I just got an email from my Dad that read in part:
My Dad does not generally send me useless information. But I read this and the first thing that came to mind was ‘BS’. Then I checked out snopes. It’s true.
What the fuck is-was Jesse Jackson thinking? Let’s hire a child molester. Good fucking idea. Not only did this guy get busted for sleeping with a 16 year old girl he got busted for child porn. cite
I am absolutly amazed and disgusted by this story.
Jesse “I am a Minister” Jackson hired a fucking child molester and it never got any press.
I had some respect for the Reverand Jackson until he got busted for having an affair while counsiling Clinton through the Lewinsky mess. Now I have no respect for Jackson or Clinton (He pardoned a child molester).
This is just fucking amazing.
At the samt time how in the hell did the press miss this? If Republicans did this kind of shit it would be all over the papers.
And, yes, I know this story is a little old but this is the first I heard of it.
Well, yes, it is disgusting. But this is not a pardon or forgiveness, but a commutation, which reduces the severity of the sentence to time served. It does not expunge the record. Snopes chose not to point out the distinction.
Not that I’m excusing the former senator, or the former president, or the formerly respectable clergyman, but I wouldn’t call sleeping with a sixteen year-old child molestation. Illegal, unethical, generally wrong, but it’s not like he was fondling eight-year olds.
As for what any of the principles in this drama were thinking when they did whatever they did, I suspect it usually boiled down to, “Man, would I ever love to stick my dick in that!”
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who along with others including Rev. James Meeks, also offered Reynolds a job. Rev. Jackson said Reynolds will consult the Rainbow Coalition/Push organization’s efforts to help jail and prison inmates.
Mel Reynolds said, his intention is to dedicate the rest of his life working to try and help homeless and working with men and women locked-up in jails and prisons.
January 2001: The Chicago Sun-Times reports that former congressman Mel Reynolds will work as the community development director of Salem Baptist Church in south-side Chicago and as a consultant for Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, trying to decrease the number of young African-Americans going to prison.
The Chicago papers did, to the best of my recollection. They covered it from the beginning, even.
And to follow Miller’s comment, typically when teens near the age of consent are involved, it’s usually referred to as statutory rape (indicating that regardless of the teen’s desires/actions in the matter, they’re legally unable to give consent).
Um, fuckwit? Check your facts. Your cnn cite says that reynolds was expected to be released on the child molestation charges in 1998. The pardon, for other charges, occurred in 2001. Your implication that Clinton pardoned someone who was in prison for child molestation charges is erroneous.
Well, that is the age of consent in most states. FWIW I’ve fucked 15 and 16 year old girls and it’s pretty damn nice! :eek:
Whether or not a grown man should fuck a 16 year old girl is a bit of a tough question but I definately wouldn’t call it “child-molesting” and I don’t think it helps your case much when you call it that. Sounds too sensational.
It was no big deal. Or at least, not as big a deal as you make it out to be. First of all, there seems to be some question as to the girl’s reliability:
Interesting that they locked her up for two weeks to force her to testify. Sounds to me like we’re talking partner, not victim.
Heard herself seems to consider the relationship to based on seduction, and not coersion.
First of all, I’ll let the “fuckwit” comment slide. You’re outraged, I can understand that. But take a deep breath and chill for a minute, 'kay?
Now, let’s look at some of these fancy lawyer terms. “Criminal sexual assault” sounds bad, but what precisely does it mean? Well, he had sex with someone he wasn’t supposed to, which covers the “criminal sexual” part. What consitutes an assault? Does the fact that the girl was not legally able to give her consent, even if she had wanted to, automatically makes this an “assault”? Or was there coersion or force involved? None of the articles I’ve found say, which makes me suspect it wasn’t.
“Obstructing justice” is bad. Hell, this is worse than the original crime, IMO. But it still doesn’t rise to the level of “outrage.” More like, “typical goddamned politician.”
“Solicitation of child pornography” sounds worse than it is. Considering that no other plaintiffs are mentioned in any of the articles, I assume the subject of the so-called child porn was Beverly Heard. In other words, Reynolds took (or wanted to take) sexy pictures of his slightly underage girlfriend. Illegal? Yes. Outrageous? Hardly. He’s already sleeping with her; taking pictures is small potatoes compared to that.
And again, the girl was sixteen years old. Calling this guy a child molester is hyperbole. Under Illinois law, she was only a year under the age of consent. If they’d been in a different state, it wouldn’t have even been a crime. Sorry, but I’m not going to get morally outraged because a guy was standing in the wrong place when he did something. Hell, he only got five years for it! He’s not some predatory monster, he’s an unscruopulous middle aged man who can’t keep Mr. Happy in his pants. Just like everyone else in Congress, to say nothing of Mssrs. Clinton and Jackson.
To sum it up, there is a perfectly valid reason why the media didn’t pick up on this: it’s a non-story no one cares about.
Some news sources did report the Mel Reynolds pardon at the time it happened- it’s just that the Mark Rich pardon story was getting all the headlines at the time. I wouldn’t call him a child molester, but after reading the phone transcripts that brought him down, it’s hard to understand why Jesse Jackson thought he would be an asset to his organization.
I wasn’t disagreeing with the OP (although other have since made “reasonable doubt”), just the asinine comment that only Republican scandals are covered by papers. Were you asleep during the Clinton administration?
I know this has already been brought up, but I have to say something. No, someone who sleeps with a 16 year old is not a child molester.
When I was 10 my grade school teacher sexually harassed me for the entire year I was in his class. Made comments. “Casually” touched me every chance he got. Specifically asked me to go to bed with him. When I was 10.
When I was 15 I had a perfectly consensual sexual relationship (everything except actual sex) with a 20 year old guy.
By your standard both these guys are child molesters. In fact the second is the greater villain since it was actually physical. But I know which one was molestation and which a pleasent memory.
I’ll make the same caveat others have: sex with underage people is illegal, and with good reason. But please, for the love of god, we need the term “child molester” for the real scumbags of the world.
