Bill Cosby - how is this possible?

[Castel]

YOU BEAST! That would lead to like 15-20 more of these that we'd have to put up with...

NSFW

http://s1336.photobucket.com/user/Lumpy67/media/kardashian13f-1-web_zps5db2f06e.jpg.html

Honestly, just going by that cover...I'm not sure I mind :leaving:

[The Fallen]

This is what I tell my wealthy player friends in the west: protect the shit out of yourself, anytime you have sex, only do it with women you trust, get them to meet your friends, get your interaction noticed, always keep in the back of your mind that someday you might need to prove that your interaction was consensual. Gods help you if you are famous and promiscuous with edgy sex preferences: any woman with vengeance/greed on her mind has the ability to destroy your life, if not through court, then through internet vigilantes willing to believe her because she's female.

As examplified in this thread.

Seriously terrible time to be a rich/famous player in the west.

Whatever happened to letting a 1000 criminals escape but not let 1 innocent become convicted?

I too have little faith in the system in always finding and convicting offenders. But is it not the only system we have? Why resort to internet vigilanteism, dogpiling and not giving the accused benefit of the doubt, when instead the focus should be to improve the system?

This is pretty funny stuff. Like Larry stated earlier, all these "players in the west" (whatever that means) do exactly what you mention. Athletes in the U.S. have women in every city that they hook up with when in town. Hollywood actors and actresses can have all the sex partners their hearts desire, and guess what? They do.

According to you, our courts should be tied up with sexual assault cases and the internet should be awash in accusations of sexual assault. That's clearly not happening.

Are there women capable of blackmailing a wealthy male with a sexual assault accusation? Of course; no one is disputing that. But this fiction you've created about a black market dealing in false sexual assault accusations is rubbish. I mean, even professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez, who's allegedly paid off witnesses to his steroid usage, and is a well-known playboy, doesn't have any allegations of sexual assault. You figure he would have been a ripe target for these internet bandidas.

[Prince Alexander]

I absolutely realize that false accusations are extremely rare.

But it takes just 1 to ruin an innocent man's life.

And taking precautions against that 1 in a million is important. Celebs these days are smarter and better protected (see kanye's proverbial bulletproof condoms). But their status is a huge risk. I feel quite abit safer being poor and unknown.

Mormont, what you say is absolutely true, and common sense, but also besides the point, no?

Ps:

I'm not saying Cosby is innocent. But is it not the cornerstone of justice, to doubt as long as there is reasonable doubt? 12 angry men and all that

[TrueMetis]

While I realize witness testimony is the lowest form of evidence 20 people saying basically the same thing beats reasonable doubt. Reasonable doubt has left the fucking building and wants nothing to do with Bill Cosby.

[Seli]

I absolutely realize that false accusations are extremely rare.

But it takes just 1 to ruin an innocent man's life.

Really? And even if we do need to care about these poor (powerful) men, how likely is that to happen? Since even likely rapists seem to do quite fine. It is not like Kobe Bryant lost his career after the case went away, just to name one high profile example.

[Roose Seal]

Yeah rape accusations ruin the life of the rich and powerful.
It's not like you can be arrested for unlawful sex with a minor, plead guilty and then flee to another country and go on to have a very successful career as a movie director, win academy awards, lifetime achievement awards, make big box office hits, then when justice finally catches up with you 30 some years later pay bail of $4.5M and only get a few months of house arrest.

That would certainly never happened.

[karaddin]

Even just false rape accusations destroy rich men's lives, which is why an actual conviction and prison time totally destroyed Mike Tyson's career. Oh wait no it didn't.

[TerraPrime]

Yeah rape accusations ruin the life of the rich and powerful.

It's not like you can be arrested for unlawful sex with a minor, plead guilty and then flee to another country and go on to have a very successful career as a movie director, win academy awards, lifetime achievement awards, make big box office hits, then when justice finally catches up with you 30 some years later pay bail of $4.5M and only get a few months of house arrest.

That would certainly never happened.

Is that Roman Polanski or Woody Allen?

[mormont]

I absolutely realize that false accusations are extremely rare.

But it takes just 1 to ruin an innocent man's life.

And it just takes one genuine rape to ruin an innocent person's life. But unfortunately, they are not that rare. So, my point is, if you're going to take the time to warn your 'player' friends about something, it makes much more sense to warn them about their own behaviour, doesn't it?

Far from being 'beside the point', it's very much on point. Because on purely statistical grounds alone, before we even examine the specifics, it is much more likely that Cosby is guilty than that he has been falsely accused, simpy because false accusation is much rarer than genuine rape.

I'm not saying Cosby is innocent. But is it not the cornerstone of justice, to doubt as long as there is reasonable doubt? 12 angry men and all that

Were we the jury, this would be relevant. We're not, so this is a much better example of something that's 'beside the point'.

[polishgenius]

Even just false rape accusations destroy rich men's lives, which is why an actual conviction and prison time totally destroyed Mike Tyson's career. Oh wait no it didn't.

Let's be fair: it did. Not immediately, because there were still people wanting to make money off him, but the time in prison clearly affected him mentally and the knowledge of being a convicted rapist only added to the brutal image of him which made it difficult for people to see him as a person who desperately needed help, which in hindsight was obviously the case. So his life went down the shitter for a long while.

He certainly doesn't belong in the same category as a Polanski or Allen or whoever.

[YellowDogJen]

Let's be fair: it did. Not immediately, because there were still people wanting to make money off him, but the time in prison clearly affected him mentally and the knowledge of being a convicted rapist only added to the brutal image of him which made it difficult for people to see him as a person who desperately needed help, which in hindsight was obviously the case. So his life went down the shitter for a long while.

He certainly doesn't belong in the same category as a Polanski or Allen or whoever.

I'm no expert on Mike Tyson. I don't see how his life went "down the shitter", though (and if it did, so what? He raped an 18 year old girl.) I was disgusted by his teensy sentence to Boy's School (aka Indiana Youth Center - oooooooh, that is tough!) He served 3 years of a 6 year sentence. And then...

"After being paroled from prison, Tyson easily won his comeback bouts against Peter McNeeley and Buster Mathis Jr.. Tyson's first comeback fight grossed more than US$96 million worldwide, including a United States record $63 million for PPV television. The fight was purchased by 1.52 million homes, setting both PPV viewership and revenue records.^[74] The 89-second fight elicited criticism that Tyson's management lined up "tomato cans" to ensure easy victories for his return.^[75]TV Guide included the Tyson-McNeeley fight in their list of the 50 Greatest TV Sports Moments of All Time in 1998.^{[76]" - Wikipedia}

Seems to me Mike Tyson did just fine. He should have been shunned for life, but everyone just seemed to forget about the rape thing and he went right back to fighting and raking in the money.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

I'm not sure about the chronology, but at some point his agent, Don King, stole most of his money, and Tyson was got addicted to heroin.

[Ormond]

Is that Roman Polanski or Woody Allen?

Terra, if it's one of those two it has to be Roman Polanski.

As far as I know Woody Allen has never been legally charged with any such offense. The only accusation I know of made against him was by his then very young stepdaughter and there really is a good bit of evidence that she was coached and manipulated by her angry mother into doing so. Among the wealthy famous men accused of sexual assault, he is one of the most likely to actually be innocent of the charge.

I think that Woody Allen's starting an affair with his present wife while he was married to her mother is disgusting. But Soon-Yi Previn was nineteen years old when the affair began and his relationship with her has always been consensual and legal, even if morally questionable.

[polishgenius]

Seems to me Mike Tyson did just fine. He should have been shunned for life, but everyone just seemed to forget about the rape thing and he went right back to fighting and raking in the money.

Well he didn't. He became a complete mess and most of the money he was earning was for other people.

I'm not saying he didn't deserve to have trouble for it, although some of the shit he's had in his life (before and after) I wouldn't wish on anyone, but Karradin implied that he skated off consequence-free after the jail, and that just never happened.

Compare to Floyd Mayweather- he's never been accused of rape, as far as I've heard, but he is a repeatedly convicted batterer of women and that just gets brushed under the carpet; I'd be unsurprised if most casual fans aren't even aware of that fact.

[Roose Seal]

Terra, if it's one of those two it has to be Roman Polanski.

As far as I know Woody Allen has never been legally charged with any such offense. The only accusation I know of made against him was by his then very young stepdaughter and there really is a good bit of evidence that she was coached and manipulated by her angry mother into doing so. Among the wealthy famous men accused of sexual assault, he is one of the most likely to actually be innocent of the charge.

I think that Woody Allen's starting an affair with his present wife while he was married to her mother is disgusting. But Soon-Yi Previn was nineteen years old when the affair began and his relationship with her has always been consensual and legal, even if morally questionable.

I'm pretty sure TP was being facetious because Woody Allen is yet another "wealthy player" whose life was absolutely ruined not ruined by false accusations.

[Seventh Pup]

Terra, if it's one of those two it has to be Roman Polanski.

As far as I know Woody Allen has never been legally charged with any such offense. The only accusation I know of made against him was by his then very young and stepdaughter there really is a good bit of evidence that she was coached and manipulated by her angry mother into doing so. Among the wealthy famous men accused of sexual assault, he is one of the most likely to actually be innocent of the charge.

I think that Woody Allen's starting an affair with his present wife while he was married to her mother is disgusting. But Soon-Yi Previn was nineteen years old when the affair began and his relationship with her has always been consensual and legal, even if morally questionable.

What evidence is there? I am asking this honestly. Did Mia Farrow have a history of coaching her children to make false accusations? Woody Allen obviously had a history of being sexually attracted to his step daughters, so I am wondering what good piece of evidence would make you believe that Mia Farrow would traumatize her daughter by coaching her into believing she was sexually assaulted.

[Littlefingers In The Air]

I hear what PA is saying but honestly, I'd rather focus on teaching men to keep their own actions in check. I can't tell y'all how many times my buddies in Kent bought some tipsy or outright drunk woman back to the dorm room for me to mess around with. I can tell you how many times I did it, though: zero. Zero action on my part is as good a way as any to stay safe.

And the bonus is my buddies don't do this anymore, because as we've discussed and as they now understand, a drunk person ain't able to give consent. And being a minority, it'd be even more hell if it's a drunk white woman. "That monstrous negro took advantage of that poor, defenseless white woman." Nope.

[Littlefingers In The Air]

As for PA's point about feeling safer because of being poor and unknown, that's fine. But I sure as hell don't feel safer. I feel more on edge because if I'm falsely accused of anything, there will probably be no national story to put the facts out there and clear my name. Meanwhile, the locals would condemn me in the court of public opinion before I ever had a chance to prove my innocence. Fuck that shit.

[zelticgar]

Terra, if it's one of those two it has to be Roman Polanski.

As far as I know Woody Allen has never been legally charged with any such offense. The only accusation I know of made against him was by his then very young stepdaughter and there really is a good bit of evidence that she was coached and manipulated by her angry mother into doing so. Among the wealthy famous men accused of sexual assault, he is one of the most likely to actually be innocent of the charge.

I think that Woody Allen's starting an affair with his present wife while he was married to her mother is disgusting. But Soon-Yi Previn was nineteen years old when the affair began and his relationship with her has always been consensual and legal, even if morally questionable.

I dont get how people can view Allen's actions as less horrible than Polanski's. Legally Allen skates but he is really no different than Cosby in my view. There seems to be enough reasonable evidence between multiple accusations and he actions with Soon-Yi. Even if you look at the legality of what Cosby is accused of there is probably not much that he could be charged with right now. In my view Cosby and Allen are in the same camp - lots of accusations with enough smoke to probably mean there is fire.

[Castel]

I dont get how people can view Allen's actions as less horrible than Polanski's. Legally Allen skates but he is really no different than Cosby in my view. There seems to be enough reasonable evidence between multiple accusations and he actions with Soon-Yi. Even if you look at the legality of what Cosby is accused of there is probably not much that he could be charged with right now. In my view Cosby and Allen are in the same camp - lots of accusations with enough smoke to probably mean there is fire.

The difference is that there's one main accusation against Allen- to my knowledge. And one indubitable,yet not illegal, "sin". As we saw during the Oscar campaign if you can cast enough doubt on any one incident it has a chilling effect.

I've yet to see the sort of knock-down, drag-out fights about what exactly happened with Cosby as we did with Allen. And, even if there were, it's much harder to cast doubt on everyone.