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Originally Posted by GrantDawg
It is a good question, and not easily answered. I agree that in the past, many times the accused got away with things and often the accuser was totally destroyed. No question, making it easier for victims to come forward without the fear of being attacked is better, and should be the goal. We are still not anywhere near that. These accusers are being celebrated for the strength of coming forward, and that has encouraged others that have been silent to speak out. All very good.
They are still being attacked from some circles, though. I don't think in the end that this problem is going to be solved by taking it to the court of public opinion. Backlash is going to occur. Legitimate victims are going to be attacked and have their private lives exposed. Innocent people are going to be falsely accused and be destroyed.
Having more of this investigated behind close doors would be better, but still not totally safe. It would be better to have professionals investigate before allegations become public record, but then that has basically already been the case in many of these reports. People filed complaints, but where bought off before it became public. Some claims where investigated and went nowhere. Powerful people have powerful lawyers that can destroy the accusers claims.
I'm still not suggesting the answer, more pointing out worries. I'm pretty sure there will never be a perfect answer. Just hopefully some kind of balance.
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I am not accusing you of this, but so much of the debate has seemed to immediately run to protecting those that MIGHT be falsely accused in the future while ignoring the legitimate victims of the present and those that will be legitimately victimized in the future. I don't feel like we care that much about the falsely accused in other areas of misconduct and other crimes in our society. Now we should care more about the falsely accused in all areas but we don't. That difference does lead me to ask why.
To be clear. No one should have to go through the horror of being falsely accused of any misconduct or crime especially of this nature given the stigma attached. I am sure we all would love to put things in place where such a thing does not happen. If it does happen, I would want the person who is making the false accusation to get the harshest punishment possible. I would like to think we also want to put things in place where the victims of misconduct and assault can go to the authorities and actually have their claims be taken seriously while not being attacked and having the stigma attached. Until those things happen, I am not sure what victims are supposed to do outside of going to the public to get some "justice". Again, I admittedly go to the extreme of the Weinstein case. It was an "open secret" for two decades. The victims were only taken seriously when it was brought out in the public and people began to hear the same story over and over. The court of public opinion is the only place where Weinstein has been held to account. At this point that IS the only non-violent way these things are taken seriously.
I agree with your call for balance. Unfortunately we are aiming for balance on the scales of injustice. If we have to accept that "Legitimate victims are going to be attacked and have their private lives exposed." and "Powerful people have powerful lawyers that can destroy the accusers claims." even in cases when there is legitimate misconduct, assault and abuse, the only thing we have to balance that on the scale of injustice is accepting that "Innocent people are going to be falsely accused and be destroyed." I don't know if we can begin combat the latter without dealing with the former two. I do think that when we do, we will be much closer to a balance of justice we are supposedly looking for.