[bottlelion]

It's rhetorical. If you said said "the Denver Broncos raped the 49ers last night" you wouldn't be accusing the Broncos of literal sexual assault.

[mcpackieh]

There's a clear contextual difference between a ball game and a bogus arrest. In the latter, he was deprived of his freedom and placed at the mercy of the police with few if any witnesses.

[kyleee]

I think there is a non zero chance that big brute of an officer would have raped him in the era before body cams and ubiquitous surveillance