MIXED MESSAGES - PART 1
Me too.
Time’s up. Two sentences. Four words. Decades in the making. Millions of
victims too late. The movement has really started to take hold as celebrities
in the movie and theatre industry begin to speak out about the vile, entrenched
culture of corruption in those industries. They have access to the media. They
have a means to share their experiences so that their voices will be heard.
Their allegations have spread across the world and forced authorities to listen
to demands for positive change.
There are
now women coming forward to add their support, many of them the victims of the
very same predators. They’ve been forced to remain silent for decades,
individuals isolated and silenced by those who are meant to protect and help
them, but who instead helped conceal and enable predators, crime, systemic
failure and injustice. They’ve been denied access to legal outcomes they cannot
access let alone afford because laws, policies and procedures circumvent
justice.
Hundreds,
thousands of women have been bullied, harassed, brutalised, raped and worse by
men who did what they did because they could, and nobody would stop them. The
media has finally begun to help expose the horror not because of any moral
obligations or desire to help, but because the stories they print are making
their companies money. But while there is all manner of public outrage and
community anger driving a demand for politicians to actually affect positive
change…
…it is only
the tip of the brimstone. Politicians and other celebrities have got on board
with the same old empty, opportunistic rhetoric. Promises to take action have
less weight than the predators and other freelance trolls – inflicting themselves
on those who support the movement – desperate to restore the code of silence
that allows them to bully, harass, brutalise, rape and intimidate young women
and those who might try to defend the victims or expose the predators.
But, worse
than that, these celebrities seem to be under the impression that they are the
only victims. That they have suffered hardships no others must struggle to
overcome. Somehow, what is being done to them is an isolated incident. That’s
the same response every other victim gets from the police and others who are
supposed to help the victims. “This is an isolated incident,” they are
informed, “there’s not enough evidence to warrant an investigation.”
How do you
know it’s an isolated incident? How do you know what all the evidence is
without an investigation? How do you know what any of the evidence is when you
refuse to listen to the victim? How do you know anything when you not only
refuse to let a victim make an official complaint, but make no effort to even
record their attempt to make an official complaint? How can we believe the
accused, no matter how unhinged their excuse, and help them brand victims liars
(to discredit their testimony) without even considering what the victims have
said?
Harvey
Weinstein. Kevin Spacey. Craig McLachlan. In each case the defence argues there
were no complaints made at the time. In each case, many victims argue that when
they got the courage to come forward, their complaints were ignored. Nothing
was done. No action was taken. The authorities insist there is no evidence
anyone made a complaint… even when there are recorded communications and
witnesses proving otherwise.
Now, imagine
what it’s like for members of the public who are not celebrities. People who
have no money or means to get their stories into the media because their story
is not a commodity of value to the media. Imagine what it’s like to be a young
woman, violated, threatened, isolated and silenced by the very people who are
supposed to help her. Imagine what it’s like to be a kid. Now imagine what life
is like, decades later, struggling with the life-altering hell inflicted on
that victim.
Now imagine
that same young woman or kid, trying to add their voice to the ‘me too’
movement, having the courage, after all those years, to share their
experiences… only to have some fuckwit bully them into silence all over again.
Accusing the victim of being a liar. Was that fuckwit there? How do they know
what happened? If they have evidence to disprove what a victim is saying, take
it to the police, report it in an official statement, or they should shut the
hell up.
Why are
these vindictive trolls allowed to bully the victims without any fear of
deterrent, no fear of legal action for slander and defamation? A victim is
threatened with that by their abuser before they even try to reveal what
happened to them, and even by the police, public servants, media and lawyers
they ask for help. But a predator? No, only the accused is afforded the
presumption of innocence. The burden of proof is on the victim, hurdles that
get increasingly higher every time they manage to clear one, and their abuser
makes sure they have no means to prove enough, or even any of it.
But now we
have this ‘me too’ and ‘time’s up’ movement. It’s like the shocking revelations
about the rampant paedophilia and cover-up in the Churches that allowed it to
be inflicted on thousands of children… for decades. That triggered a Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child (Sexual) Abuse. One in which
the majority ‘Christian’ politicians set the Terms of Reference to ensure it
avoided exposing the true scale of the evil perpetuated in our society.
The
investigators refused to allow submissions that constituted ‘family violence’
even when the abusers were step-parents, parents that had abandoned their
children, or authorities that had failed or refused to do their jobs to protect
the victims, investigate the crimes, and prosecute the offenders. Those same
investigators also refused to investigate the systemic failures in the police
and public services because those institutions were ‘outside the scope’ of the
Terms of Reference.
But now
there’s rumours that children who were Wards of the State will now be able to
submit reports about what they suffered while in foster care… although the
Terms of Reference appear to be along a similar format to ensure there is no
investigation of police and public service failures. And, of course, no
investigation into correspondence between victims and politicians who not only
were made aware of these systemic failures, but responded in a manner that
ensured the victims remained silent.
What makes
people behave this way? At what point do they suddenly decide a victim must be
isolated and silenced and the predators concealed and enabled? How do they get
into the police, public services, politics and private organisations that are
supposed to protect and help victims? How do they remain there for so long
without being exposed? How can decades pass before politicians are forced to
take at least some token form of action to affect positive change?
While I
was writing this month’s blog post, three news articles really lit-up the
internet, as if to prove the points made here. The first was what Craig
McLachlan had been (allegedly) doing, how he got away with it through the
(alleged) protection and assistance of the Gordon Frost Organisation. The
testimony of the (alleged) victims is compelling, yet they are not afforded the
presumption of innocence, and are instead branded liars by people who have no
evidence to disprove their allegations.
The second
was the (alleged) abuse, starvation, torture and other vile horrors inflicted
on the Turpin children by their parents in California. Despite the evidence,
again, only the accused are afforded the presumption of innocence. The third
was the case against Larry Nassar, who systematically sexually abused
potentially hundreds (we’ll never know exactly how many) of young girls over a
period of at least sixteen years, and how he was able to do so with the help of
his employer and supervisors.
In every
case, these (alleged) offenders claimed their innocence, launching a campaign
of defamation to discredit the testimony of their (alleged) victims combined
with threats of legal action to intimidate the (alleged) victims into
maintaining their silence. In every case, the authorities, who were supposed to
protect and help the (alleged) victims, claimed they were unaware of the
allegations, that nobody made a complaint, despite contrary evidence and their
efforts to silence the victims through defamation and or intimidation. These
are the standard tactics of predators.
When I
read and watched these reports, I knew exactly how the victims felt. The
crushing fear, shame and guilt, that this is all your fault, that you somehow
deserved it, that you have no power to do anything to protect yourself or the
other victims, the helplessness of having to be complicit in every other crime
your abusers commit because the authorities not only refuse to help, but
reinforce the same threats and defamatory allegations your abusers made against
you.
Then there was a fourth story, about a cop that
actually did his damn job that led to a rotten ex-cop being convicted of murder,
and the outcome of the Larry Nassar case. Larry Nassar was found guilty and
sentenced to 175 years prison. The sentencing of that predator was possibly the
most profound and uplifting outcome of modern times, touted as a defining
moment that changed the course of our society and heralded a new age of justice
and dignity for victims of abuse inflicted on children. I doubt it. This was
just one more grab for fame by authorities making the most of empty,
opportunistic rhetoric.
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