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Any civilised country should have no tolerance for rape: Barack Obama
Highlights
US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said there is no tolerance for rape in any civilised country.
US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said there is no tolerance for rape in any civilised country.
"If you give a woman, or a man, for that matter, without his or her knowledge, a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that's rape, and I think this country, any civilised country, should have no tolerance for rape," Obama told reporters at a White House news conference. The president said this while responding to a question about popular American stand-up comedian Bill Cosby, who is now facing rape charges. Cosby had received the prestigious Medal of Freedom.
Obama said there is no way that the prestigious medal could be revoked. "With respect to the Medal of Freedom, there is no precedent for revoking a medal. We don't have that mechanism. And as you know, I tend to make it a policy not to comment on the specifics of cases where there might still be, if not criminal, then civil issues involved," he said. The president said he does not think the criminal-justice system is the sole source of racial tension in the country or the key institution to resolving the opportunity gap.
"But I think it is a part of the broader set of challenges that we face in creating a more perfect union," he said. "The good news is that this is one of those rare issues where we've got some Republican and Democratic interests as well as federal, state and local interest in solving the problem," he said. "I think people recognise that there are violent criminals out there, and they've got to be locked up. We've got to have tough prosecutors. We have to support our law enforcement officials. Police are in a tough job, and they are helping to keep us safe, and we are grateful and thankful to them," he added.
"But what we also know is this huge spike in incarcerations is also driven by nonviolent drug offences where the sentencing is completely out of proportion with the crime. "And that costs taxpayers enormous amounts of money, it is debilitating communities, who are seeing huge proportions of the young men in their communities finding themselves with a criminal record, rendering them oftentimes unemployable. So it compounds problems that these communities already have," he said.
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