Bill Cosby and Jameis Winston.
Sorry feminists, but I cannot celebrate the takedown of an aging black man, blind-eyed and face-marked, at the end of his career.
Where were you -- where are you -- when the winners like Winston allegedly get away with the same crime, whose accuser went to the police immediately, without waiting decades? Weren't you all a bit sickened when he won the prize for football glory? Wouldn't you like to have seen him pulled from the field, while the charges were immediately investigated, in real time?
Truth is,
it's easy to topple a now-ugly someone like Bill Cosby. His career is waning; please don't tell me about all the shows he had lined up. Nostalgia act, a man just riding out his career, like so many do, in academics, entertainment, politics, etc.
Not so in sports. When your glory days are over, you're out. They don't keep you around because of your name. Perform, or go. Bill Cosby wasn't making the money for people that he used to pull in. Winston still is. When he is not, then I suspect the hammer will finally drop on the younger black man too.
It's a shame we don't encourage more women to report their crimes to the proper authorities, not your agent and not your lawyer. The police might laugh at you, but they cannot not take your report. The statute of limitations protects the accused, by permitting time for a defense, to uncover facts. (In the case of child victims, we might choose to waive the time required to report the alleged crimes; but the idea is to give the accused a realistic chance to defend himself or herself.)
This reminds me of the old man who was forced to sell his basketball team because he said some ugly things to his girlfriend in private about "niggers". If you believe that was about racial justice, and protecting the sensitivities of black and white people, and not about the firesale of his basketball team, think again...
I believe in my heart that whether these allegations are true or not, they are coming out now as payback: Cosby in recent years laid down some pretty harsh language to the "black community" about accepting responsibility for what their lives had become, and not blaming others.
One of his current accusers reports she felt "used". He gave her the pills, she voluntarily took them, and was a passive participant in what transpired sexually. She went back, and reportedly took the pills again, and again had sex with Mr. Cosby. Perhaps he believed her to be as into actively participating in his passive kink, as he was.
Perhaps, she was trying to please someone she wanted to impress, and only felt "used" years later when her own choices did not pan out as she perhaps wished.
One thing is for certain: so long as Mr. Winston is still playing ball, winning awards and leading his team, he is still untouchable. There's no victory for feminism here, unless the bottomline message is, you must report rape in real time. Even if you don't think you are strong enough, or believable enough, to be taken seriously.
Remember the two women at Liberty University who had accused the black man who now sits in jail awaiting trial for killing two more white women out east? They said he raped them, and got him kicked off campus, but never reported the crimes to the police. I wonder now... what if they had? Would the pattern have been spotted, and broken, sooner?
We will never know.
That's the saddest thing.
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ADDED: In case you're all over the Cosby thing, but ignorant of the goings-on at FSU:
Winston accuser eyes civil lawsuit
"I want heads to roll," Patricia Carroll said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
"The family is proceeding, with civil action against the TPD and Jameis Winston. And possibly the university."
His attorney, Tim Jansen of Tallahassee, said Winston had consensual sex with the woman. But Carroll said Winston raped her 19-year-old client, who withdrew from classes after the allegations resurfaced in media reports.
Those allegations were initially reported to Tallahassee police nearly a year ago, but the investigation wasn't turned over to prosecutors until November.
In the interview with ABC News, Carroll claimed negligence by the TPD, saying the way it handled the allegations led to the prosecutor's decision to drop the investigation.
"Absolutely you're going to see a civil suit," Carroll told ABC News. "You can not have law enforcement that is not held accountable."
Carroll said Thursday that she plans to file a notice to sue the police department early next week. Under Florida law, anyone filing a lawsuit against a government agency must file court paperwork six months prior to the suit itself.
David Northway, a spokesman for the police department, said in a statement Thursday that "based upon the facts and information gathered, no violation of department policy or Florida law was identified on the part of the investigators assigned to this case; therefore no formal internal affairs investigation will be conducted in this matter."
Northway also said: "The reports in this case document that our department took the case seriously, processed evidence and conducted an investigation based on information available at that time. We take seriously the obligation to respond to any individual who wants to report a crime."
FSU and an attorney for Winston couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Also Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott's office released letters written to him in December by the accuser and her mother, imploring him to reconsider opening an investigation into the case.
Carroll says she asked Florida's attorney general, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the governor for an independent examination of the sexual assault investigation, claiming it was riddled with problems.
Scott "didn't even give us the courtesy of a response," Carroll said Thursday.
Carroll sent Scott a letter Dec. 19 -- along with one from the woman and her mother.
The documents were released Thursday by Scott's office following a public records request.
In a one-page letter, the woman who accused Winston told Scott that her attorney received calls from two other FSU students who said they were raped but were "discouraged" from going through with prosecution.
Carroll said the family members of those two women contacted her following her December news conference.
The accuser's mother said in her letter that she knows the governor has daughters and asked him to "put yourself in my shoes for a moment."
Her daughter did not "fabricate" a rape, the woman wrote, and did not know Winston prior to Dec. 7, 2012.
"I want to tell you about my daughter with the hopes that you will see her as a real person and not just some name on a police report," the mother wrote, adding that her daughter was heavily involved in school activities and was a leader on sports teams and student government. "I am hoping that this letter makes an impact on your decision and you direct FDLE to open an investigation into the Tallahassee Police Department's handling of this matter. I will not give up on my daughter and will do everything in my power to see that everyone finds out the truth."
Winston won the Heisman Trophy last month and led the Seminoles to the national title earlier this week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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