Seriously, all the problems in the world and this is the story you run. It is a local story. The police seem to be handling it well. No national signigicance. TPM is a national site. What are we missing.
“He’s been accused of serious crimes, but the media firestorm has prompted a lot of people to apparently go back and re-examine their relationships with him.”
And realize that they should have come forward sooner.
There is some clickbait here, but sexual assault and intimidation, discrimination and disrespect for women is so deeply rooted that stories like this do deserve national attention. Yes, in this case, it’s because of the number of allegations (even more than Donald Trump!), but the story is important in every case.
It is high time that we stopped dealing with sexual assault as either dirt to be swept under the rug or business as usual.
Normal men recognize and respond to indications of interest or lack of interest from the woman. Many rapists can’t or don’t react to such clues. So most women’s response may be to examine their own behaviour rather than assuming the guy is abnormal. It is important to have stories like this out there so that more women will recognize and report guys like this if they have the misfortune to come across them.
He’ll use the Trump Defense: “When I see a woman I just can’t help myself. I just start kissing them. ____But____It didn’t happen. Never happened. They’re all liars.”
This is a serial abuser. Detailing how he behaves is helpful to the public in identifying similar people who may come in contact with themselves or loved ones. It’s important to educate the public about such horrible people. I think that the more times these people are outed in the press may become a deterrent to some of the crimes–just like the drunk or buzzed driving PSAs we should also inform the public about what happens when you touch what isn’t yours and act in an uncivil way towards any
victim.
Yeah, really. It’s just a story about a serial rapist, who might have be or have gone on to be a serial rapist/murderer, and why it’s important for women to go forward when they are assaulted, not just for themselves but because they may save others from assault or worse, and why there needs to be far more awareness of the behavior of these type of guys because they don’t stop at one victim, and we need to stop shaming women and blaming them for when these things happen, so that they will feel they can come forward without being disbelieved.
What’s important about that?
I wonder how many MAGA hats he owns?
What national significance does it have? Well, I can think of one presidential candidate from a major party who is accused of analogous behavior, so it is instructive to see how that situation gets handled when the accused isn’t “a star”.
Soooooo don’t read the article if you feel it’s so unimportant?
“Much of what has been on Facebook has been character assassination of my client,” Van Wagner told the Star Tribune. “He’s been accused of serious crimes, but the media firestorm has prompted a lot of people to apparently go back and re-examine their relationships with him.”
Sound like any current candidate we know?
there have been serial sexual abusers as long as there have been sick young men going to co-ed colleges. We aren’t going to “solve” that problem with more national exposure. It is handled one case at a time at the local level by police and prosecutors and mostly by young women brave enough to come forward. What this story is about is click bait and you seem excited to take the bait.
If you want a story of national significance involving college students and sexual assault, there is a New York Times story out today about Brigham Young University changing its procedures when young women report sexual assault. Until now the University has punished young women for reporting. The University, having been fairly pummeled by the press and the Obama administration, has changed its policy. Young women are not going to face honor code violations for reporting sexual assault. That is a national story. This creep doesn’t deserve the press.
Obviously some people find it topical, Ron. When women share their similar experiences it gives courage to others.
It’s not easy to come forward.
Were you drunk, did you flirt with him, will you be believed, be accused of false accusations, be slut shamed?
It’s frequently a he said/she said story and many women know they won’t be believed.
Eventually it does take national exposure. Look at Trump supporters and see how many guys, young and not-that-young, still think that sexual assault is cool.
Ah yes, the victim blame game. Come on, guys!
All of his accusers are all lying. Why did they wait so long to come forward. If they can’t handle sexual perverts they should be teachers. Why haven’t they sued the accused?
As a follow-up: I was taken advantage of several years ago while I was incapacitated but semi-conscious. I went to the hospital afterwards, got a rape kit done, took various medications, etc. I asked whether enough evidence had been obtained, and when the kit would be tested, and the response was that it wouldn’t get tested unless I filed charges, and I only had 60 days to decide before the kit would be destroyed. But…I didn’t want to file charges if it turned out that there wasn’t enough evidence to get the guy, who I later learned thought that we’d had fun and he hoped I had “enjoyed” it too, and that it hadn’t gone “all the way” even though I was scratched up internally. How would that have shaken out, had I pressed charges? How would I have fared? Not very well, I don’t think. It’s easy to try to blame women for not coming forward at the time, but these are some of the realities we face when this kind of thing happens.