Justifying OWS Philly Rape? - 'The Rates Of Rape Seem To Be Much Lower Than In Refugee Camps

The horrific and violent crime of rape should never be minimized, justified or accepted. One rape within any society is too many.

However, when a rape was reported in the Occupy Philadelphia camp and the news of that rape was posted on the Facebook page of 53%-er Kevin Eder, it prompted a strange reaction from a DC-based feminist organizer named Abigail Collazo.

Here's the initial Facebook post from Eder;

The post drew comments as well as "likes" from FB members. But, it was the first comment that seemed strange;

Let us study this comment.

Ms. Collazo states "the conditions here are prime," - prime for what? Rape? If so, you must ask: why would any group set up camp and allow for the conditions to be "prime" for violent crimes like rape?

Most people agree that the fault here is not with the victim and that OWS could be and should be doing more to prevent all crimes in these encampments. (Perhaps cooperating with police would be a good place to start.)

Then Collazo makes another curious comment in her post;

"Occupiers should be doing much, much more to protect each other, but the rates of rape seem to be much lower than in refugee camps, etc. where you similarly have huge groups of total strangers who are experiencing negative emotions living together in close conditions."

Is this a rationalization of a rape because the women in OWS are not being raped as often as the women in refugee camps across North Africa or Eastern Europe?

Additionally, are we now to consider any and all OWS camps to be refugee camps?  Are the OWS encampments - "huge groups of total strangers who are experiencing negative emotions living together in close conditions"?

The initial response from Abigail Collazo to Eder's Facebook post ignited both a Facebook and Twitter flame war between Mr. Eder and Ms. Collazo that has carried on for 12 hours. The sometimes-heated exchange began with Collazo using a typical OWS statement that usually tries to claim that the criminals are not part of the movement.

Collazo, Eder and a few interlopers traded some heated tweets and FB comments for most of the day.

Ms. Collazo appeared to take pleasure in being the target of so much attention from those who think OWS is an unhealthy situation that should be shut down.

At the end of the day, another city where the leaderless movement called OWS has reported yet another violent crime against a woman.