Looks Like Cosby May Walk

[Loren Pechtel]

You are older right? Without statute of limitations some women could falsely accuse you of raping them when you were a teenager, what 50 years ago? How would you defend yourself against such allegations?

The same way you would defend yourself if the allegations are made contemporaneously. In fact, it is probably easier, since the likelihood of extant forensic evidence is scant.

After all these years, no witnesses. No crime scene to gather evidence from. It basically comes down to word vs word. I have a hard time with word vs word amounting to proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

Thirty complainants constitutes a pretty strong pattern.

Particularly if they are geographically separated and have not consulted.

Particularly if methods coincide between cases.

One accuser is "he said, she said", 30 is corroborative evidence.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Is it bad that I still enjoy Cosby's old stand up albums?

 

[spikepipsqueak]

I hope not.

I do. And I still find myself humming Tie Me Kangaroo Down and Two Little Boys, on occasion.

Doesn't mean I approve of child molesters.

Identifying the work too much with the performer smacks of 1984.

Nobody should be disappeared.

 

[J842P]

The same way you would defend yourself if the allegations are made contemporaneously. In fact, it is probably easier, since the likelihood of extant forensic evidence is scant.

After all these years, no witnesses. No crime scene to gather evidence from. It basically comes down to word vs word. I have a hard time with word vs word amounting to proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Well, sure, but suppose physical evidence is somehow found (however unlikely that may be) years later? Nothing about the burden of proof changes.

 

[rousseau]

Even if he does walk, karma has ruined the rest of his life. Now he's 'that old creepy dude who raped a bunch of women' instead of 'that old funny, smart dude'.

That's what happens when you do bad things and people find out about it.

 

[rousseau]

Thirty complainants constitutes a pretty strong pattern.

Particularly if they are geographically separated and have not consulted.

Particularly if methods coincide between cases.

One accuser is "he said, she said", 30 is corroborative evidence.

Yea, occam's razor.

Even a truthful accusation is pretty unlikely, given women don't usually want to speak up about things like this. A false accusation much more unlikely.

The odds of 30 women all making false accusations is pretty much nil. The only explanation is that Cosby did exactly what he's being accused of.

 

[thebeave]

Is it bad that I still enjoy Cosby's old stand up albums?

I grew up listening to my brother's Cosby records (Wonderfulness,Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow, Russell, My Brother)... I knew a lot of the material by heart. Noah's Ark, Shop Class, Spanish Fly (heh), Chicken Heart, Tonsils, Cream of Wheat, etc I even named my pet snake, Snakey Lick after a line in the Chicken Heart routine. That was some funny shit, even as a 6 year old kid. What a shame and waste of talent that he turned out to be such a perv.

I asked my brother at Christmas if still had his Cosby records. Still does, but doesn't listen to them anymore.

 

[Derec]

Even a truthful accusation is pretty unlikely, given women don't usually want to speak up about things like this. A false accusation much more unlikely.

Not nearly as unlikely as feminists want us to believe. Tawana Brawley, Crystal Gail Magnum, Wanetta Gibson, Emma Sulkowitz and Jackie Coakley are just some of the better known false accusers.

The odds of 30 women all making false accusations is pretty much nil.

Only if these allegations are independent of each other. Given Cosby is very well known and how long ago these things allegedly happened we cannot be sure of their independence.

The only explanation is that Cosby did exactly what he's being accused of.

It might be the most likely explanation but it is hardly the only one.

In any case, in the criminal case he is not accused of 30 rapes, he is accused of one. And the other 29 allegations cannot be used to push the case past the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard. The case must stand or fall on its own merits.

 

[Axulus]

I don't think there should be a statute of limitations if you've raped 30 people.

Egad, under the law he has not raped anyone until convicted of raping someone.

Non sequitur. He said if. Furthermore, his statement was a general case, not specifically applying to Cosby only.

 

[ZiprHead]

Egad, you've got to remember he pretty much admitted to doing it in his deposition in the civil case. The prosecutor made the mistake of using in the criminal case the deposition that had been agreed to being off-limits. Cosby's a fucking POS rapist.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

To be fair, he admitted to drugging women, then having sex with them, and thinking that he could tell who consented through body language afterward, but he never came out and said, "I raped those 50* women."


* It's actually 50, not 30. My mistake for writing 30 before.

 

[ZiprHead]

To be fair, I said "pretty much admitted".

What kind of sick bastard wants to screw what is basically a warm corpse?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Thirty complainants constitutes a pretty strong pattern.

Particularly if they are geographically separated and have not consulted.

Particularly if methods coincide between cases.

One accuser is "he said, she said", 30 is corroborative evidence.

Yea, occam's razor.

Even a truthful accusation is pretty unlikely, given women don't usually want to speak up about things like this. A false accusation much more unlikely.

The odds of 30 women all making false accusations is pretty much nil. The only explanation is that Cosby did exactly what he's being accused of.

Or one made an accusation and others who didn't like him for some reason joined in. Or joined in in hopes of a financial settlement.

Multiple truly independent accusations mean something, other accusations once one has become public--especially against a high profile figure--don't mean a lot.

 

[laughing dog]

Or one made an accusation and others who didn't like him for some reason joined in. Or joined in in hopes of a financial settlement.

Multiple truly independent accusations mean something, other accusations once one has become public--especially against a high profile figure--don't mean a lot.

Only under the assumption those subsequent accusations are not independent. Ever hear of the phrase "safety in numbers"?

 

[Bronzeage]

To be fair, I said "pretty much admitted".

What kind of sick bastard wants to screw what is basically a warm corpse?

Why do people shoot birds on a baited field or fish with dynamite?

When a man(I suppose the same could be said for a woman) sees himself not as a lover, but as a predator, and his sexual partner as a conquest, alcohol, quaaludes, and other drugs, are just another weapon in the arsenal. The thrill is not in the sex, but in the conquest.

It is kind of strange that no women have come forward and said something to the effect, "I had sex with Bill Cosby in 1973. He was a passionate and considerate lover and we parted as friends."

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Or one made an accusation and others who didn't like him for some reason joined in. Or joined in in hopes of a financial settlement.

Multiple truly independent accusations mean something, other accusations once one has become public--especially against a high profile figure--don't mean a lot.

Only under the assumption those subsequent accusations are not independent. Ever hear of the phrase "safety in numbers"?

You are explaining why they do it, not how much evidentiary value we should attach to their actions.

 

[laughing dog]

Only under the assumption those subsequent accusations are not independent. Ever hear of the phrase "safety in numbers"?

You are explaining why they do it, not how much evidentiary value we should attach to their actions.

No, I am not. If they are credible (i.e. independent) it establishes a pattern of a predator.

 

[dismal]

Egad, under the law he has not raped anyone until convicted of raping someone.

Non sequitur. He said if. Furthermore, his statement was a general case, not specifically applying to Cosby only.

There isn't a difference between "raping 30 people" and "having been convicted of raping 30 people"?

If not, Cosby must not have raped 30 people.

Or maybe you are attempting the argument that he accidentally made the comment in a thread about Cosby not intending it to apply to the discussion about Cosby?

Assuming this is still a thread about Cosby my point stands. UNDER THE LAW, Cosby has not raped anyone until he has been convicted of raping someone. A comment about "statute of limitations" is a comment about the law.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

A comment about "statute of limitations" is a comment about the law.

A comment about what the law should be instead of how it is, is a comment about what the law should be instead of what it is. Appealing to what the law currently is as an answer to what the law should be is a non-sequitur just as Axulus wrote:

Non sequitur.