Patrick Kane's Rape Accuser Is Being Blamed for Her Alleged Rape

'The Buffalo News' and a local bar owner shift the blame on the victim.

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ChicagoBlackhawks star and Buffalo, N.Y. native Patrick Kane is currently the target of a police investigation after a woman claimed Kane allegedly raped her last weekend after the two met at a downtown Buffalo club called SkyBar.

The woman alleges that Kane invited her and a friend back to his home in the town of Hamburg, N.Y. after meeting at the bar—and sources close to the investigation say she "had bite marks on her shoulders and a scratch on her leg after the alleged attack," according to a report from the Buffalo News

But in that same report, the Buffalo News' News Staff Reporter Dan Herbeck spoke with SkyBar's owner Mark Croce, who owns a number of other establishments in the city. He was at the bar last weekend while Kane was there, and here's what the Buffalo News published:

But Croce told The News that he and several of his employees noticed a young woman “hanging all over” Kane at SkyBar for at least two hours that night, putting her hands on his arms and “being very forward, very flirtatious with him.” He said he does not know the woman and does not know her name.

Kane lives in Hamburg during the offseason, and back in 2009, he beat the shit out of a cab driver in Buffalo and faced misdemeanor and violation offenses. That was not once mentioned in the recent report on that Saturday night's events. What was noted, however, was Croce's description of Kane's demeanor at the bar that night—"He was a gentleman. Pat had a couple of drinks and maybe a couple of shots. He was having a good time, but he wasn’t stumbling or doing anything obnoxious.”

Croce went on to say, "This is America, the place where you are still innocent until proven guilty."

And that's true. While these are simply allegations surrounding Kane right now, the Buffalo News publishing a report that describes the woman—who may not even be the alleged victim—as "being very forward, very flirtatious with" Kane that night completely deflects the blame from this "gentleman" to the "drunk, flirty girl at a bar."

Eventually, Croce even asked the reporter, "If you’re going to ask what happened between them after they left that night, how would I know?” Yet, the Buffalo News still let the weight of his words on the bar's female patrons that night lead the majority of the narrative of the report. No, they can't verify if that's the girl. Nope, how would Croce even know what happened? And yet, this report does nothing but assert that Kane had a bunch of drunk women fawning on him at a bar that was so obvious Croce even had a little laugh about it.

But again, this is America, the place where we still can't fathom that a woman can get drunk and still refuse to have sex with a man—even a local celebrity, at that.

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