French women’s groups, in a fit of revolutionary fervour that would make Robespierre blush, now demand the abolition of the statute of limitations for rape. This is not justice. This is the tyranny of perpetual accusation, where the past becomes an open wound that never heals.
The logic is simple: if a crime is heinous enough, time should not shield the guilty. But consider the consequences. Without a statute of limitations, every man becomes a potential defendant for decades-old accusations, memories faded, evidence lost.
The state, ever eager to expand its reach, would gain the power to punish without temporal limit. This is not a step forward for women; it is a step backward into a world where accusation alone suffices for conviction. We have seen this before, in the show trials of the French Revolution, where the guillotine fell not on the guilty but on the accused.
The call to abolish statutes of limitations is a call to abolish the very concept of legal finality. It is a demand for eternal vigilance, eternal suspicion. And it will destroy the social fabric far more effectively than any rapist ever could.
