Roger Cohen
For almost two months now,the chattering classes have struggled to talk about anything but DSK. The old animalistic elements have exerted their magnetism: power,sex,violence and race. The 20 minutes from 12:06 to 12:26 in suite 2806 of the Sofitel New York have become the object of a thousand theories and a French-American bust-up. Race was long a sub-theme in much of the breathless speculation on the encounter of a powerful white man with an African refugee woman from a country where 70 per cent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day. But of late it has merited some French philosophising. Bernard-Henri Lévy has suggested his friend Strauss-Kahn was the victim of lynching,in sympathy with minorities,by their supposed friends.
In those 20 minutes,Strauss-Kahns 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 dont 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.
Lets 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-Kahns began to look like a tough case to make.
Guilt and the provability of guilt do not always coincide. Thats how the presumption of innocence and trial by jury work. I dont see,given the facts as they now stand,how there can be any outcome other than a dismissal of the case. But the story doesnt end there. Tristane Banon,a goddaughter of Strauss-Kahns 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 dont 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 Forums 2010 gender equality report,trailing the United States,most of Europe,but also Kazakhstan and Jamaica.
Vance may be stymied in New York,but hes hit home across the Atlantic. Strauss-Kahn cannot realistically run for president and wont. The French think its enough already,but theyre not going to elect him.
