this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 218 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

WOW the number of people in this thread immediately jumping to the accusers being "false" and deserving jail. Because no actual sexual predator ever got away with it in court...

(Sex crimes are extraordinarily difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt because the actions are taken in private without a lot of physical evidence. Which sexual predators rely on to get away with their crimes, by the way.)

Perhaps we should review the sheer volume of young men from all over the US & UK reporting that Spacey was at best inappropriate with them. One of the youngest being 14 years old:

https://people.com/tv/kevin-spacey-controversy-timeline/

And just in case some of us need a refresher course, the rate of false rape accusations is low:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21164210/

And the rate of sexual assault is high:

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/fastfact.html

[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Indeed. In a thread a couple of days back on a different (though related) subject I was accused of being a rape apologist because I was insistent on the presumption of innocence and the beyond-reasonable-doubt standards that need to be overcome when accusations like this are slung. But it works the same in the other direction too - we can't assume that an accuser is guilty of fraud or libel or filing false reports or whatever just because they failed to prove their case.

It would not be good for justice if these situations ended up being "now that the accusation has been made someone is going to go to jail, either the accused or the accuser." The Thunderdome is not a good model to emulate.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

accused of being a rape apologist because I was insistent on the presumption of innocence

Good thing to insist on, but be prudent. Keep in mind that, at least on reddit, there's a tendency for every thread about rape to become a thread about false accusations. I wasn't there, but in general, sometimes people object not to the presumption of innocence but to people bringing it up.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah this whole thing isn't simple. Even if he's cleared of charges, these allegations are old and that makes them hard to prove or disprove.

Further, the quantity is concerning. Maybe he's just prolifically sexual but my gut can't really get passed how many accusations there are over such a long span of time. Even if innocent, still creepy is my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In general, any multimillionaire that gets off of a serious charge doesn't mean they're innocent.

It just another example of having ridiculous amounts of money in our legal system means it's really hard to be hel accountable.

Hell, trump got off of beating and raping his wife, because of an old ass New York law that said a husband can't rape his wife under any circumstance.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

In general, any multimillionaire that gets off of a serious charge doesn’t mean they’re innocent.

Don't forget the flip-side of that - the prisons are full of poor people who do not deserve to be there. It's almost as if the system was designed to be like this...

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

the quantity is concerning

And also not admissible in a criminal court. That's part of the problem. If you look at the big picture, it's obvious he did it, but it's not as easy to prove it in criminal court.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Even if it were all legally fine, something is wrong if that many people are coming forward.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yet suggest Pee-wee Herman is creepy and you get downvoted. Even though without question he was caught with illegal material.