Anyone who, at this late date, is still defending Bill Cosby needs to take a long hard look at the portraits of 35 of Cosby’s 46 accusers in the latest issue of New York magazine.
Look these women in the face, and tell me they’re lying. Read their accounts, and tell me they’re lying. Watch the videos in which six of these women tell their stories to the cameras, and tell me they’re lying. Each and every one of them.
This is Lili Bernard. Is she lying?
Go watch her video and tell me that.
This is Victoria Valentino. Is she lying?
Go watch her video and tell me that.
This is Louisa Moritz. Is she lying?
Go watch her video and tell me that.
I believe all of these women. Their stories are all too believable, and all chillingly similar. Not identical, as if they’re reading off a script, but similar, in that they all describe a practiced predator with a standard MO.
But, Cosby defenders, you don’t have to believe all of them. If only one of them is telling the truth, Cosby is a lying, sleazy, predatory rapist.
Can you honestly tell me you think each and every one of these women are lying?
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Please read the newly revised COMMENTS POLICY before commenting. Rape apologists will be banned. If you feel compelled to tell me you think all these women are lying, send me an email.
Dismissal and criticism and accusations against the women involved are very much online.
And those things are all based on misogyny.
@Ikeke35,
Thanks for explaining better, and sorry for jumping to conclusions as well.
Number 2 might be the stupidest one that I’ve heard. Why would you call attention to sex that you regret and don’t want anyone to know about by accusing someone of rape? That will only make people focus more on the sex.
Speaking of famous men who are rapists, Donald Trump apparently raped his ex wife Ivana.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/27/ex-wife-donald-trump-made-feel-violated-during-sex.html
This is how Trump’s lawyer responded to this when the Daily Beast asked about it.
I can’t even.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j316/liz_marcs/Reaction%20Gifs/X8Ufi_zps62cda975.gif
@WWTH
ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING ME.
OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD.
It should be legal to punch people in the face after they’ve publicly said something so stupid.
@WWTH,
What the fuck? That was their initial tactic? To claim that it wasn’t legally rape because they were married? I can’t…I can’t even.
No, mammoth no! The last sentence is my words.
“Bill Cosby is going after his accusers–this time with lawyers instead of Quaaludes!”
“You know the shit you did is bad when ‘I’m a drug pusher’ is your defense!”
Larry Wilmore is doing God’s work.
The fuck? It’s been settled law that you most certainly can rape your spouse for…a long time now. Spousal rape has been recognized in every state.
What disturbs me immensely is how this stuff about Cosby has been out there for a long time, but wasn’t taken remotely seriously. I wonder why so many women would feel a bit reluctant to come forward with that environment…
I’d like to hear Cosby defenders explain to me why this “conspiracy” isn’t happening to any other famous men? Or why it really hasn’t ever happened before? I mean essentially the only people still dumb enough to defend him are ignorant misogynists who assume that all these women are in on some conspiracy together to get his money or ruin his reputation for some reason, because all women are evil liars, so I would LOOOOVE to hear them explain to me, why him? Why just him? Why not anyone else ever? I mean I can name dozens of rich and famous men who people would believe are rapists much easier, men who have more money, men who are still in the prime of their careers, why was only Cosby targeted for this completely false conspiracy and nobody else? Also, if they were all totally lying about all of this, why wouldn’t some of them say he did it more recently, before the statute of limitations was up? Because if you’re gonna falsely accuse someone of rape, wouldn’t it make more sense to pin it on a date where they could still be charged for it?
By the way, isn’t it just lovely that there’s a statute of limitations on rape? Because there’s totally a statute of limitations on a rape victim’s trauma, they just completely forget about it after a specific amount of time, that’s how it works. Cosby raped about 50 women or so and will spend less time in prison for it than anyone who has ever been caught with a small amount of drugs for personal use. Great job legal system, you really got your priorities straight.
Although successful prosecutions for historic crimes have to be sentenced according to guidelines in place at the time they were committed – which is why a celebrity convicted for sexual assault that took place in the 1970s can only get the maximum sentence that he would have got back then, which is usually a fair bit milder than he’d get now. Judges have expressed regret at the time of sentencing that their hands were tied by this.
That said, this policy isn’t completely consistent, otherwise someone who committed murder in the 1950s and was only convicted for it in 2015 would be given a mandatory death sentence.
It’s not true. The alleged rape took place in New York City after 1984, which is when marital rape was criminalised there. You’d have thought that a lawyer would either know that already or would have bothered to check prior to sounding off in public, but Mr Cohen’s language elsewhere doesn’t suggest a man overly drawn to the notion of thinking before sounding off.
In the UK, this has helped convict rapists even in cases where there’s no physical evidence. The former gameshow host Stuart Hall was found guilty as a result of multiple testimonies from women of varying ages (he had a long career as a sexual predator), from all parts of the country, none of whom knew each other, and all of whom described a virtually identical modus operandi – and did so entirely independently of each other and in conditions of extreme secrecy prior to the trial. (The police normally leak to the tabloids on a regular basis, but not in this case, as it would clearly have undermined the prosecution if they had.)
If anyone’s interested, here’s a PDF of the judge’s complete sentencing statement in the Stuart Hall case, during which he brings up the topic that I mentioned above whereby he’s forced to give milder sentences than would be the case today.
Red Pill “philosophy” is that they all actually enjoyed it, that they are lying to gain attention and possibly money because that is the “real nature of women”.
Abandone all decency, ye who enter here.
wwth, that Trump piece is astonishing. Not only did I not know about the allegations, but the lawyer’s response (including all the threats and blustering) is, wow.
Reading Trump’s lawyers threats, I was struck by the thought:
If someone made a movie about a mob boss running for president, and used dialogue like Trump’s and his lawyer’s, people would dismiss it as too on the nose.
@ Moggie
There’s some general advice defamation lawyers give when you’re writing a story based on real people that you should always make a point that the protagonist has a tiny dick and is crap in bed.
The theory is that that stops people saying “Hey, that character is clearly meant to be me”.
@ weatherby et al
Prosecuting old offenses does bring up a few issues as you point out.
Generally the courts apply the *law* as it was at the time of the offence but the *evidential rules* as they are at the time of trial.
So if you’re prosecuting an old murder the victim would have to die within a year and a day of the assault (which was the old law) but the defendant could raise diminished responsibility” (which is a recentish defence).
You have to impose the sentence as it was at the time, *if that sentence is available today*, so you can’t sentence someone to death or borstal training for instance.
As we’ve said there’s no statute of limitations. You can apply for a case to be dismissed before the trial on the grounds that the passage of time makes running a fair defence impossible. Generally though courts will allow the case to go forward but the jury get a special direction as to the difficulty in defending in such cases and they are told to take that into account when considering people’s recollections etc.
There are similar provisions in relation to old civil claims. Normally there are time limits on civil claims but there are ways around this, especially in historic sexual abuse cases when the victims were minors at the time.
JET FUEL DOESN’T MELT QUALUDES!!!!
JET FUEL DOESN’T MELT QUALUDES!!!!!
JET FUEL DOESN’T MELT QUALUDES11111
Even if one assumes 10% (and that’s generous) of rape claims are false, it would still mean Cosby raped/assaulted 41 of the 46 women accusing him.
Sadly most of the women profiled by New York Magazine were assaulted many years ago, and because of the statute of limitations their only legal recourse is to join the handful of women who can peruse litigation against Cosby as “supporting witnesses”. I’ve read Gloria Allred is representing these women in court.
It’s a shame. I think each and every one of Cosby’s victims is entitled to a day in court, whether they were raped or just assaulted, whether they were minors or age of majority, and whether it happened in the 1970s or in the 2000s.
http://youtu.be/e3XhiEPtc5Q
Latest on the Allred’s case against Cosby. It sucks that it’s only a civil lawsuit, and not a criminal matter.
This is sort of relevant, and as we’ve been discussing legal things this is as good a place to put it. This is the Crown Prosecutions Service’s report on ‘Violence against Women and Girls’.
It’s got some criticism about the title as it also covers violence against Men and Boys, but that’s the CPS for you. Anyway, an interesting read if you like legal stuff:
http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/cps_vawg_report_2015.pdf
High status males get away with this shit constantly. It usually rears its ugly head for them once women realize that it’s not a secret between her and Mr. Famous, but she was part of a pattern.
All the rationalizations disappear once you realize you were tricked, made a fool of, and who likes to feel like a fool?
Then the dam breaks right over dudes head.
One of my biggest questions is how is this affecting Bill Cosby’s wife? This has got to be incredibly difficult for her and I hope she has a great support system.
The loss of their son and now to find out these things about her husband. He talked of her so often during his routines, that you often felt like you knew her almost as well as you thought you knew him.My heart just aches for her.