The Hammer comes down:
Sexual abuse accusations
UToo is no longer about an Irish band
By Linda Hammerschmid
It’s 2018, do they really believe they can still get away with it?
Doubtful. Yet it mystifies me every time I read or hear about people, from every walk of life, who do the unthinkable, or even the risky, and believe no one will ever ferret out the truth.
If orange is the new black, and 0 is the new 6, is sexual abuse the newest fad? No disrespect to anyone who was actually sexually molested, but the floodgate that seems to have been opened in 2017, thanks to men like Harvey Weinstein, appears to have been holding back an ocean of complaints against an ocean of transgressors.
In this day and age of no more privacy given social media, investigative journalists worth their salt, drones, hackers – the list is endless – why does anyone actually think no one else will figure it out, or talk?
From politicians disgraced to ousted celebrity royals to sports coaches to class action lawsuits (Granby school latest site where 70 students have launched such an action), this pandemic is reaching far and wide into the stratosphere.
… it mystifies me every time I read or hear about people… who do the unthinkable, or even the risky, and believe no one will ever ferret out the truth.
Be it the famous or the infamous, men like Nassar, Trump, Piven (I was actually sad about this one as I liked Wisdom of the Crowd), each of whom believed (or believe) that they didn’t have to temper their urges because of their power.
The Harvey Weinsteins and Larry Nassars of the world carried on unchecked in their sexual abusiveness until someone (or many ‘someones’) finally decided to out them. The proliferation of so many ‘old’ accusations against numerous ‘assailants’ is troubling in many ways, however, that is fodder for a future article.
Also mystifying however are elected politicians who utter ridiculous comments only to scramble in their apologies once their utterances go viral, and viral they always go. One would think a politician who is, by the very nature of the position, always in the public eye, would think before spewing racist/abusive/sexist or stupid remarks. But alas no, the incidents of these daily spillages just keep coming and coming, like the Ever Ready Bunny, with it seems no end in sight. “Stupid is as stupid (says)”.
‘Because most such abuse is not reported. That’s how, at least until now, that these men have been able to continue unchecked.’
Now it is true that the public has become overly politically correct – in my view – and saying anything will land the speaker in hot water with someone. But overt sexual comments and actions – how does the politician or the celebrity think they will not be called out on them? Because most such abuse is not reported. That’s how, at least until now, that these men have been able to continue unchecked. This is evidenced by how long it took the Weinstein, Nassar and Cosby groups to come forward. And the Spacey and Piven revelations – some date from 1995.
These incidents are not reported for a myriad of reasons. Fear of reprisal, belief no one will believe (the he said, she said debate) shame, fault (the victim’s) and so on.
One of the latest to be felled is Larry Nassar. And he took with him the Michigan State Athletic Director because of his handling (more like non handling) of the numerous allegations against the former U.S. gymnastics (USAG) doctor, Larry Nassar.
After impassioned testimony by 156 women, Nassar was convicted of abusing them, and despite a Plea deal of 25-40 years, Judge Aquilina, infuriated by the case, gave him instead 175 years. This is in addition to the 60 years he is already serving for child pornography. What a prince!
‘But when Judges are meting out punishment, objectivity should be key. Judge Aquilina is anything but objective… I predict an Appeal.’
Yet while the victims are vindicated, and much of the public is happy with the sentence, I have some issues with it.
Firstly, the Judge seems to have been grandstanding for Court TV, some say in hopes of a Judge Judy-like career to come. By adding into her Judgment, “I have signed your death warrant”, her impartiality is put into serious question, particularly as that egregious and final punishment is not supposed to be the maximum for this type of crime. Yes, the math could support the 175 years. It is the equivalent of 1.12 years per victim x 156, which, looked at individually, seems too lenient.
But when Judges are meting out punishment, objectivity should be key. Judge Aquilina is anything but objective, be it in her remarks at trial or in this sentence. I predict an Appeal.
But what we, the general public, also need to be wary of are those people who get swept up in the waves of accusations made by others and who want to join in regardless of the truth. It’s called “mass psychogenic or sociogenic illness”.
‘But what we… also need to be wary of are those people who get swept up in the waves of accusations made by others and who want to join in regardless of the truth.’
Usually related to physical illness, like food poisoning, with sociogenic hysteria a mass of people start to exhibit symptoms of epidemic hysteria that can start with a nervous system disturbance having no organic cause. So when thousands of peoples’ thoughts on sexual harassment are pooled together via social media, there is a tendency to create a climate that proliferates such accusations due to mass hysteria.
Sure there are genuine victims of sexual abuse out there and they deserve justice. But when people jump on that wagon train, particularly in relation to, as one article put it (by Brendan O’Neill in the Chicago Tribune, November 28, 2017), 30 and 40 year old allegations which are older than half the world’s population, we need to be very vigilant of the veracity of the allegations and the motives that foster their appearance decades after the fact.
Image: maren. via StockPholio.com
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and do not reflect the opinions of WestmountMag.ca, its publishers or editors.
Read also: The Hammer comes down: The death of privacy
Me Linda Hammerschmid is an attorney and has been practicing Family Law since 1982. She is the Senior Partner at Hammerschmid & Associates at 1 Westmount Square, Suite 1290. She is a founding and current member, and past Secretary (28 years) of The Family Law Association of Quebec. She is a frequent guest on CBC TV/Radio, CTV and CJAD, providing commentary on Family Law.
You can also hear her regularly on the CJAD show ‘Passion’ with Dr. Laurie Betito, the last Thursday of each month. She and her dog Mac are members of Therapeutic Paws giving joy to the less fortunate. Me Hammerschmid can be reached at (514) 846-1013 or by e-mail at hammerschmid@vif.com. All inquiries will be treated confidentially.
what is an inappropriate sexual comment? Is it a comment on a woman’s dress? Her smile? As in, “you look like you’re in a good mood today”?
what about that comment a few weeks back, when a politician made an offhand remark, how himself and two others together at the time were not his idea of a threesome, in his words? It may not have been what he would say in front of his mother, but it’s the sort of thing you either return or ignore. It certainly isn’t worth literally making a federal case about, as was done.
When some anonymous complaint, not even naming a victim, let alone detailing the nature of the incident become grounds for suspension, as in the case of Mr. Weir, then we are in the deep end of a witch hunt.
Are we going to ban Sleeping Beauty because the kiss was not consensual ?
NASSAR TO GET ANOTHER SENTENCE Monday Feb 5/18.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/us/larry-nassar-sentence-eaton/index.html
Thank you Philip Mann for your comment.
Linda H
An interesting and topical article, Me. Hammerschmid. But I wish you had further developed the problems you alluded to in the latter part of your article.
The “me too” movement has rightfully unearthed some egregious sexual abuses which were buried by the previous culture of silence; however, increasingly, the anonymity of complainants, and the harmlessness of the actions complained about, have swung the pendulum wildly too far in the other direction. One or even two clumsy and inappropriate comments do not constitute sexual abuse. And if there are women who are too dainty to call a man on such comments, it is their problem, not his. (Really! How many wilting Victorian demoiselles still exist? I’m a senior citizen, and there weren’t many alive even when I was young.)
These complaints not only blacken the reputation of perhaps clumsy but innocent men, but, by their blatant silliness, imperil the importance of the movement and, in fact, threaten to bring the legal system itself into disrepute.
Barbara, I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
I agree that much more could be said, but my piece was meant to encourage discourse on the topic. It wasn’t a book, although perhaps one needs to be written to balance the scales.