Cosby Allegations

[benjamming]

PandaBear,

That's a very interesting (i.e. scary) way of finding someone guilty. Not responding the way you would advise someone in no way represents evidence of any sort. Wow.

Logic, I barely knew thee...

 

[Mr Nice]

If Tiger Woods was a stock clerk at Walmart, would any women want to make allegations against him 20-30 years from now ?

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
If Tiger Woods was a stock clerk at Walmart, would any women want to make allegations against him 20-30 years from now ?




Exactly. I've worked in the legal field for 32 years and I always refer to situations like the current Cosby hysteria as the "jackpot theory of justice." It has all the earmarks of a shakedown, pure and simple.
As my father told me, "When someone says: 'It's not the money, it's the principle.' you can be virtually certain that it is ALL about the money."

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
This all just seems too much like a money grab to me. Especially with Allred getting into the mix. As with the Paula Dean fiasco everyone seems to believe it JUST because it is being claimed. Assuming he is innocent as claimed I feel really bad for Cosby.

What has happened to our country?


Exactly! From the very start I thought something doesn't seem quite right here. It's one thing if they claimed the "rape" took place recently - but all those years ago? Why didn't they come forward when Cosby was arguably at the top of his career in the mid 80's and 90's?

This statement from Cosby's lawyer pretty well sums it up:

"A follow-up statement by his lawyer Martin D. Singer dismissed the allegations, labeling them "unsubstantiated, fantastical stories [... that] have escalated far past the point of absurdity.... increasingly ridiculous... completely illogical... it makes no sense that not one of these new women who just came forward for the first time now ever asserted a legal claim back at the time they allege they had been sexually assaulted... Over and over again, we have refuted these new unsubstantiated stories with documentary evidence...It is long past time for this media vilification of Mr. Cosby to stop."

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: MCompact
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
If Tiger Woods was a stock clerk at Walmart, would any women want to make allegations against him 20-30 years from now ?




Exactly. I've worked in the legal field for 32 years and I always refer to situations like the current Cosby hysteria as the "jackpot theory of justice." It has all the earmarks of a shakedown, pure and simple.
As my father told me, "When someone says: 'It's not the money, it's the principle.' you can be virtually certain that it is ALL about the money."


Both also very good points.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Not grown up watching him but based on his reaction in the PBS interview (silent for seconds when asked "what do you have to say") I'd say there's something going on. He could have said those aren't true, or he could say "I didn't do it but I'm too old to go through all these stresses so I'd just pay them to go away", but he didn't.

My gut feeling is he did rape at least some of them (and many more who just threw themselves to him willingly) , and tried to cover up, but the cats got out of the bag.


I agree his response so far has not exactly been graceful, but like Clevy mentioned, he simply may not know how to deal with accusations like this. I doubt anyone other than a rapist really prepares to deal with accusations of rape. Sure, he could get a lawyer to coach him through it, but all of this has been brought up pretty quickly, and he and his lawyer(s) simply may not be prepared to deal with unexpected rape accusations.

He may in fact be a malicious serial rapist who knows that without evidence and with the statue of limitations having passed, there is nothing his accusers can do. He may also be innocent or not as guilty as claimed, and is simply blindsided by all of this.

I doubt all of the claims are legitimate. Anytime someone with money can be hooked, there will be opportunists who want to get on the gravy train. There may be legitimate claims, but frankly if it was so damaging, they should have come forward sooner. This is the US, not some third world country where a woman gets stoned to death or hung for accusing a man of rape. Rape has been frowned upon for a long time in this country. Why wait until 2014 to bring it up?

I think at this point, there is just a lack of evidence. If someone can come forward with hard evidence, by all means, hold him accountable. I don't think anyone who has fallen on hard times should just be able to say "this rich guy raped me in the 1960s-70s-80s and now he needs to pay" though.

The "waive your rights or pay $100 million" challenge does come across as borderline extortion.

 

[Rolla07]

I think these women should of said something earlier..now it looks like a cash grab..just bothers me that its all of a sudden..unless it happened recently or these women complained in the past..i say invalidate the claims..not saying they didnt happen or that it was right if he did do those things

 

[walk23]

Cosby's lawyer has made several statements all of which was a denial.

 

[splinter]

I detest the 'work' of opportunistic feminists like Allred and her ilk.
Helen Hayes' claim that "sexual predator" Cosby groped her strikes me as genuine.

Lest we forget he impregnated Shawn Berkes with his 'love child' seed whilst, not coincidentally, still married to his wife. Whoops.

 

[aa1986]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
If Tiger Woods was a stock clerk at Walmart, would any women want to make allegations against him 20-30 years from now ?




No but only because working at Walmart is punishment enough.

 

[gathermewool]

Having seen my fair shair of sexual assault prevention training videos, read various accounts, and etc., I'd like to kindly ask that any one who questions why these women who were raped (those, if any, who actually were) didn't speak up sooner to ****. Seriously, there's a huge difference between someone who makes a mistake with a one-night-stand and some one who is humiliated beyond explanation and violated.

As a man, it's easy to stick our thing somewhere and not think it's a big deal, but, believe it or not, the affect is completely different for women in some instances. It may at one time have been ok to tell women to chalk up their unfortunate dates that went to far as lessons learned, but now we're better than that, and both men and women are paying the price for bad decisions and sometimes the worst decisions.

 

[Mr Nice]

Cosby is innocent of these allegations.
Some idiot women he dated, got bored and moved on.

Now they want to extort $$$ from the unfortunate guy.

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Cosby is innocent of these allegations.
Some idiot women he dated, got bored and moved on.

Now they want to extort $$$ from the unfortunate guy.



Of course the feminists try to play the "heads I win, tails you lose" game with sexual assault allegations; it the victim reports it immediately it proves she is trustworthy. If she waits four decades it is understandable due to PTSD or any number of "legitimate reasons." If her story is consistent it proves she is telling the truth. If it the story contains discrepancies it proves she is being truthful because she isn't consistent. I've heard it all.
If you want to read something that should make your blood boil, check this article out. It gives you an insight into how the media gives their darlings a pass when it comes to veracity and psychological stability...

 

[Mr Nice]

I have a family member that is a lawyer and they charge $500 an hour + miscellaneous [censored] they charge their client for.

Its all about the $$$$$$$ and justice

I'll read the article link you posted.

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Cosby is innocent of these allegations.
Some idiot women he dated, got bored and moved on.

Now they want to extort $$$ from the unfortunate guy.



Sorry, but nobody on this board knows whether there is any validity to the multiple allegations. I'll reserve judgement until they are either proven or disproven.

 

[aa1986]

Wonder what a grand jury would say.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Quote:

I'm sorry if it did happen,but if it was such a big deal why wait years to say anything.


Perhaps because sexual assaults against women especially under 'unusual circumstances' gets short shrift from a male dominated legal system in the 1970s 1980s etc.


Yep, I know many women who were raped, in many and varied circumstances, and without exception, they were pressured by the protectors to either say nothing, drop the charges or admit to having offered invitation (one a 16 year old at the time at paralympics (bring the sport into disrepute), one drinking at 14 in male company, one skipped the hig school bus and caught a ride on a motorbike).

It happens, and the victims are intimidated by the system...statistically, 1:6 of the women that you know are probably victims of some degree ...

Following on from Rolf Harris, and Robert Hughes, the former did his Jake the Peg act at my Primary school as a kid, and the latter was the "Dad" in a family TV sitcom called "Hey Dad", I'm proffering Bill the benefit of the doubt...

 

[GreeCguy]

Both Gathermewool and Shannow have hit the nail on the head in my opinion.

While I haven't known many rape survivors, I do know one. She was 16 when it happened. Small town girl who won the local high school singing contest which meant she went to the "next level" of competition in the "Big City" to compete with other singers from High Schools from across the State. It was such a big deal, she was even featured on the front page of her little small town newspaper.

She went, and at the competition, met a man who invited her for a few drinks. It was all new and exciting. She felt grown up and mature. Imagine that, drinking in a bar. She drank too much which was not hard to do since her new friend kept buying her drinks and encouraging her to drink with various "drinking games."

The man she met told her he was a diamond merchant and had rare diamonds in his hotel room. She believed him. She was sixteen. She went to see the diamonds.

He raped her. Brutally.

What is she going to do now? Never mind the rape, the pain and feeling of helplessness. How is she going to explain to everyone back in her small town that she went to a bar and had drinks with a total stranger? What will everyone think of her and her family? What about all the hopes and well wishes she had received when they sent her to the competition? "Put us on the map!" they told her when she left. This isn't the kind of headline they would want.

So she kept this secret for 20 years. Then she told me.

She lost the competition.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Interesting article:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/bill-cosby-fires-back-sexual-abuse-lawsuit/story?id=27369340

 

[doitmyself]

Humankind is complex and so is this subject matter. Besides the people that have held in their real stories for decades, there are those that develop false memories that result in wrong convictions too.

The 60's and 70's was a cultural revolution regarding free love, sex, drugs, and alcohol. If one person in a couple gets high and they have sex, at what point is it rape vs. consensual? Where to draw the line is complex and the atmosphere during that time period clouds the issue even more.

I, too, will reserve judgement unless hard evidence is presented.