Welcome to the human nature channel. I’m you’re host Alex Tamsula and what am I doing
here? What I’m doing is another 2 minutes and 20 seconds with Alex, this time some
thoughts on The Judge Kavanaugh hearings and The MeToo Movement.
The street protesters tell us all victims of sexual assault need to be believed. Well I have a problem with the word ‘believed’. I not sure I know what it means in this context. If I’m law enforcement and a woman came to me with an account of sexual assault, I would take her seriously, I might even say, “I believe you.” But when it comes to the process of an investigation, or of a prosecutor building a case and winning it at trial, belief
has little to do with it. It’s about the evidence.
The word ‘believed’ sounds like a leap of faith. If I were a cop, the first question I’d ask is: “Was alcohol involved?” If the answer is ‘yes’ I’d be thinking, I’ve got my work cut-out for me.
Let’s consider how the MeToo moment got its start. It wasn’t about girls being sexually assaulted on college campuses. It was about powerful men in the entertainment and the broadcast industries accused of pressuring women for sex, with the implied threat that her career is at risk if she didn’t put out. Then there’s Cosby, which sounds like one step up from necrophilia, but it’s still the same case with women afraid of reporting him. MeToo was about powerful men behaving like stinking aristocrats. How do we get from that to what Judge Kavanaugh was accused of?
Risky behavior. If I say Carson Street and you live in Pittsburgh, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Lots of bars, crowds of people drinking every weekend. A few years
back there was a South Side rapist who preyed upon women
that had been drinking on Carson Street, and this criminal was probably shrewd enough to realize that a woman who had been totally plotzed will have a tougher time IDing an assailant.
Memory can be notoriously unreliable under the best of circumstance. Prosecuting attorneys will tell you that. If a woman has been sexually assaulted after binge drinking, it makes the justice system’s job that much harder to do.
I sent Sen. Joe Manchin, he of the brave vote, this Tweet. ‘After the Kavanaugh-Ford testimonies, nobody is saying let’s have a conversation about underage drinking and binge drinking on college campuses. It’s at the root of this confirmation mess. How about you?’
I’ll also send The Senator this video. I’m that kind of guy. Later.
