Well said. Sorry if I was coming off as antagonistic. You’re absolutely right about the huge need to reform the police in the USA in this context and in many other ways as well.
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I wouldn’t say they were fairly obscure at all. It was widely talked about at the time and there were people calling for his firing over the 2013 incident as well. So it happened yet again, and people yet again are calling for him to be fired. People are talking about his history in discussions of this recent incident (even shown in screenshots posted in this thread). It’s pretty reasonable to assume the speed here is due to his history.
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Why isn’t Amy Schumer fixing the Middle East?! I better go harass her on Twitter until she does!
There are multiple organizations dedicated to this cause who are approaching it from a number of angles. Do you feel they should be out picketing the police departments 24-7?
I feel like you’re getting thrown off by the term “whisper campaign” as if it’s some organized underground movement. It’s people looking out for other people they care about by telling them important information about a person they know to be dangerous. There isn’t an either-or here between protecting friends by telling them vital information and an organized campaign. Both can exist simultaneously, and even work in tandem now and then.
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I also gotta say, if you haven’t noticed the multitude of articles (especially lately, like with Baltimore) regarding the failure of Police to do their duty and their jobs, check again. There’s plenty.
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You don’t have friends who say fucked up stuff and make trouble for themselves?
She knows him as a person, knows him well enough to know where his heart is and how he uses rhetoric, etc. so she probably isn’t threatened by his words. She also is pretty clear in her Charlie Rose interview that she does not agree with him and feels that he is harming himself and that his voice of opposition was a valuable contribution to the program (which I think is a valid and overlooked point).
And you’re looking at something that gets working comics fired from day-jobs all the time: Talking to non-comics the way you’re used to talking to comics. Hyperbolic speech and extreme confrontational-philosophy is how you talk in that scene. People who write jokes are used to looking at layers and actually listening through shocking stuff.
KM is actually a very capable and funny writer and standup, but he’s also a guy that for whatever reason likes to get involved in shit that can’t possibly help him with anyone who isn’t constantly posting on OnA subreddits.
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Julian Assange. Your right that its rare but there’s an example.
You seem to be saying the accusations against Assange are false. That isn’t clearly true though. His flight from questioning doesn’t make him look very innocent either, no matter how much he points his finger at the US government. We haven’t gotten a very clear picture of the accusations against him since his flight stalled all work on the case as well. His alleged victims haven’t had their day in court so most of what we have are a lot of news stories about the case.
That fact that he and Jake Appelbaum are close friends also paints a bit of a potential picture about shared values (one could say), or at least paints a picture of why Jake has defended him so often and so publicly on stages and in interviews the last few years.
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I hadn’t looked into in a while but was curious if I may have been talking out of school. I was sure that somewhere I had heard the women had reversed their positions, but it seems they had sought to see if they could compel Assange to take an HIV test, and that the police pushed for the rape charges based on their statements.
The woman of whom Mr. Assange is accused of the offence of “lesser rape” (a technical term in Swedish law) sent an SMS to a friend saying that she “did not want to accuse JA [of] anything” and “it was the police who made up the charges”. The other woman tweeted in 2013 that she had never been raped. Both women’s testimonies say that they consented to the sex. A senior prosecutor already dismissed the ’rape’ accusation, saying that there were no grounds for accusing Mr. Assange on this basis. But a third prosecutor, lobbied by a politician who was running for attorney general, took over the investigation and resurrected the accusations against Mr. Assange.
(found here : https://justice4assange.com/)
So multiple women and rape charges, just not from the women themselves. My goal of finding an example fails then, since it was to find multiple accusers (technically there are none except for the prosecutor).
The confusion here comes from the fact that what the woman said he did does constitute a form of rape there. Even if she doesn’t want to use the word. Her description of the events led to the charge.
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You’re quoting a pro-Assange website as evidence that he didn’t rape these women… While it may not be “rape” under Swedish law, he is charged with a form of sexual assault of both women so some of this is quibbling about the semantics of their legal system and the names of things within it.
He then fled the country, going so far as to hide out (for years now) in the Ecuadoran embassy in London to avoid extradition instead getting his lawyer and working through it all. These are not the kind of actions that make the general public assume innocence.
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He just comes across as someone who has real issues with women in general, so it surprised me that they could have any sort of relationship. How much of what he said was true and how much was intentionally outrageous and taken out of context…
I wouldn’t say he’s been shown to be innocent of those accusations. Insufficient evidence to prove him guilty, maybe.
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Well, as long as he avoids the courts, there will be no trial, right? We really don’t know what the evidence is since we’ve never gotten him into a court to answer the charges.
I will note that his accused behavior and some of that which Appelbaum is accused of are eerily similar.
Yes, that does appear to be his strategy.
I’m not saying there’s no reason to suspect political motivations for pursuing the charges, but there’s also no reason to assume those charges are untrue. It’s possible he’s a principled warrior for freedom of information AND a horrible creep who assaults women.
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He had consensual sex. The 2 women admit as much (even on non Assange freindly sites - I chose that one after doing a 20 minute search as it had the details summarized in a paragraph and thought posting a 500+ word article might be a bit much). If you wish to ignore that he may have legitimate fears of being extradited and sent to federal prison for life much like Chelsea Manning is right now that is an opinion he obviously does not share with you. Maybe he has been sitting in exile in an embassy for 6 years trying to avoid a “lesser rape” charge. I doubt it, but maybe your right.
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Did he? Those women aren’t talking about it at this point and, actually, their earlier statements to johnny law are less than entirely clear as presented in the media.
If so, then I guess his trial is a slam dunk, assuming it even happens, and he should have no problems returning to Sweden to answer questions.
I get it. You think he’s innocent but the rest of us, I think, would like to see him, say, actually answer questions posed by the Swedish legal system (not exactly know for waterboarding people) instead of fleeing justice for years on end. He looks guilty by doing so.
The truth is that none of us know or will know if he hides from extradition forever.
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You ignore the whole US government seeking to put him in prison angle. He has multiple times agreed to be interviewed by the Swedish courts through video conferencing and they have refused. Were it about getting information and not getting him in custody this would have been resolved to that effect years ago.
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Yes, I’m aware Assange claims that. Where’s his evidence?
Courts are funny. They want you within their jurisdiction when they question you on criminal charges so they can, say, arrest you if they decide charges are warranted. He already fled the country. I think they simply assume that, if charged, he would not surrender himself to their legal system.
Courts also aren’t given to giving special treatment to people that flee potential prosecution. If I was charged with a potential felony (or wanted for questioning in relation to one) and I fled to Taiwan, do you think the US government would allow me to answer questions over Skype or would they demand I return to do so?
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I don’t believe anything that comes out of Assange’s mouth anymore unless there is independent evidence. He hasn’t shown himself to be a truthful or reliable narrator.
