At Cornell, The Progressive Mob Exchanged Due Process For Bloodlust

On the night of October 19, 2024, Cornell students engaged in a night none but they will ever know the full truth of.

The Cornell 7 case, as mainstream media has dubbed the encounter between Jane Doe and seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, has been put on public trial and battle lines have been drawn. Oceans of ink have been and will be spilled defending Doe or vindicating the men.

But through all the noise around the incident itself, one familiar, frustrating trend has emerged. Progressives’ pronounced desires about the direction of society directly contradict their actions on this case.

Consider young activists, hopped up on the self-assured, smug moral certainty so associated with progressives, as they march through the streets clamoring to abolish the police and prison systems in the name of justice. Indeed, in the Cornell case, writhing masses of students evoked a sense of justice while slowly processing through the university campus to chants of “No justice, no peace!”

Progressives advocate endless chances for criminals accused and sometimes convicted of heinous acts of violence, preferring so-called community-based alternatives to the traditional carceral system.

That philosophy echoes from progressive street roots all the way up to its political operators. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) frequently called for abolishing both prisons and the police, asserting at a 2021 rally, “I want to abolish our carceral system that’s designed to trap black and brown men.”

Yet when it comes to alleged sexual misconduct, that sense of community abruptly vanishes. Forget due process or the presumption of innocence; the mob bays for blood.

Ocasio-Cortez chimed in on the Cornell 7, claiming “The culture of rape, sexual assault and pedophilia is protected in elite institutions across the United States and including Cornell University in this instance.” She was joined by a chorus of progressives, including actress Florence Pugh, who entirely endorsed Jane Doe’s story, called it “horrific,” and condemned Cornell for not bringing the hammer down on the accused fraternity members.

Even those who normally would align themselves with Ocasio-Cortez and Pugh have argued the circus has become untethered. “The View” host and former prosecutor Sunny Hostin, avowedly not a card-carrying conservative, argued both that Jane Doe’s initial statement gave 2024 prosecutors no valid basis to charge the seven men, and the rush to blast the men’s identities online prior to their even being charged was a massive problem. It bears noting that Hostin’s prosecutorial career focused on sex crimes, so on this topic at least, she has a better understanding than most.

Hostin received deep pushback from the mob, which accused her of carrying water for “rape-culture,” before proceeding to prove why she was right to be cautious. The accused men, along with their families and friends, have already had their lives deeply uprooted solely by Jane Doe’s accusation. Social media posts paint them as devils incarnate, while they have been stripped of employment opportunities.

In one instance, an entirely unrelated man who shared a name with one of the accused faced the mob’s wrath before it became clear they were two different people.

Perhaps more than anything else, the frenzied rush to destroy a man unconnected with the Cornell case at all is a perfect encapsulation of the issue with mob justice.

It seems impossible to conclude anything other than a progressive system of justice would be entirely based on whether the accused is a member of a protected class. The Cornell accused are all fraternity men, two classes long viewed by the progressive political project with deep loathing. The alleged victim is a woman, and therefore deserves unswerving deference as embodied by the ever-popular “Believe all women” slogan.

But it should seem clear to anyone watching that a system of justice meted out by a mob solely based on preconceived notions of oppressor versus oppressed is an awful way to structure the world.

Whatever happened at Cornell that night, seven men who have not been formally charged with anything should not have to satiate the bloodlust of the activist class. If due process applies only to people who progressives regard as oppressed, it does not functionally exist at all.

Though it may seem trite, the idea that equality under the law exists for all, regardless of the crime alleged, is a bedrock principle of our shared society.

Maybe the men did it, maybe Jane Doe is lying. Maybe it’s a combination of both. Eventually, some conclusion will emerge from many arduous hours of investigation. But justice cannot be served by ideologues who determine guilt or innocence mere moments after the case entered their world.

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Doug Blair is press manager at Heritage Action for America.