You’ve kinda negated your own rebuttal. Yes, liars are prone to embellish, thinking that more details makes things seem ‘more likely’ - rarely is that the case - and it’s usually easy to see the lies are lies. What part of her statement seems outlandish or embellished? What part of her story to you seems like these are ‘false memories’? Do you think it’s possible Fairfax created a false memory of a consensual blowjob? (And why do men think that a woman wanting consensual sex would be happy just giving a blowjob, anyway?)
If you can’t see the difference between what he’s admitted to, vs a ‘I never saw that woman before in my life’, I’m not sure anyone can help you.
In ‘some’ communities, possibly. The majority of society at large will make life a living hell for her. She knows this. We all know this.
<SNIP>
This whole scenario is both utter rubbish and unbelievably condescending.
As someone who did these types of investigations there is a 98.3% chance that after a thorough investigation we will have exactly the same ammount if information as we do now. Now what?
As I said in the Kavanaugh threads, There are some techniques we can use to try and get the truth out of the subject even after many years. Pretty much none of them will work once they are aware of the investigation.
He needs to go. What sucks is that my state will now be completely controlled by the Republicans because of a name drawn from a hat. The last seat in the Assembly was a dead heat which was decided by drawing names. If the Democratic candidate had been drawn, the Assembly would have been 50/50 and the Democrats would be considered the majority because of the Democratic governor. Instead, the Republican’s nae was draw, the Republicans won the Assembly by one seat and now it looks like we will have a Republican governor as well. The best case scenario is either that Herring hangs on (because his case is less egregious and he didn’t lie about it) or that Fairfax resigns, Northam appoints a new Lt. Governor and then resigns. All in all, though, I wonder what is happening in this state. I’ve always been happy with my representatives but I am upset that I voted for these people.
One of these two things will happen. They’re not all three going to resign at once and let the Republicans take over.
I recommend they include at least one woman in the order of succession as they resign/get promoted/fill vacancies. Women rarely do stupid shit like dressing up in blackface or KKK robes, and almost* never sexually assault people.
*That FL story about the woman in local government who was licking men’s necks…who’d’a thunk it?
Mamie Locke should be appointed as LG. Long time state Senator, former mayor of Hampton, plenty of experience, and the chance of blackface or rape is about as low as possible.
As with the other allegations, there most likely will not be any court admissible evidence other than personal testimony. That remains the question, how will past allegations of sexual misconduct involving public figures be dealt with knowing that there will most likely be no definitive evidence?
None of these things should be a factor in evaluating the credibility of a sexual assault victim. Really the only thing that should ever matter is if the accuser has an established history of lying about serious things. Anything else just reinforces the myth of the “perfect victim” and also protects those who are vindictive enough to lie about such a thing yet don’t seem like the “type” to do it.
An investigation may not yield more meaningful information than what has been provided, but it should still be standard procedure for an investigation to happen once allegations of this nature come up.
I don’t have an answer for what should happen once you can’t prove guilt or innocence. This is indeed the tricky part.
It really is a political question. An overwhelming majority of Virginia voters think Northam should resign. And it’s hard to imagine Fairfax would poll any better unless this second woman proves to not be credible. But given that a law firm says they’ve got witnesses who can verify that she told them about the alleged rape back in 2000, it doesn’t seem like the way to bet.
I will say it again for clarity. We have to realize that for the most part an investigation will do nothing. An investigation this long after the fact will most likely not uncover very many undisputible facts. It is possible to prosecute a case for after it happened. It is possible to get a suspect to admit it or to uncover evidence. I have done so. I also didn’t have a suspect with a team of lawyers who already knew what the allegations were. It is extremely unlikely in this case or any similar cases. That doesn’t mean that the handful of people who would be tasked to investigate shouldn’t. Just don’t be unrealistic as to the outcome.
What it does mean is that when allegations come out against political figures the constuents, voters, the American people, need to figure out what they are going to do with the knowledge that most likely it will never go to court. This came up with Kavanaugh. It will most likely come up again. Do you automatically believe the accuser? Do you not let it affect new job of the accused because there is not enough evidence for a charge? Do you pick and choose by political party? Do you go with your gut and base public policy on that?
Just saying wait for the investigation is a cop out. The investigators are not going to tell you what your opinion should be. They are just going to say there’s not enough for a charge. Then what? There’s no reason to not think about it and hope for a conviction. He is still in office. Think about it now.
It is standard procedure if a victim reported to the police. Talking to the press is not reporting to the police. No one can force the victim to cooperate it’s up to her.