Leftist writer never reported her Las Vegas gang rape because she believes ‘in the abolition of police and prisons’

Anna Krauthamer, a writer and doctoral candidate in English Literature at Columbia University, wrote that in June of 2021, "I was raped by a group of men during a three-day trip I took to Las Vegas with two of my best friends. Of the rape, which lasted all night, I remember both too much and too little. I never did anything about it. I didn’t tell anyone who could have done something about it, either, such as the hotel staff or the Las Vegas police."

She explained, "The simple answer to the question of why I never reported the rape is that I believe in the abolition of police and prisons. The less simple, less articulate answer is that to pursue prosecuting and potentially incarcerating other people is inconceivable to me, even when they have hurt me more than I could have ever believed possible."

"Because of this, I can only vocalize what I want in negative and inherently impossible terms: that all I want is for it to never have happened. The prospect of being a participant in other peoples’ incarceration is as alien to me as anything could be, to the point that I can only conceive of it in childish terms—how silly and strange it would be to have a group of people incarcerated at my expense when doing so would do nothing to fix the damage they have already so thoroughly done."

She said that she has long "believed in and used the term prison abolition," but has "felt in my bones that I could never participate in any chain of events that might send someone to prison" for longer.

She said that calling to report the Las Vegas rape "feels akin to jumping off a building: Both actions fight against every instinct in my body, and instincts are not necessarily rational or conscious." She had noted earlier in the piece that the statute of limitations for reporting the incident is ending.

She said that friends have told her to report the rape and pursue legal action against the men to "protect other women someday." She said, "When there is so little available to sexual violence victims in the way of justice or fairness, the current shape of criminal justice can begin to look appealing, if only because it is the most straightforward type of response to rape that currently exists."

"In fact, it’s because on some level that I suspect that carceral logic creeps, however unconsciously or unintentionally, into the minds of those who encouraged me to prosecute my rapists, that I cannot fully welcome that advice…I can’t be sure that this logic hasn’t inadvertently creeped into the guidance my friends offered. And so after all these years, I haven’t been able to pick up the phone; instead it hangs there suspended in time forever."