Sex Assault? Syracuse Yanks Kiss Cam After Complaint

Writer says displays not only encourage assault, but may have been assault
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 23, 2015 12:31 PM CDT
Sex Assault? Syracuse Yanks Kiss Cam After Complaint
Paul McCartney and wife Nancy Shevell smooch for the Kiss Cam at Staples during an NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers, April 6, 2014.   (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas)

The "Kiss Cam" at Syracuse University's Carrier Dome is gone and won't be back until officials have had a chance to review a letter claiming it eggs on sexual assault, the Post-Standard reports. Steve Port says he was at a Sept. 12 football game between the school's team and Wake Forest when he saw the Kiss Cam—a display shown on the stadium's Jumbotron of couples smooching—capture a couple of pecks where it didn't appear the women were into it but were kissed anyway, with the crowd cheering the men on. "The instances I witnessed at the game encourage and condone sexual assault and a sense of male entitlement, at best," Port wrote in his letter to the editor posted Sept. 18 on Syracuse.com. "And they are an actual instance of assault, at worst."

Port says it didn't appear the two couples in question were couples and that he saw one woman shake her head no, then "no less than six sets of hands ... shove her unwilling face into his [to] crowd cheers." The Kiss Cam didn't operate at Saturday's game, and an email from a university athletics rep to the Post-Standard notes, "We are taking the time to assess the concerns expressed." Meanwhile, Port's letter has received thousands of social media shares, with some saying they were at the same game and don't remember seeing this. Others back Port up. "I've never fully understood it," one commenter notes. "What happens if it's your sister … or even a younger step mom that your much older father got lucky and married?! Then what the heck are you supposed to do?!" (Jimmy Carter's Kiss Cam moment, however, was awesome.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X