Chapter 8 of 22 · 2'59"
She shows a police cross that looks like a rank slip and a polite close. "So, the trick is to get under their skin." Under that, she wants the officer defensive enough to contradict himself. A sexual assault cross, she says, is different: the act happened, and the fight is whether he could reasonably think it was OK.
❝ Monologue · 8 lines Rattling the police
She admits the pleasure, then stacks irritation, mistakes, and ruined testimony into one method.
❝ Monologue · 13 lines The Apology That Names His Anger
Word Against Word on Consent
At Snaresbrook Crown Court, Tessa Ensler reenacts cross-examining a police sergeant. She calls him Constable until he snaps over the rank, gets him to admit he read his partner's statement, and closes in elaborate thanks. She then turns to sexual assault trials, where the dispute is consent and the defence only has to show his belief was reasonable.
The rank mistake is craft. Call him Constable until the correction replaces the answer, and "Oh, I am sorry, Sergeant?" keeps the sore open instead of closing it. He ends up admitting he read his partner's statement. She adds that the partner has said "the exact opposite." Thanks for his "frank answers" and for "assisting the court," then "I have no further questions," frames the collapse as courtesy. A sexual assault cross is "a completely different thing." "it's usually just one person's word against the other." The sex is conceded. Consent is the fight, and the defence need not prove she consented. It only points out that he may not have known consent was missing, and asks whether that belief was reasonable. She feels for "the alleged victim," and she contrasts barristers who "make them look like liars" with her own aim: test the case without destroying the complainant. "And yet, sometimes" lets the doubt stand.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“Show me an officer who hasn't run their story past their partner, trying to close the gaps.”
It dares you to find one officer who skipped the rehearsal, and assumes you cannot.
Informal
“If you try to play God in this system, you are damned, but the police, they forget.”
The warning hits anyone who seizes judgment, then she lets the police slip out of it.
literary
“'I didn't mean to make you angry, sir.”
The apology is perfectly shaped, which is how you hear that the anger was the point.
Formal
“'Thank you so much for your frank answers and for assisting the court today.'”
The sweetest thanks arrives only after the witness has already lost his temper.
Formal
“In sexual assault cases, it's usually just one person's word against the other.”
A familiar idiom suddenly names the whole proof problem of these cases.
Neutral
“I feel for the alleged victim, the complainant, I really do.”
Sympathy and a legal label share one sentence, so the warmth never gets to be simple.
Neutral
I know, I know. Sounds bad, right? But some of them... Some of them can be so friggin' self-righteous. Show me an officer who hasn't run their story past their partner, trying to close the gaps. If you try to play God in this system, you are damned, but the police, they forget. They think they are the system. So, the trick is to get under their skin. If you aggravate them, they get defensive and they make mistakes, and you can discredit anything they have said before.
But cross-examination in a sexual assault case, it is a completely different thing. In sexual assault cases, it's usually just one person's word against the other. Yes, the sex act happened, but was it consensual or not? The story, it has to make legal truth. The defence doesn't have to prove she did consent. You just have to point out he did not know there was no consent. Was it reasonable for him to think it was OK? I feel for the alleged victim, the complainant, I really do. I can tell they're scared of what I might ask them. Some of the male barristers, they still use this tone, 'Make them look like liars, doubt themselves.' I am clear and concise, nothing more. A complainant doesn't realise it, but they are actually lucky it's me doing this – testing the case, without destroying them.
Up next · 09her word against hisThe scene: Jenna's Word on TrialThe trick named here is to get under their skin. Aggravate the officer and he gets defensive and makes mistakes, which can discredit what he said before. Each "Constable" pulls him off the story and onto his rank.
It is staged as one. Right after "Constable" comes "Oh, I am sorry, Sergeant?", as if the rank had only just come to mind. The line that actually names the anger is "I didn't mean to make you angry, sir."
It is usually one person's word against the other. The sex happened. The fight is whether it was consensual. The defence does not have to prove she consented, only that he did not know consent was missing, and whether his belief was reasonable.
She says some male barristers still try to make complainants look like liars and doubt themselves. She claims she is clear and concise, testing the case without destroying them, so they are "actually lucky it's me." She also says she can see they are scared, then stops on "And yet, sometimes."
