Sexual Assault: Why no grass-roots movement?

GySgt (Join to see) ft "Why aren't male "brothers" stepping up in their defense"

Honestly i think this is and always has happened..
Just like the asexual assaults have and continue to happen.

Can we use more of "it " happening? Absolutely ..See something Beat Someone....... oh, wait I think the PSA marketing is See something SAY something, but still you get the idea...

Fellow SM don't always step up Id guess for concern of being on the wrong side of a he said she said (or he said he said, she said she said)

Its one thing if you walk by the barracks laundry room, see a struggle and find a fellow SM sexually assaulting another SM.. Thats an easy one.... someone goes for counseling, someone goes to the ER...Ohhh, I mean the MP station...

Its another thing, If you "heard" SM X was accused by SM Y .... I think thats a tough one.. does SM Y even want it brought forward (its their call, your feelings or wants DO NOT MATTER)

If SM Y wants it brought forward, then sure, help as needed to get things rolling...but false accusers are real...the SM reporting has to know that, and thats a hard thing to accept, you are setting up a fallow SM for a fall, even if found unjustified, the stigma will be there... But just as hard, what if you don't report you THINK something MAY have happened , and it was real, the SM was attacked.... you just helped an attacker get away with it, you just let a fellow SM suffer in silence....

Speaking as a former SHARP advocate, the rhetoric is easy to put forth, the truth is this - most cases of this nature do not happen when there are others around to witness it. So it becomes a he said/she said or whatever variation of this is accurate. False accusations do occur more frequently than you would believe and the stigma is very very real and career ending. My Job was to believe entirely with the person coming forth and to facilitate every possible assistance for the "victim" possible even though I know of at least 5 instances where the "victim" was lying - 2 of which were revenge/retribution for things that leadership denied, the other 3 were to deceive their spouses on infidelity. (they caught STD's). The rest were variations of harassment in the workplace, some just needed a talking to to change their perspective, a couple really did need a formal complaint in order to protect the person(s) around the individual.

This comes across as a loaded question. I do believe soldiers do the right thing most of the time, the times that they don't are the ones we never hear the end of. These situations are so hard to address without giving a knee jerk reaction, and are most of the time not so black and white. We have programs in place to handle these complex situations that only work if we use them.