The New York Post continued its history of dismissing the epidemic of sexual assault by blaming assault victims' “bad judgment” for their “regrettable sex.”

New York Post columnist Naomi Schaeffer Riley penned a May 6 op-ed denouncing national efforts to curb sexual assault on college campuses. Riley denied the existence of the widespread sexual assault epidemic, instead dismissing them as “sexual encounters fueled by bad judgment and free-flowing alcohol” (emphasis added):

The White House task force says at least one in five women will be sexually assaulted during their college careers.

Looking back, we can conclude that one of two things occurred.

In one scenario, the task force has its numbers right -- in which case our campuses have been overrun by thugs. What was needed was a good dose of law and order -- more likely to be doled out by, let's face it, conservatives.

Sexual assault is a serious crime. If campuses are really seeing these rates of violence, then nothing less than an overwhelming police presence is called for.

Not the keystone campus cops, either, but gun-wielding officers protecting women as they walk to classes, parties and club meetings, even escorting them home from dates. Maybe Ray Kelly would be up to the job; then again, even New York's worst neighborhoods don't report these rates of violence against women.

In the second (more likely) scenario, there's been no epidemic of assault but instead a preponderance of sexual encounters fueled by bad judgment and free-flowing alcohol.

Riley also disputed the fact that 1 in 5 women experience sexual assault on campus. But a report on sexual violence by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that “in a study of undergraduate women, 19% experienced attempted or completed sexual assault since entering college.”

The New York Post's unwillingness to acknowledge the epidemic of sexual assault both on and off college campuses is well-documented. Last year the Post's editorial board called a homeless shelter criticized for reports of sexual assaults “too generous” and columnist Arthur Herman labeled military sexual assault reports a “bogus epidemic.”