Opinion After DSK

The gist of Lévy’s theory is this: New York’s travesty of justice cast Strauss-Kahn as the guilty guy because he was rich in post-crash New York,while the maid had right on her side because she was poor and black. Sorry,cher ami,I don’t buy it. Facts,not race or prejudice,have dictated events.

In those 20 minutes,Strauss-Kahn’s semen ended up on the clothing of a bruised maid. She was in extreme distress,convincing to several Sofitel employees. New York prosecutors and police needed probable cause to arrest Strauss-Kahn before he left the country for France. They had probable cause.

Then came the infamous “perp walk.” But as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly noted,“We have been walking prisoners out of the front doors of station houses for 150 years in this Police Department,” adding,“There is no back door.”

So began the cultural wars that,as usual,ended up reconfirming each nation in its preconceptions. To the French,Americans were brutal,uncivilised,brash savages subjecting an international public servant to humiliation that amounted to guilt by association. To Americans,the French don’t get what democracy means: everyone — Strauss-Kahn,Madoff,some Bronx kid — is equal before the law and a Manhattan district attorney does not hesitate to believe a maid over a managing director.

So the DSK affair turned into a Rorschach test revealing old stereotypes. American “freedom,” to the scoffing French,was once again the law of the jungle. French “égalité,” to outraged Americans,was the usual baloney,a cover for inequality before the law and entrenched male privilege.

Let’s get back to the 20 minutes and the facts. The district attorney,Cyrus Vance Jr,found that the maid had lied about her past (exaggerating or inventing incidents to make her case for getting into the US more persuasive),kept dubious company and had dubious cash deposits. Her word against Strauss-Kahn’s began to look like a tough case to make.

Guilt and the provability of guilt do not always coincide. That’s how the presumption of innocence and trial by jury work. I don’t see,given the facts as they now stand,how there can be any outcome other than a dismissal of the case. But the story doesn’t end there. Tristane Banon,a goddaughter of Strauss-Kahn’s second wife,filed a criminal complaint in Paris accusing Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her eight years ago. Her mother says he once confided: “I don’t know what came over me. I lost my mind.” Questions about DSK and women go well beyond 20 New York minutes.

Dominique Moïsi,a distinguished French political scientist,told me: “On the subject of men and women in France,there will be a before DSK and an after DSK. Some behaviour once deemed acceptable will no longer be. We may be seeing the last of the ‘promotion canapé’ — promotions through the couch.” As my colleague Katrin Bennhold has noted,“France ranks 46th in the World Economic Forum’s 2010 gender equality report,trailing the United States,most of Europe,but also Kazakhstan and Jamaica.”

Vance may be stymied in New York,but he’s hit home across the Atlantic. Strauss-Kahn cannot realistically run for president — and won’t. The French think it’s enough already,but they’re not going to elect him.