No one is saying it’s impossible that he misidentified it. In fact, people are repeatedly saying "no one is saying it’s impossible."The question is why is it reasonable to assume he must have, or alternatively, why so many of us are willfully ignoring the possibility that he didn’t.
It’s possible. It’s been repeatedly acknowledged that it’s possible. Next?
Sure. It’s also possible the singer is member of the lizard overlords who invented the incident as a cover for nefarious lizard dealings.
But chances are this dude saw what he claimed he saw.
Can someone explain why the crowded subway is not a good analogy? When I get on a jam packed train, I know that there will be times when my breasts and butt will be touching other people. And those people would probably prefer I didn’t get on and crowd them more, but I subject them to this accidental touching because I have my own agenda. And like crowd surfing, riding the train is not normally a sexual act.
It’s a pretty good metaphors- getting on the crowded train is a totally optional act that is normal for the context. It is often leads to unintentional brushing of intimate areas. But the expectation is that this touching will be limited to what’s necessary to get the job done, and will not cross the line into sexual assault.
Where doesn’t the metaphor hold up?
It’s more like ordering the soup, and having some asshole sadist give you a soup made of dog barf so that he can masterbate to your discomfort when you dig in.
Well, he’s a musician, so there’s a decent possibility that he hallucinated the whole thing. Or that he’s so brain damaged from previous drug use that he’s basically non-functional as an actual human being. But assuming that he’s reasonably sober and not a total idiot, no, I don’t think there’s much chance of that happening. He’s a professional musician, with decades of touring experience, who’s seen thousands of people crowd surf. I think it’s vastly more likely that what he saw was something extremely overt and protracted.
What I don’t understand is the relevance of this question. No individual has been named in connection with this incident, so there’s no question of someone’s guilt or innocence. No one has taken the position that putting your hand on someone’s ass to hold them up while they crowd surf should be considered sexual assault, so there’s no actual debate over what constitutes sexual assault here. Neither has anyone taken the position that sexual assault never happens to crowd surfers, so there’s no debate over whether this is a real problem. The sole issue that’s been keeping this thread going for the last couple days is, “Can Aaron Lewis tell his ass from a hole in the ground,” and I can’t for the life of me figure out why any of you give a shit. Is there a chance that this guy is a fuck-up who imagined the whole thing? Maybe! Who cares?
For me, it’s a morality thing (surprise, surprise). Assuming that he saw what he said he saw is the morally correct action here. The one reason we usually have to consider not taking a molestation charge seriously is absent here. There is no one who might be damaged by the false accusation, since he didn’t identify anyone. So the only downside is that the guy might be more highly thought of that he should be. The upside is that we don’t belittle a molestation claim, making it harder for such to be made and taken seriously. The upside is much stronger than the outside.
Also, frankly, I’m okay with the threat, because it was just a threat. He didn’t do it. He just scared them a little. And, when someone has the morality where “If I don’t get caught, it’s okay,” fear is a pretty good motivator.
Cops lie all the time in order to scare criminals into doing what they want. As long as you don’t cross the line into illegal activity, I have a hard time getting worked up over it. Heck, the cops bother me more, since they are likely less sure that anything happened and might be scaring an innocent person.
First, there’s nothing accidental about the contact made crowd surfing: you’re telling someone support my body weight or have it fall on you. Second, unless you ride very different subways, the contact in my experience is not made by out stretched hands grabbing a portion of your body.
I’ve heard and read stories about Japanese men on trains and subways who deliberately grope women in full view of everyone, and that some areas have women-only areas for this reason. Is that true?
Iggy admitted that women were the worst offenders. That’s kind of hot.