needs to be sent -- because so far in both the case of the Dolphins and of Jameis Winston, the message to the public has been "Hold on. This is OK."
I read a terrifying story by Marci, a member of the FSU chapter of the sorority Delta Zeta, where the alleged rape victim lived. The sorority house has received bomb threats since the allegation was made.
And Marci, a woman who was raped 14 years ago by a frat guy in Tallahassee, says cops and others discouraged her complaint.
I told them what happened, and they put me in the back of a squad car and had me show them the apartment complex where I'd been raped. Back at the station, the detective I spoke to said, "Are you sure you want to pursue this? It's been three months, so it's just he-said/she-said at this point. That doesn't usually go well."
As in the rest of America, the crime rate has been falling in Tallahassee in recent years, according to city-data.com, but the city is still rated high. And in 2011, the Florida Independent reported that FSU had a particular problem with rape -- reporting three times the number than that of the University of Florida and other areas schools. Police were offering "self-defense classes" as a way to respond. How in hell does that rate as public policy?
Take a look at this video, telling the terrifying story of a woman who was raped on the fourth floor of the FSU library by a man who was eventually accused of raping other women and killing his girlfriend. "Not enough people report this to the police," she says.
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