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.
“No forensic evidence by that time, but otherwise was investigated and eventually settled out of court.”
Hmm, an out of court settlement shouldn’t have impeded a criminal case. If they investigated it and he wasn’t charged, I guess they didn’t find enough to charge him.
People defending Bill Cosby are treading on dangerous ground IMHO. I saw the CNN interview with Janice Dickenson. If she’s lying, then Hollywood needs to sign her to a big movie deal because IMO she’s the greatest actress I have ever seen perform.
Bingo!
You get first place on this thread hands down!
And, I’m not defending Cosby! The man has ALWAYS seemed like 10lbs of bullshit stuffed into a five pound bag to me.
> So, by your logic, what is motivating 15 (or so) white
> women to do this?
Same thing or people or coercion that motivated those women to come out against Herman Cain.
No way to tell if the accusations are true, but it’s the TIMING that is most suspicious.
> Are they being paid?
Or blackmailed or threatened or just coerced for the greater good of “the cause”.
That’s ultimately the problem with the left’s harping on campus sexual assault. It’s turned rape into little more than whore’s remorse. Some girl willingly gets drunk, willingly goes to bed with some drunk guy, feels like a whore the next week and then cries sexual assault. The Cosby situation could be the same, a woman willingly engages in sexual relations thinking it will lead to an acting job. It doesn’t so she cries rape. Of course in doing that isn’t she basically acknowledging herself to be a prostitute who wasn’t paid for her services?
None of this means that Cosby is innocent, assuming it’s true that he engaged in sexual relations with these women. If he committed adultery with them, he’s a dirt bag but not a racist. That’s assuming he actually had sex with any of these women, which we really don’t know at this point.
Do you believe any of Clinton’s accusers?
You've both made a distinction I failed to make. The article I read used the term "investigated", but that was in the context of a civil case and not criminal as my comparison made it appear.
What’s in it for these women? One of them wrote a book, so she has books to hawk. For others they view it as an opportunity to gain notoriety and money. Some may like the sympathetic attention. That’s assuming they’re not telling the truth. Even if they are telling the truth though it begs the question why they’re all coming out now and why none of them, including supermodel Janice Dickinson, didn’t go to the police or run to the media 10, 20, 30 years ago when the rapes allegedly occurred.
"It's about the seriousness of the accusations"
There is a politician in New Jersey that wants to charge people with rape by fraud for basically lying to get consensual sex. Weird how that is also coming out, now.
So you’re suggesting a grand conspiracy, involving the supposed threatening, paying off, or whatever, of 15 separate middle aged or elderly white woman. Uh huh.
The timing isn’t suspicious. Rumors have been floating for years, and there have been payoffs and baby mamas in the past.
You know, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Right, that’s my point: the media goes after Cosby and ignores Clinton (and T. Kennedy for that matter)
But notice when the rumors of inappropriate sexual contact STARTED: 6 months after Cosby qave his “Pound Cake” speech to the NAACP, criticizinq current Black culture and sayinq it’s not all “whitey’s fault”. The qal who filed the civil lawsuit first reported anythinq to law enforcement - in CANADA - 12 months after the alleqed incident. She sat on the claim for a year until Cosby was biq news because of that speech, and then she reported a claim to Canadian police.
And because the evidence - if there had been any - was lonq qone, what she used as “evidence” was these other women whose evidence (if there was any) was ALSO lonq qone. And those are the people we’re hearinq about now.
So just to make clear, the alleqed rape happened in January, the “Pound Cake” speech was 5 months later in May, and the first this qal said anythinq to law enforcement was 7 months after that, the followinq January. To Canadian police. When the US police said there wasn’t evidence enouqh to file charqes she filed a civil suit and had these other women say he’d been inappropriate over the previous 4 decades but nobody had ever reported anythinq.
To you it’s a cigar.
To me it’s an enchalada.
Smells too much like the circus around Herman Cain.
And the timing is just so convenient.
Cosby is effectively neutered.
Bill Cosby could go a long way toward setting things right by killing himself.
Cosby can never set things right at this point because of the media firestorm. Even if he was dead, his legacy will be completely tarnished by these unproven allegations.
It’s just like Michael Jackson, whose legacy was tarnished by repeated allegations of child molestation none of which were proven beyond a reasonable doubt in court. At least in the Jackson case there was a public trial where we can weigh the evidence and maybe reasonable minds can disagree on the outcome even though he was never found guilty. In Cosby’s case, there has been no trial nor will there be. He could be innocent, drop dead this afternoon and his legacy will be more about rape than his comedy albums and tv show.
We get it, you want to push suicide.
Welcome to FR, but don’t quit your day job.
Jackson and Cosby have both paid off victims big time. Fortunately Jackson is in the dirt. Hopefully Cosby joins him soon.
I believe Monica Lewinsky, largely because she had evidence (the blue dress) and Clinton admitted it. Gennifer Flowers had witnesses who collaborate her claim that she had a long term affair with Clinton. Paula Jones and Juanita Broderick’s claims were about as dubious as those of Cosby’s accusers.
I understand the desire to believe there’s truth in an accusation when a large number of people come forward claiming the same thing. The race to convict through media has to be avoided at all costs. The rush on Cosby accusations just happen to coincide with the release of a book by one of his accusers detailing her accusation and the accusations of others. There’s personal gain in this for some of these women and we ought not discount that.
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