In an open letter published Monday, Brooklyn Councilmember Laurie Cumbo laments the potential consequences of Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson's decision to dismiss rape charges leveraged against five Brownsville teenagers, following the alleged gang rape of an 18-year-old girl in a neighborhood playground in January.

Cumbo believes that the DA's decision—regardless of whether it was the right one from a legal standpoint—sets an implicit "dangerous precedent" for what counts as consent. She also argues that dropping the charges might erase the alleged rape from the community's memory or, perhaps worse, send the message that certain actions—incest, or video taping and laughing at a sexual encounter—can go unpunished.

"Before we rush to celebrate the innocence of these five teenagers and her father then slap each other five on social media, let's lament that these young men and a father are told that they did nothing wrong that night," she writes, adding that certain reprehensible behaviors have been given the "green light."

A comment from one of the boy's lawyers acknowledges that there are lessons to be learned from the whole situation, but doesn't face the complexity of rape—what counts as rape—head on.

"[The DA's office] didn't judge these young men, and investigated what actually happened," said Attorney Ken Montgomery in a statement following the DA's decision. However, "It is unhealthy to have sexual relations in parks even if it's consensual. We don't want our young men to grow up thinking this is okay, because it's not."

Abdula Greene, an attorney for another victim, went even further, criticizing the DA's decision to describe the events of that night as "reprehensible." Pointing to the fact that the young woman ultimately dropped the rape allegation, the attorney said that there was "no wrongdoing."

Cumbo spoke candidly about the implications of the Brownsville case during a phone interview on Monday. "What does this mean for the community [of Brownsville] now that we're essentially saying that nothing happened here?" she wondered.

At least one of the five teenagers was expelled from his charter school when the incident went public, and has spoken out since about the stigma he's faced.

The incident took place in Osborne Playground in Brownsville, around 9:00 p.m. on Thursday January 7th. An 18-year-old woman and her 39-year-old father initially told the police that they were approached in the park by a group of five teenage boys, one of whom allegedly had a gun. The boys threatened the father into leaving and proceeded to rape the young woman, according to the initial accounts. By the time the father returned, the boys had fled.

The NYPD did not release surveillance footage of the suspects for two days—a decision the department first defended, and later apologized for. Almost immediately, conflicting accounts surfaced. It became clear that the father didn't notify police officers for almost 20 minutes after the alleged attack began. Clerks at a nearby bodega later told reporters that the father appeared drunk, and never mentioned a rape. Almost a week after the incident, soon after the final suspect was arrested, two of the suspects shared cellphone video that they argued documented the woman's consent.

Two of the suspects—all five were initially charged with rape, criminal sex act and sexual abuse—claimed that father and daughter were having sex in the playground when they arrived. The woman and her father later admitted to having sex in the playground, and that the teenagers had not been carrying a gun. They also told investigators that they had been drinking alcohol that night. A rape test revealed DNA from two of the five teenagers. When DA Thompson announced earlier this month that all of the charges had been dropped, he cited two factors—that investigators were facing "multiple inconsistent accounts," but also that the young woman had decided not to go further with the prosecution.

.@cmlauriecumbo asking a question I don't think really gets asked enough. pic.twitter.com/4OxpQJmcSC — Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) February 29, 2016

In her open letter, Cumbo homes in on the 18-year-old woman's decision not to cooperate with investigators—not as proof that no wrongdoing was committed against her that night, but as evidence of the incredible pressure the victim was likely under.

"The thing about the way this nation views sex is that it's often considered a badge of shame to even have sex to a certain extent," Cumbo said on Monday. "So to talk about a situation [like this] that will forever tarnish your reputation is very difficult for a woman.... If I were in her shoes I probably would have done the exact same thing."

At the legislative level, Cumbo says she's pushing several bills she hopes will protect, empower and defend victims of sexual assault. A 911 text bill would allow New Yorkers to discreetly text for help in an emergency, and a panic button bill would give taxi riders a means to report an emergency. A bill Cumbo introduced last August would require police precincts to report the type of sexual assault committed in an incident report—stranger rape, or intimate partner rape, or improper touch.

These laws, she said, are part of her efforts to keep rape, and its myriad consequences, from slipping out of the spotlight. "We have to address what's happened here," she said. "We can't just let this situation go away. When people first heard about it, everyone was up in arms. Will it reach that same level when another incident occurs?"