No, the Public Treatment of Kavanaugh’s Accuser is Not Why More Women Don’t Speak Up
Everyone gets their day in court. Even the accused. And even when the accused is a white privileged male.
Since Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations of sexual assault were made public, I’ve seen several instances of “this is why more women don’t speak up — do you see what’s happening to Ford?” Enough to make me uneasy about the comparison, which, to be indelicate is flat wrong.
While I am incredibly sympathetic to Ford’s past — I believe she likely suffered some kind of assault — the events that have transpired and the way in which her story has been carefully parsed, leaked, and manipulated are far different from a typical case of the like.
Ford, and whatever trauma she may have suffered, are being exploited by Democrats for purely political purposes. Her story has many holes. She’s been given an opportunity to share her story and has refused to do so. None of this is “normal.”
Their entire story was prepared and rolled out under this assumption. They thought it would be easy to skirt by with selective facts and details. I don’t think they were prepared for the pushback. Their stories say at least that much. https://t.co/qg6jVTlhDF
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
A bit irked by those using Ford as an anecdote for the whole “this is why women don’t speak up when they’ve been harassed,” thing.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
Given how this whole ordeal has played out thus far, it’s dishonest to suggest the Ford/Kavanaugh hubbub is a microcosm for how instances of sexual assault and harassment are handled.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
Ford did not take her complaint to law enforcement with the jurisdiction to investigate her claims.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
She is willing to make accusations of events on a national stage, willing to leak select pieces of private medical records, but unwilling to corroborate her story or answer questions about the events she claims occurred.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
I think it’s very possible Ford genuinely believes it was Kavanaugh who allegedly assaulted her.
However, (and this is a *big* however) rather than address her claims through local law enforcement, Ford, for whatever reason, chose to be used as a political pawn.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
It’s difficult to look at how this entire story has been rolled out and played and see Ford as someone legitimately interested in justice and redress for alleged wrongs.
In fact, it looks *exactly* the opposite.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
Sexual assault is incredibly difficult to discuss, process, and heal from.
The emotions involved are complicated, shame-inducing, and affect victims to the core.
I’m sympathetic to Ford being hesitant to discuss something so awful and painful publicly.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
BUT, regardless of what Ford claims happened to her some 30 years ago, alleged wrongs do not give *anyone* license to levy heavy accusations that could ruin a man and his family and then choose to keep mum.
That’s not how any of this works.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
Everyone gets their day in court. Even the accused. And Even when the accused is a white privileged male.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
The only one being exploited here is Ford.
Feinstein knew about these allegations and did nothing. Grassley (a Republican) acted immediately as soon as the allegations were made public.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
Even after Ford’s allegations were made public, Feinstein was *still* gaming it all, saying she had more intel on Kavanaugh, but declining to say what.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
I genuinely feel for Ford who I believe likely suffered some kind of assault and who’s trauma is now being exploited, used, and manipulated by a political party to destroy a man and his reputation for purely political reasons.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
So back to my original point — no, the Ford/Kavanaugh circus is *not* why victims of assault refuse to speak up.
Ford has been given every opportunity to share her story and to make Kavanaugh, who she alleges assaulted her, account for his supposed wrong doings.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
Ford has not been unfairly maligned. She’s choosing not to participate in the claims she’s made.
Were she to take her complaints to local law enforcement, they wouldn’t be so generous or entertained with someone making claims of which they refuse to answer to.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
And all of that aside, Democrats have severely overplayed their hand on this one. Even in the #MeToo age, most real Americans (outside of the Imperial City, Coastal bubbles, and Hollywood), see the Ford/Kavanaugh kerfuffle for what it is — politics.
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) September 20, 2018
An accusation is not tantamount to guilt (Salem witch trials, anyone?). We used to have a grip on that culturally.
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Political activists don’t get to enjoy the presumption of truth when accusing their political enemies of crimes. There is a distinct difference between being accused of a serious crime, and being credibly accused. It is the credibility of a claim that dictates the response, as it must be. The seriousness of the accusation should only be relevant to the punishment of the guilty or of the false accuser, whichever be the case.
As for the seriousness of the allegation, I’d speculate that at least 100,000 young women around the globe are the subject of unwelcome drunken groping on any given Saturday night. I doubt that these incidents have been the cause of mental trauma lasting decades.
The seriousness of the charge *does* have some influence on how intently it should be looked into. If Bob is accused of having a parking ticket in 1982, that’s not worth pursuing, but if Bob is accused of killing Mrs. Farnsworth in 1982…
That being said, there’s a threshold of credibility I use for any claim. People are lying bast–s after all.
So here we have a candidate who says “I am a good person, look at all the good things I’ve done and all the good people who support me.” I look at the things, verify that he indeed did them, and check out the stories the supporters tell. Threshold reached.
Now we have a woman who says “He is a bad person, he did this bad thing.” I look at the proof that he indeed did the bad thing (of which there is none) and the people who verify that he did a bad thing (of which there are none). Threshold not reached.
Ford, and whatever trauma she may have suffered, are being exploited by Democrats for purely political purposes. Her story has many holes.
The gaping holes in her story have nothing to do with Democratic exploitation. They exist independent of the Democrats; their source is Ford herself.
Once their author has conjured them into existence, they were ripe for the Dems to exploit, of course.
We used to have a grip on that culturally.
And then came the 19th Amendment. And suddenly the neuroses and fantasies of a huge voting bloc . . . millions and millions of Fords . . . had a new-found ability to warp not only American public life, but all of Western civilization. And we see the results every day.
She supposedly didn’t want to come out publicly with her claims but she scheduled and took a polygraph test a MONTH IN ADVANCE – what does that say.
Due process is for everyone, despite what Democrats think.
B-b-b-b-but, the charge is so serious!
And now, we get to hear from Spartacus!
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/9hgs8y/with_these_handsi_reached_my_mark/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/20/bookers-push-for-kavanaugh-vote-delay-called-out-over-his-1992-column-detailing-teenage-groping.html
Kemberlee – how about you write your column in a couple or three paragraphs instead of pasting and copying twitter feed. Continuity sucks with all that crap and it takes up far too many bytes and space. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I won’t read that stuff. I’ll read the intro and any summary and skip the twitter.
I could be mistaken, obviously I don’t bother with twitter, but it seems to me that by the time you copy and paste the twitter stuff, you could copy it to a word processor to make paragraphs about as easy.
Kemberlee, what do you think of the implications of Ford’s brother being connected to GPS Fusion? That seems pretty damning to me. So is she a victim, or a willing participant?
If there was a drunken teen party, was she also drunk?
If she was impaired at the time, her memories are even less reliable.
How do we know that she did’t misinterpret what was going on? Where they playing chase, wrestling? The story of a friend tackling and knocking Kavanaugh off would seem to indicate horseplay, not a rape attempt.
We have all seen how unreliable eyewitness accounts are, and how memories change over time.
It is quite possible that Ms. Ford is psychotic. I have a problem with entertaining really old claims like this. We are all entitled to a presumption of innocence, and to due process. Even if this was true, which I doubt in light of Kavanaugh’s history, it is long past the statute of limitations.
Let me know when ‘Democrats’ care about women left in cars to drown or provable rape by Arkansas political climbers…
Otherwise, I could give a rats patoot about these conjured up ‘charges’ 36 (35? 37?) years ago…
Since this “story” broke, Ford has been given nothing BUT the benefit of the doubt. Virtually everyone has publicly stated that they do not doubt that Ford believes that SOMETHING happened 36, or 37 or 35 years ago, SOMEWHERE, with SOMEONE. What has never been clear is exactly what happened, when it happened, where it happened and who was involved. In the real world, if she walked into a police station with this story and she was not accusing a nominee for high public office, it would go exactly nowhere. And, if she walked in wearing a mask and refusing to identify herself, she would be escorted out of the building.
This is all gratuitous BS. It was a 25th hour political hit job. And, the perpetrators of these type of attacks learned from the Roy Moore fiasco. Even though Moore lost the election, the charges against him were pretty much proven to be nothing more than baseless innuendo. So, this time, the whole point was to make it impossible for Kavanaugh to defend himself by having an anonymous accuser who refuses to stand for questioning. When that blew up, the “accuser” comes forward, but still refuses to present herself for questioning. Now we have the Dems and libs trying to sell the narrative that forcing her to testify will be unfair to her. what we never hear is anyone on the left saying that to entertain the notion that any of these charges have any validity, without having the “accuser” be questioned as to the accuracy of her claims is unfair to Kavanaugh, the accused. If Ford was in the process of being confirmed for the SCOTUS and Kavanaugh brought these charges, no one would be entertaining the notion that HE must be believed without presenting his case personally and providing some evidence that the facts are true, as alleged.
“what we never hear is anyone on the left saying that to entertain the notion that any of these charges have any validity, without having the “accuser” be questioned as to the accuracy of her claims is unfair to Kavanaugh, the accused.” This, exactly. Doesn’t the accused have the right to face his accuser?.
Not if it is a MeToo person, like blacks, they are entitled to persecute anyone, anytime, they want.
It is way past time we hold these people accountable.
Judiciary committee was tweeting out that almost everyone who has been mentioned in this cluster fluck has been interviewed “under penalty of felony” except one person. I won’t mention dr.fords name.
Interesting how the liberals want the fbi to investigate yet they didn’t attend many, if any of those testimonies although they were informed of the time and place and were asked to participate.
Some think the testimonies will result in dr.ford getting raked over the coals for lying.
“Everyone gets their day in court. Even the accused. And even when the accused is a white privileged male.”
Leftists: For now…