One of the chief bones of contention in the whole campus “rape culture” saga has been the wild west atmosphere created by university tribunals which take it upon themselves to handle what are ostensibly serious criminal cases. The potentially crippling deficiencies of such a system should be obvious to the casual observer, but that hasn’t stopped politicians – and in some cases even law enforcement officers – to pay them lip service in the name of political correctness. One example of this has been New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who previously demonstrated his enthusiasm for a California style “yes means yes” law which would take the ideas of consent and proper criminal prosecution into science fiction territory.

But in recent remarks on a related subject, the Governor let the veil slip just a bit and spoke about the need for actual police to deal with actual crimes. (From the excellent Ashe Schow at the Washington Examiner.)

While unveiling his latest idea to combat campus sexual assault — an extension of his proposal from last year — Cuomo, perhaps by accident, described why police involvement is better than campus hearings.

“We’re putting together a special unit in the State Police. Here’s the State Police hotline, call the police, treat it like a criminal justice matter. Your rights were violated, you have nothing to be ashamed of. I’m not going to let the campuses cover it up anymore,” Cuomo said. “You have the right to go to the police, make your case, if that person was guilty, get them out, and make them pay the crime so it won’t happen again. That’s what this law says.”

That last part — “make them pay the crime so it won’t happen again” — is important. The most a college campus could due to a potential rapist is expel them, leaving them free to prey on non-students. It’s the criminal justice system that could actually put away dangerous people.

There’s something particularly telling in those comments in two regards as I mentioned above. First, while clearly unintentional, the Governor was acknowledging that we’re talking about a very serious crime here which needs to be handled by the professionals. This is important not only for the victim, but for the accused as well. When a young coed is sexually assaulted, only the police are in a position to investigate, prosecute and see to the delivery of justice where appropriate. But by the same token, we’ve seen too many cases on college campuses where these free range vigilante systems ignore the basic rights of the accused. (Something equally important for both police and prosecutors to keep in mind.) You need look no further than the strange case of Joshua Strange for a prime example.

The second aspect of Cuomo’s comments is equally disturbing, though. Notice where he says, treat it like a criminal justice matter. How did that slip out? Have the forces of the microagression generation gotten themselves so thoroughly inside of Andrew Cuomo’s head that he’s no longer even sure if this is still is a criminal justice matter? How could an actual case of sexual assault be anything but that?

We’re allowing the hysteria of this media driven “rape culture” narrative to take us over the rainbow and away from any recognizable system of American justice. Let’s take a page from what Governor Cuomo tried not to say this week and put law enforcement back in the hands of the law.