Even The Wolf likely can't clean up Harvey Weinstein's pending troubles

I've come around to Whitman's position that people should be entitled to unilaterally send other people to prison.

 

It is not remotely clear to me how that is the worse option.

 

You're engaging in some pretty heavy-duty aggregation there (or at least you're glossing over the possibility of this aggregation being a thing). As we've discussed here, and elsewhere, what is today considered sexual assault covers a pretty wide range of actions. At one extreme are actions that are almost indistinguishable from rape. At the other extreme is some stuff ... I don't know how to put this ... that until recently very few people would have thought actionable.

It seems pretty obvious to me that there will be far more -- multiple orders of magnitude more -- instances that fall closer to that latter extreme than to the former. Thus I think, in our zeal to get better at this, that it would be very dangerous to label as having committed "sexual assault" so many men who might be innocent (the "only 2% of these accusations are false" trope is a red herring). The reason I think so is that the label, the stigma, loses its salience:

"Oh, I don't know about him ... he's committed sexual assault."
"Shit ... who hasn't?"

 

“Don’t compare wrongs or criminal acts by their degrees of severity.” - Ellen Page

Page's position would not be considered extreme here. Your point, of course, was along the lines of mine, when I logged an objection to the Hope Solo-Sepp Blatter headline and lede.

My position was met with outrage. It was considered offensive.

 

I have a good friend who is a proud gun owner and advocate for a strong Second Amendment. A couple weeks ago we were on my porch, checking out his new piece. He knows I advocate for the repeal of the Second Amendment.

I asked him: “Doesn’t it bother you that your right to bear arms unquestionably leads to 10,000 or more gun deaths in this country every year?”

He answered: “As an individual, I still feel that I should have the right to defend myself, my home, and my daughters.”

Is his argument any different than the defense here for maintaining due process? He knows the civil liberty results in an enormous amount of harm. But he believes in the trade off, that the individual right to civil liberty trumps the concern about harm.

We mock his position all the time here.

 

There is also the question of what is worthy of "charges". Did Solo just get her butt grabbed? That is rude, the guy is an ass and she should tell people but is it worthy of charging someone with something. She always has the right to civil suit but I think sometimes it is just someone being a pig and while they should be called out there must be some kind of line before it is actually a crime. I don't know what the line is. I mentioned I had 3 incidents, I have remembered another. So that is 4. One example, at Rocky Neck in Old Lyme Ct, I seem to remember a path that led up to ---memory!---a large building that had food etc? There was a guy about 10ft or so in the bushes jerking off. Probably what they called a flasher. I had to be under 10 or so, Did not really know wtf I had just
seen. It did stick with me for a long time. The best way I can describe the feeling after things like this is there is a kind of weight. Like if you have a loved one die or a tragic breakup, you have that physical weight. And of course mental confusion and all kinds emotions. I never told anyone and have only briefly mentioned to someone about another time when I was 18 or 19 and lost a job when I did not "do it". Never told anyone other than that about any of those things. One time was with a realtor, never said anything. I wonder id they had run for mayor or something if I would have. Of course the answer would have been "why didn't you come forward before"?. Well for most people you just don't and when you are young you don't think of the consequences for others or the offender. I at least hope we can get past that question. If a story is legit it should be understood that people do not always speak up right away if at all.

 

Al Franken ... http://www.kabc.com/2017/11/16/leeann-tweeden-on-senator-al-franken/

 

Your position is not universally shared here.

 

The one in which you are the one wrongfully convicted.

 

If you're the person wrongfully convicted, for sure. But those cases are exceedingly rare. @RickStain notes that only 2 percent of accusations are false, and those are usually ferreted out immediately.

But what if you're the woman who is violently raped or even murdered because we extended due process previously her assailant?

 

Say goodbye to your career, Senator.

 

You can call me (ex-Senator) Al.