Long Live the Rejection of Secrecy in the US

Europeans often find that there is much wrong with America — a country where money controls politics and emotion the public debate; a country that misuses its power to dominate the world. But America also has its good side, as illustrated by the following from Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was put in a courtroom in front of a 12-person jury Monday. In America there is a true spirit of equality. No one is above the law.

It was well known in France that DSK was a skirt chaser that regularly crossed the line. And yet his arrest was greeted with great surprise. A national hero is accused under the American justice system. He is a prominent Frenchman with a healthy interest in womanly beauty, accused of rape. It can’t be. It mustn’t be.

The first reaction was to point fingers. “Ho ho, America,” sounded the call in France and other European countries. “You can’t submit DSK to public scrutiny this way. A person is innocent until proven otherwise. For you, America, the delusion of the day rules, but you should follow this principle that originated in Europe.”

Crime

It can’t be denied that this affair begs a confrontational question: Why has DSK never gotten in trouble in his own country? “Private life,” is sputtered. People handle the private lives of public figures differently in France. In America, all the dirty laundry may be aired in public. In France, people have respect for the fact that those in power are also people. But this is no answer to the confrontational question. Attempted rape has nothing to do with privacy. It is a crime, a violation of the accepted norm for maintaining order in society.

It looks like that is the problem. It seems that DSK has built up a long list of sexual abuses that was known to French authorities, or should have been. Nothing was done about it. Apparently there are powers at work to protect a figure such as DSK. One twists the spirit of the law against rape. For some people, in some positions, an exception is made.

Shame

This tendency goes further than just the judicial system. What caused Tristane Banon not to report DSK’s attempted rape in 2002? What did French television do to make the name DSK disappear when Banon made her story public? Sylvain Ephimenco speaks in Trouw about a “guilty silence” of the French press where dubious behavior of influential politicians is concerned. Others point to a great tolerance for sexually abusive behavior. I would add to this the phenomenon of the glorification of power. As much as people speak of scandal now, the fact is that the French people have collectively closed their eyes to the mistakes of their beloved leader.

Whichever it is, it is worth the trouble to look at that horrible country on the other side of the ocean. There is much wrong with America, but we can learn a lesson from the decisiveness with which the DSK affair was tackled. Sure, the images of a handcuffed and unshaven DSK are disturbing, but from that we can see that in America no one is above the law. Thus it is also clear that this affair is not about combating vice crimes, but about the protection of the most fundamental form of equality, the equality of all under the law.

Fanatic

Americans are unusually fanatic about it, and that is praiseworthy. No division of people. No cover-up strategies. No cloak and dagger games to prevent a diplomatic uproar. DSK is being treated the exact same way as anyone else in this situation. Admittedly, the Americans are taking it too far. A leader that makes a mistake is like a red cape before a bull. The whole world will know that DSK will not escape the dance; that the Declaration of Independence is alive and well; that “all men are created equal.” It is maybe a little overdone, but it is preferable to the European tendency toward class justice.

The author is a judicial historian with the Amsterdam University College.