tldr
now 13 accusers.
I hung out at Sarah Lawrence for a year. High point? Topless touch football in the circular driveway in front of Slonim House. Low point? There wasn’t one. 
Cosby. I usually have an over the top reaction here to sexual abuse stories. I’m drained by the number of YEARS that the (informed) media has given him a total pass on his behaviors.
I was thinking about this case on the subway in to work today. A connection to the whole A-Rod baseball doping scandal came into my brain. So… why is it that even after all of these years, nobody is trying to find out who the doctor was that provided these drugs to Cosby?
In no way giving this fucking criminal pig bastard a pass. Interested in hearing Cosby with some of the family-friendly filters down? Find a recording of " Bill Cosby 8:15- 12:15 " It is one night, in Lake Tahoe at some hotel resort. He does basically the same routines, but the first one is family-friendly and the second one is NOT. He has a dark side, and not all of his filthy is amusing.
So many people have a thin veneer. Unfortunately, some are in a position of power and can slide away the veneer and behave in a sub-human manner as they wish. So it seems to be/ have been with Cosby.
What is it to be Camille Cosby now? 15 years ago? 30 years ago? We should sit down Mrs. Bill Cosby and Mrs. Ray Rice and see if we can get them BOTH to open up and speak the truth.
I’ve worked with Malcom Jamal-Warner, and had a long lovely dinner with Keisha Knight-Pulliam a few years ago in Atlanta where she lives with her partner. Both of them referred to him as “Mr. Cosby”.
He held himself up as such a paragon. Such a role model. Demanded such a high quality of behavior and work from all around him, notably the young actors on his show.
What is so sad is that men who make laws made laws that have statutes of limitations. So, you can be raped and live with it forever. But after a certain number of years, the rapist is good as gold and untouchable.
Man, that’s some fucked up shit right there.
The problem with this entire thread of thinking is that it heads us towards, " Oh. So in the end, it was only two women who he definitely drugged and raped? ONLY TWO? Oh please cry me a fucking river. Two. And people were up in arms? What a load of crap… "
If there’s a pile-on, nobody deserves to be falsely accused. Of anything. The corollary is that nobody deserves to get a pass on rape. Simple ! Investigate and prosecute. If the law has allowed too much time to pass, investigate anyway.
So, uh, you know, the victims’ truth will be known?
Indeed. I don’t believe anyone sincerely, rigorously applies such a presumption in their own personal lives. People make assessments and judgments, and act on them, according to what they feel to be reasonable, likely interpretations.
We should not wish to see criminal suspects punished with the terrible force of the state based on “likely interpretation,” without considerable corroborating evidence. But we most certainly–sensibly, inevitably–deal with people, day to day, on this basis.
No, what is fucked up is waiting until the statute of limitations has run out to make an accusation that the accused has no way to defend against, because the evidence is long gone.
Ahh. Poor, poor, poor tragic Bill.
N’est pas?
Those women waited decades. They did it for the same reason that the 19 year old intern who was raped by John Kennedy in the White House waited all those decades.
Out of fear. Not out of some calculated decision.
I didn’t say waiting to report it was proof they lied. I said it was stupid and means there’s no proof of anything.
I couldn’t believe the testimony of anybody who considers their agent or therapist an ‘authority figure’ in a criminal matter. For this alone, I would have to say that there is no evidence against Cos.
Oh! I completely misunderstood your post, then. I thought at the contrary that you were disgusted because you didn’t accept the accusations at face value earlier (hence disgusted with yourself because you doubted the alleged victims).
Even if he actually raped these women, it doesn’t make him more likely to be a pedophile. Rather less, in fact.
By the time I had heard this about a year ago it was already 10 or so women. I hear there were two more on Friday.
I think the idea is that a self-respecting woman in the 60s wouldn’t have answered yes to such a question regardless, and would at the contrary have been expected to say no, just not too much, and that the absence of emphatic rejection and/or active push back was understood by both parties as a yes.
Not having lived through the 60s, I don’t know if it’s true, but it has often been reported this way.
I agree with every word in that post.
Furthermore, there’s the usual strain of "If that had happened to me, I would have done X. Therefore, because she didn’t di X, I don’t believe her or she should just keep her mouth shut now.
I don’t know whether it really is because people think they are so much smarter than actual victims and dumb people deserve what they get, or its a cognitive coping mechanism to say it doesn’t happen that way so it won’t happen to me or someone important to me that way.
Every woman I have been close to gas at least one story of sexual importuning or assault or attempted rape. Am I the only man who knows how common this is? Or do people just closing their eyes to it?
No, you’re not the only one. I’ve had the same experience: every woman I’ve ever been personally involved with has told me a story about being assaulted or molested. The incidents range from being groped by a drunk at a party to horrifying sexual abuse. It’s vastly more common than most men realize.
My first reading of this, and second reading, looked like you’re saying that it’s okay to accuse someone of criminal conduct if said someone is a DA. For some reason, that cracked me up.
Why does that annoy you? There are plenty of “non-medical doctor” folks who insist on being called “Doctor” because they have some kind of doctorate. Not all doctorates are in medicine.
What’s the proof?
Yeah, I get that. Even if true, the point is what? That he might have been “confused” about whether the women agreed with the sex or not? Even if the “system” of agreeing and disagreeing was different, I think one knows full well whether or not someone wants to sleep you with them or not, whatever the code of the era was.
I think the (IMO very misogynist) idea is that the woman didn’t verbally say “yes” but wanted it, then later claimed rape on the grounds that she’s didn’t clearly indicate assent or “just went along with it” or whatever, i.e. the woman is either confused or actively blurring the lines about whether she was raped or not. I can tell you, people (men and women) usually know if they have been raped. I don’t feel I can judge if anyone is outright lying, but I don’t but the “oh but things were not so clear-cut at the time” defense.
The proof of public statements of some 15 women, many of them who were prepared to support accusations in court 10 years ago, is plenty good.
What kind of proof do you think exists in cases like this?
I infer that your standard of proof means that powerful men get to get away with this kind of bullshit without public condemnation (forget criminal charges anyway).
Due to a discussion of this situation with my friend she noted that a certain dentist was ‘a bit of a perve’. I remember her saying at the time he was an arsehole and she’d not go back to him. Invading her bodyspace while she was lying on the dentist chair, talking about ‘inserting’ things into her. Just pervy crap right? You just don’t go back. You can’t make a law suit out of it.
Now with this Cosby thing coming up she mentions a girl at work had also had a similar experience. No one has reported anything to the police, nothing TOO BAD happened right? But lets suppose someone does accuse him of impropriety. You can be sure my friend would put her two cents in.
That post of yours is a load. What kind of proof? Well, something that would be admissible in a court of law would be nice. And, no, I won’t forget criminal charges. I’ve been falsely accused of a serious crime so I take things like false accusations seriously. Luckily for me, my commanding officer was a bit of a stickler for logic and the idea that it’s impossible to be two places at one time.
You can infer any damn thing you want, but that doesn’t mean I said or implied what you are pretending.
Live witness testimony from a prosecuting witness is evidence. Your notion that the statements of 16 women (we are up to 16 now, aren’t we) is evidence. A jury can and does convict on sexual assault charges on the basis of one and only one.
I am sadly not the least bit surprised at the number of Americans posting who don’t think the testimony of a rape victim has any probative value. Nor at the number of SDMB posters.