On the night of October 19, 2024, Cornell University students lived a night in which they will never know the full truth.
The “Cornell 7” case, dubbed by the mainstream media as an encounter between “Jane Doe” and seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, has been put on trial and the battle lines have been drawn. A great deal of ink has been and will continue to be devoted to protecting the Department of Energy or rehabilitating these individuals.
But amid all the hoopla surrounding the event itself, a familiar, frustrating trend has emerged. Progressives’ stated desires for the direction of society are directly contradicted by their actions in this case.
Think of the young activists, jumping on the confident, smug moral certainties associated with progressives, marching in the streets and clamoring for the abolition of police and prison systems in the name of justice. Indeed, in the case of Cornell University, the writhing mass of students evoked a sense of justice while marching slowly across the university campus chanting “No justice, no peace!”
Progressives advocate unlimited opportunities for criminals accused of and sometimes convicted of heinous acts of violence, preferring so-called community-based alternatives to the traditional incarceration system.
This philosophy has echoes from progressive street roots all the way to its political operatives. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has frequently called for the abolition of prisons and police, claiming at a rally in 2021, “I want to abolish our prison system that is designed to imprison black and brown people.”
However, this sense of community suddenly evaporates when it comes to alleged sexual misconduct. Forget due process or the presumption of innocence; the mob seeks blood.
Ocasio-Cortez chimed in on Cornell 7, claiming that “a culture of rape, sexual assault and pedophilia is protected at elite institutions across the United States, including Cornell.” She was joined by a number of progressives, including actress Florence Pugh, who fully supported Jane Doe’s story, calling it “horrible” and condemning members of Cornell.
Even those typically aligned with Ocasio-Cortez and Pugh believe the circus has become untethered. “The View” host and former prosecutor Sunny Hostin, who describes himself as not officially a conservative, said Jane Doe’s initial statement did not provide a valid basis for prosecutors to charge the seven men in 2024, and that the rush to reveal the identities of the men online before they were charged was a big problem. It’s worth noting that Hostin’s career as a prosecutor focused primarily on sex crimes, so she has a better understanding than most on this topic, at least.
Hostin faced backlash from the mob, who accused her of contributing to “rape culture,” before being justified in her caution. The lives of the defendant and his family and friends have been completely uprooted simply because of the accusations of John Doe. Social media posts painted them as the devil incarnate, while they were denied employment opportunities.
In one case, a completely unrelated man with the same name as one of the defendants faced the wrath of a mob before it became clear they were two different people.
Perhaps most importantly, the frenzied desire to eliminate a man who had nothing to do with the Cornell case perfectly sums up the problem of mob justice.
It seems impossible to draw any conclusion other than a progressive justice system based solely on whether the defendant is a member of a protected class. The Cornell defendants were all members of fraternities, two classes long anathema to progressive political projects. The alleged victim is a woman and therefore deserves unwavering respect, as reflected in the popular slogan “Believe in all women”.
But it should be clear to anyone paying attention that a justice system enforced by a mob based solely on preconceived notions of oppressor and oppressed is a terrible way to structure the world.
Whatever happened that night at Cornell University, seven people who were not formally charged should not have to satisfy the activist class’s bloodlust. If due process only applies to those whom progressives deem to be oppressed, then it functionally does not exist at all.
Although it may seem cliché, equality before the law, regardless of the alleged crime, is a fundamental principle of our shared society.
Maybe the men did it, maybe Jane Doe was lying. Maybe it’s a combination of the two. Eventually, after hours of painstaking investigation, some conclusions will be drawn. But justice cannot be served by ideologues who determine guilt or innocence soon after a case enters their world.
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Doug Blair is the news manager for American Heritage Action.