Posted on 12/02/2014 5:40:43 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
Bill Cosby has been accused of rape by 25-30 women. The alleged rapes follow a similar storyline. These women knew Cosby, some casually dated him. Many of the women appear to have been starstruck or otherwise looking to get into show business through Cosby. Eventually most of the women claim they were drugged and then raped. In some cases women claim to have been drugged and raped repeatedly. Most of the allegations of rape stem from events that happened in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. This isn’t the first time Cosby has been accused of rape, a lawsuit was filed in the early 2000’s that resulted in an out of court settlement. One should never read too much into out of court settlements. It’s often cheaper to pay a plaintiff to go away than to pay an attorney to try a case. In Cosby’s case, he likely hired a hoard of high price lawyers to defend him. That can get expensive quickly.
I have no idea if Cosby is guilty of rape or not. On one hand the fact that there are 25-30 women with the same story suggests in the very least that something is going on that isn’t right. Whether it means that Cosby is a serial adulterer or a rapist or that some casual acquaintances see an opportunity to make money, something isn’t right here. The media has more or less convicted Cosby. It’s popular these days to convict men of rape without any evidence. These days America’s college campuses are convicting men of rape when women decide weeks later they didn’t want to engage in sexual relations. The media is cheering on efforts on campus to call just about every act sexual assault. In California, each stage of a sexual encounter must be consented to lest a school have the ability to charge a man with sexual assault. In that atmosphere, Cosby has been convicted by a media desperate to make an example of someone.
What is curious about the Cosby accusers is that none of them went to the police after they allege they were raped. No police department has ever had the opportunity to investigate their charges because they never bothered to inform the authorities. All physical evidence has been gone for decades. Some of these women claim that they didn’t think anyone would believe them, after all they were accusing Bill Cosby. No doubt in the 80’s Cosby was a major star, even in the 90’s he was a substantial celebrity. One of his accusers is supermodel Janice Dickinson. Are we to believe that a loud mouth like Dickinson was so afraid that the police wouldn’t believe her because of Cosby’s fame that she didn’t bother to report a rape? You might be able to make such an argument in the case of a star struck kid, you can’t make that case with a famous supermodel.
We’ll obviously never know if Cosby is actually a rapist because he’s never going to be tried in Court for rape. Even if the statute of limitations was limitless, there isn’t any evidence available that would convict him. The Michael Jackson child molestation case is a good example of how difficult it is to convict someone years or even decades after an alleged incident happened. With all physical evidence destroyed, a prosecutor has to rely on witnesses to the events. Generally a prosecutor isn’t going to win if the only witness is the victim. There has to be more whether it’s testimony from friends she spoke with immediately afterward or testimony from people who saw the accused put something into a drink.
As a society, if we allow the media to convict someone we’re creating a very dangerous precedent. There’s no doubt that the evidence out there doesn’t look good for Cosby. Maybe he really is a rapist. However, we can’t decide that he’s guilty based on one sided news reports, no matter how many of them there might be. This is the danger of the modern 24 hour news cycle. We hear an emotional interview or two and decide someone is guilty. We saw the same thing in Ferguson over the summer, Officer Wilson was convicted by the media based on faulty evidence. The rush to judgment cemented the riots we saw last week. The media is doing the same thing with Cosby, they’re rushing to judgment without the full story. Cosby lost a new sitcom on NBC and all of his sponsors as a result of this media lynching. To date, Cosby has never been charged with rape. He hasn’t even been investigated for rape despite 25-30 women claiming he raped them. It is the responsibility of a raped woman to contact the police after a rape has occurred. If she doesn’t do that, her claims 30 years down the road ought not carry much weight. Especially so when she has the potential for financial gain from her claims. For those of us watching these events unfold, we would be wise to withhold judgment.
Well-stated.
“I guess they all should have said nothing, according to your logic.”
There’s no logic there, it’s just a statement of fact. A fact that makes it difficult for anyone to confirm the accusers’ stories.
One accuser claims she was drugged and raped at Cosby’s home, and then voluntarily went on a trip to Atlantic City with him, and voluntarily stayed in Cosby’s hotel room (after her alleged rape), and he tried to rape her again.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say Cosby has “republican” values. This is a man who admits to being an adulterer. He’s done fundraisers for Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton. So far as anyone can tell he’s a life long Democrat.
I have to wonder if this isn’t the commie left shutting up Cosby during their Ferguson money grab and race card fiasco.
Even if he was cleared of rape charqes he wasn’t qoinq to qet his qood name back, because his sexual history is probably not a pretty one. Havinq your adultery talked about all over the place in order to clear yourself of false rape claims doesn’t qain you a whole lot.
Filing a lawsuit and having the police investigate are two entirely different things. Keep in mind the standard for finding liability in civil court is substantially lower than criminal court. To find civil liability one need only prove his case by a preponderance of the evidence, which is basically a 51% standard. To find someone guilty in a criminal trial the prosecution needs to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, which is basically a 99.99% standard. It’s curious that Constad didn’t go to the police but rather filed suit.
But she also says she didn’t report anythinq at the time because at the very time that the evidence should have been on and in her body, she couldn’t tell whether she had been raped or not. If she couldn’t tell it then, she couldn’t EVER know. Yet decades later she says she’s sure it happened.
Bill Clinton bad
Just because he calls a thug a thug, doesn't mean he is a man of virtue. Innocent until proven guilty, but don't cut him slack and condemn Bill Clinton.
..and I’m not defending clinton...just sayin’
People tend to confuse an actor’s screen roles with their actual lives. They aren’t always the same.
Well, in this instance, if Cosby is the first “pig”, are the rest of the “pigs” a bunch of white women? Your analogy fails.
I seriously hope you’re not expecting intellectual consistency on the interwebz.
So, by your logic, what is motivating 15 (or so) white women to do this? Are they being paid?
Based on any reading of recent history, adultery is a bipartisan value.
I think that for some of these women, “rape” means, “I slept with him and didn’t get that acting gig he promised.”
The story I read said she was “certain she had been raped” in the first instance. I guess that could mean “certain now, but not then” but it really wasn’t that clear.
He is also an Obama boot-licker and was one of the first celebs to back Tawana Brawley when she FALSLY accused a white LEO and white ADA of raping her.
If Clinton’s rape victims HAD gone to the police right after the event, then Bill Clinton would have beeen nothing more than an obscure governor from Arkansas, and China wouldn’t be the military threat that they are rapidly becoming today.
If Cosby’s rape victims HAD gone to the police right away, then they’d have credibility, whether the police believed them or not. 25-30 women, all with the same story, and NONE of them going to the police right away is very suspicious. Cosby is a dirt bag, but I agree with the author...trial by media is a dangerous thing to accept or support.
The difference between Cosby and Clinton is clear. The media ignored the Clinton-Juanita Broderick rape story while they’re going after Cosby for essentially the same thing. As for Cosby being moral and upright, he’s already admitted to adultery just like Clinton.
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