He could not have possibly believed it was dealt with appropriately, because he was never never questioned by the police about it. Or are you suggesting that he thought what he saw might not be a crime?
But how do you witness such a thing, and NOT intervene?
Right there, right then, consequences be damned!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he spoke up, I’m glad it came out.
But I cannot understand how the witness could stop himself from intervening. It truly baffles me. I’m a 100lb, 50+ yr old woman, and I’d be making a freaking scene, I assure you!
As horrible as what this child endured, he will know, the rest of his life, that an adult saw, and did nothing to protect him.
No, I`m suggesting he concluded that the powers that be, possibly including the police, decided that nothing was going to happen.
Paterno, despite the pecking order, was the bigest Kahuna in the town. If he decided something was going to happen, it happened. He decided not, nothing happened. If McCreeary had jumped in and punched out the coach, and then the kid was too scared to corroborate his story, then he`s the one doing time for assault - possibly even sexual assault, since he attacks a naked man in a shower - and his career is over. Technically, no matter what he saw, punching the guy out is a crime of assault. (unreasonably excessive force…)
As a grad student going up against the whole university and town establishment, he probably could not even afford the lawyer if he was charged with assault. You have a much too optimistic view of how easy it is to get the establishment to listen to you over a local icon. He did the best he could - he took it to the top dog and had his father along as a witness.
My guess is Sandusky denied, the victim also denied anything happened, the two university officials investigating chalked it up to misunderstood what he saw (two people were just showering) or malicious intent or phew, dont have to deal with this`and let it slide. In fact, the main charges appear to be about whether they lied on the stand about what they knew, not failure to report… so far.
It irks me to see the comments - simply because the guy DID report it, to the person with the power to do something, at the risk of destroying his life. 9 years later, people are condemning him for ruining the college reputation and ruining Paternos career, exactly what he was afraid of - instead of prasing him for reporting it, they are saying he didnt do enough. No- the university didn`t do enough.
So, if he reported it to the police, and still nothing happened - should you expect him to report it to the sargent, then the chief, and so on… when would you expect him to stop tilting at windmills… should he have called the mayor or the University president…
Just a thought.
Perhaps this is what happened McQueary reaction wise. He saw what was going on but was shocked beyond belief ( and at that moment Sandusky and/or the kid quickly changed “modes” so to speak …“Hey McQueary, just some naked wresting here!”). So, thinking it wasnt quite what he thought it was he leaves (obviously inappropriate, but not a required beat the shit out of the second most powerful man in town moment)… Then, later, thinking about it more he comes to realize “wait, that WAS anal rape, no doubt about it”.
I know I’ve been in a few situations where I was “surprised”, thought the more innocent thing, then later went OMG/WTF?/that ain’t right/What the hell was I thinking?
In any case a way more detailed McQueary accound will clear many things up. He certainly was in a bad position no matter how you look at it. At the least, I’d bet he was glad this other investigation came up. It was at least his chance to come totally clean and be pretty sure things wouldn’t get swept under the rug a second time.
Your guess is wrong. For one thing, according to the grand jury report, the university never even attempted to find out how the victim was, let alone question him about what happened. And the university officials knew, or should have known that they had a legal obligation to report suspected abuse to police or child welfare authorities, which they did not do.
I certainly don’t dispute that the university didn’t do enough. And I don’t even dispute that McQueary fulfilled the minimum legal reporting requirements for reported suspected child abuse. But if you witness a crime, report it to your boss, and the police never ask you about it, can you really imagine your boss has “resolved the issue” without any further input from you?
I’ll repeat my earlier question. Do you believe that McQueary may not have known that a grown man having anal sex with a 10 year old boy might not be criminal?
Quite honestly, if McQueary saw one of the coaches at the school raping a kid and didn’t do anything, he DESERVES to lose his job. Oh, poor baby, he was too scared to lose his job. Boo hoo, my heart is breaking. Excuse me if I don’t feel inclined to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
Still, you can’t imagine not making a noise or something. Knowing myself, I probably would have screamed just out of horror. “HOLY SHIT!!!” Just knowing I saw something like that and didn’t do anything would have made me sick. (I don’t know if I would have gone in and confronted the guy, but I don’t think I’d have done nothing. I couldn’t have lived with myself.)
Sure. I hope and expect I would move in protect the boy and stop it. And if I didn’t I expect I would never completely forgive myself for the rest of my life, instinctual response or not.
He must have made some kind of noise – he said both Sandusky and the victim saw him there.
Perhaps he said, “Ain’t love grand.”
According to one of the “investigating officers” named in the university report and interviewed in the papers, he had no idea what the investigation was about other than he was asked to see if the boy could be made available for the other investigator to interview.
The other guy is not taking calls and not giving interviews, for some reason.
I assume these were campus police, not real police, or the scandal would have a huge different dimension.
As to physical intervention - Sandusky was 58 at the time (born 1944). He was no spring chicken, but had been involved in football all his life, and reportedly was using the college weight room as late as a few weeks ago. Unless you are 28 with a good street-fighting background, going up against an authority figure who may outweigh you and is in excellent shape (and fighting for his life) may not be a wise move. Not everybody is the type to resort to fistfights; in fact, sports try to take that instinct out of you unless you play hockey.
I suspect McCreary’s first reaction is shock and confusion, hence flight.
Ok, I’ve been hearing some conversations about this dimension of it, and I find I’m willing to give it more bearing than I had initially. The same thing that keeps someone in the family from telling on Uncle, is that it’s someone they already have a love/power relationship with, going back many years. Certainly that’s true of McCreary.The had a long standing, complicated relationship with , over many years, I believe.
I could cut him some slack on shock, confusion, and initial flight. But he’s a grown man who witnessed a child being raped by an adult. There is no way to slice it or dice it, in the fullness of time, one would think he’d get his head around what he saw, and it’s implications, and tell the police. And that period of time should not have been years.
His personal betrayal of that 10 yr old boy, was just as brutal as the rape, in many ways, and may have sealed that child’s lips from ever speaking up.
But in the end, he’s the whistle blower, so it’s complicated. His testimony may be what the case hinges on, an eye witness. I feel he should be fired. I’m not sure he should go to jail. He has earned the scorn he gets, in my eyes. But I can’t imagine punishing him in any way that could be worse than having to live with himself, to be honest.
Your comments are about a different police investigation – the one in 1998. The police did not investigate the incident McQueary saw at all, because no on reported it to them.
And “fighting for his life”?! Is that supposed to be a joke? All McQueary had to do was step in and interrupt. And he was a 28 year old former college quarteback – who once stepped in to break up a knife fight between students on campus.
Ok, so McQueary ran – why didn’t he pick up a phone and dial 911 10 minutes later?
Never mind, don’t answer. I am done with this thread.
Amen.
That is certainly why Joe Paterno decided to retire: he realized he failed to live up to that standard.
I’ve been trying to find Paterno’s testimony to the Grand Jury, as supposedly he admitted being influenced by his friendship. But in the Grand Jury Report they state that what the graduate assistant told Joe was slightly different from what he told his father the night he saw it, for instance. The message Joe got was that the graduate assistant had seen them both in the showers and thought he saw some “fondling or something of a sexual nature”. The assistant gave a fuller statement to the others, but Paterno wasn’t there.
Somebody comes to you with vague accusations that they “think” they saw a good friend of yours doing something you don’t believe he’d do in a million years. You report it to the proper authorities like you are supposed to. They are supposed to investigate and take appropriate action, so when you never hear anything more about it you assume he was cleared.
That’s pretty human.
However, we hold some people to a higher standard. If you are somebody like the Head Football Coach of a public University, you are supposed to at least ask the Athletic Director, “Hey, what ever happened with those allegations against my friend?”
I’m not sure of the distinction, but per their website, the Penn State police are real police; they have police powers within their jurisdiction and they are armed.
Joe Paterno had the real-life equivalent of a magic wand. He was the king of a kingdom, and had at his disposal a magic wand that could have put a stop to everything the Sandusky monster was doing. Joe Paterno never waived that magic wand. It sat there collecting dust.
To me, this is the only explanation that seems to help others understand why Joe Paterno was acting without honor or integrity.
I find very little about coaching football teams and just becoming a legend/hero over time because you throw money here and there and say things like, "Thank you. Listen: Go home; study; get some sleep. We have lots to do. >>heads into doorway<< “And say a little prayer for the victims”. Which was preceded by 84-year old versions of fist pumps into the air back by chants from college-age dimwits.
Interestingly, if you are in such a group you are far less likely to make such a call. It is calledThe Bystander Effect, and basicly it says that the more witnesses there are to an emergency the less likely it is that any of the witnesses will move to help. Everybody just expects someone else to do it, or is waiting for someone to tell them to do something, but if they were alone they would act.
The law and morality do not always align: it is not illegal to fail to report a crime.
Certain people (for example lawyers as “Officers of the Court”) are required to report certain crimes if they are aware of them, but usually with qualifiers like “unless doing so would implicate their client” and “unless they believe the authorities will inevitably discover it”.
This is just my memory from 15 or so years or so ago, but here goes. A man in my town and a few of his friends were drinking. The man in question decided he wanted to kill himself, by being run over by a train. He laid on the tracks just before the train got to him, with his friends watching. He was decapitated. This part of the store I know is fact, I remember seeing it in the paper, and I know the place it happened.
Now, I am pretty sure the 2 friends who watched it happen were charged with something in relation to not stopping him. I was 14 at the time, so my memory is a little fuzzy on it. And I do live in PA.
Different situation: that isn’t failing to report the crime, it is failing to report someone about to commit a crime. And that’s Accessory Before The Fact, I believe.
If you have knowledge that a crime will be committed, then you have to report it, but once it is over what’s done is done.
I’m not a lawyer, so consult one if you need to be 100% certain.
So… If you tell me you will kill your wife, I need to report it. If I walk in and watch it happen, I can just walk away and do nothing? Really? Shit our laws are fucked up.