printNEW COLUMN is “Mad, #MeToo Matriarchy Ensnared Bill Cosby.” It is currently on WND.COM, The Unz Review, Townhall.com and American Greatness.
Excerpt:
… The same myopic, malfunctioning media are currently choosing to focus on how the Cosby verdict has been overturned on a procedural or technical matter
…. don’t allow the due-process oversight, indubitably important, to distract you from the nub of the matter.
The Cosby prosecution, as I pointed out at the time, rested on he-said, she-said hearsay evidence, on facts that can’t possibly meet the rules of evidence (the ones the United States once abided), or be corroborated for the purposes of a just prosecution, in accordance with the legal standards of Western law (of blessed memory).
The tainted evidence was solicited decades too late, with utter disregard for the statute of limitations. It came from unverified “prior bad act” women (“witnesses”)–unhinged #MeToo hysterics loosed in a court of law–who acted and sounded as though they were demented. Why, even the date of “the crime” could not be established.
The Law must engage in a search for truth. Ultimately, however, courts of law do not deal with what happened. Their judgments must rely on what can be proven to have happened.
Prosecutorial power to bring charges against a person is an awesome power, stress Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton in The Tyranny of Good Intentions. Backing him, the prosecutor has the might of the state, and, consequently, he must never “override the rights of the defendant in order to gain a conviction.”
Prosecutorial duties are dual. While acting as the plaintiff, the prosecutor must also take pains to protect the defendant’s rights.
This is why the #MeToo judicial “philosophy” undergirding the prosecution of Bill Cosby and many other men is so terrifying.
“Always Believe the Victim” is a ditzy, made-in-Hollywood dogma that goes against the stellar Anglo-American common law legal tradition. …
…MORE. NEW COLUMN is “Mad, #MeToo Matriarchy Ensnared Bill Cosby.” It is currently on WND.COM, The Unz Review, Townhall.com and American Greatness.
* Image: Bill Cosby’s accuser, courtesy BBC News. Note that Mr. Cosby is legally blind NOW, but I don’t believe he was blind when he allegedly went for this apparition.
Bill Cosby & Harvey Weinstein are almost in the top five sleaziest guys in Hollywood, but we don’t typically imprison boorish louts for immoral behavior.Immoral is not necessarily illegal.Just like one can’t yell fire in a crowded theater, a prostitute, err, I mean, sex worker, shouldn’t be allowed to yell rape in a crowded brothel.Read the transcripts from both trials.In an alternate universe the ACLU would have filed Friend of the Court briefs in both cases to protect the integrity of our legal system.
Judging by all the comments this fine column is still generating over at Unz, everyone’s got an opinion on this case and they want to be heard. Myself, I can’t say I was ever a fan of Cosby’s humor, politics, or his long association with the (to me) tacky Hugh Hefner, but I found his conviction extremely troubling, for the reasons ilana lists.
I do think Cosby put a target on his back the day he spoke out in criticism of hip-hop behavior in a hip-hop-ascendant world. After that, he was fair game, the first time he stepped on a crack. Thus, the #MeToo crowd had a token sacrifice to show they weren’t completely PC.
A lot of conservatives cheered his conviction. To judge by the comments at Unz, many still think it was a good idea. Me, I think it’s chilling. If a powerful celebrity like Cosby can be taken down so easily, on the basis of the poor evidence summarized in this column, the rest of us are sitting ducks the first time we stray a little too far from acceptable behavior.