NBC’S DATELINE INADVERTENTLY MAKES THE CASE THAT THE POLICE ARE THE BEST METHOD TO ADJUDICATE A SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE, Ashe Schow writes at the Washington Examiner. Note which politician NBC chose to appear in the segment:

“Dateline” turned to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to drive home the point about campus sexual assault as an alleged epidemic.

“Schools are obligated to get this right,” Gillibrand said. “We’re talking about rape. We’re talking about a felony offense, a dangerous crime – and dangerous criminals on these campuses.”

But if rape is a felony offense, why are colleges being required to adjudicate it when the worst punishment they could impose is expulsion? Gillibrand said last week at an event in Washington, D.C., that the reason schools can use lower standards to prove sexual assault is because kids aren’t being thrown in jail.

Gillibrand can’t have it both ways. She can’t say on one hand that sexual assault is a serious offense and on the other hand imply that expulsion isn’t that bad of a punishment.

In each of the above examples, Emerson College handled the sexual assault accusations to the best of their abilities given the limited resources they have for investigating crimes. They can’t subpoena evidence and they can’t investigate information they’re not provided.

If anything, the “Dateline” episode should be an educational opportunity for students making accusations to learn how to provide evidence and witnesses for their hearings. Beyond that, the episode clearly shows us that colleges and universities should not be playing investigator, judge, jury and executioner in the first place.

Read the whole thing.