[Black Arbor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benn Roe

Actually, this is a wildly irresponsible position. The following things are true: 1) false allegations of sexual assault or domestic abuse are almost non-existent; 2) these crimes are very often not reported out of shame and/or fear; 3) when they are reported, they invariably result in threats, skepticism, and unwanted attention for the accuser (which is why false allegations are so rare, and among the reasons the crimes often go unreported); and 4) not believing accusers, or "waiting for evidence", is life-ruiningly damaging to many of them, whereas the accused usually bounce back pretty quickly from false allegations, and in fact from true but unprosecuted (or even just unconvicted) allegations. Inevitably, the phrase "innocent until proven guilty" comes up during these discussions, so let me just cut you off at the pass, and remind you that's a legal principle, not a social one. It's the responsibility of police, prosecutors, and judges to trust but verify. It's the responsibility of everyone else to believe and support accusers during a time of their lives where every path forward appears to lead to shame and violence, without making demands (like calls for proof) of them. Any other response just perpetuates hostility toward survivors of this poisonous cultural shortcoming.

Let's talk about your examples. Johnny Depp's defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard was thrown out last month because evidence of 12 or her 14 abuse allegations was conclusive enough to satisfy civil proceedings. She may have walked back her allegations a little, no doubt under extreme public and private pressure to do so, in order to finalize her divorce, but according to the most recent court findings, her allegations are credible, even though she and Depp seem intent to settle this through civil courts. For what it's worth, she also donated her divorce settlement money to the ACLU. Jussie Smollett is a different matter. I have no idea why he falsefied that attack, and a hate crime is obviously a very different matter than that of sexual assault or domestic abuse, but look at how that went for him. It went a lot worse than Heard's legally-affirmed allegations so far seem to have gone for Depp. And, I know you said you haven't looked into the allegations of Shia Labeouf, but he did nebulously confess and apologize, only to walk it back a bit, for what any of that's worth.

I respect your stance, and I don't wish to derail the thread and rile up the mods so I'm not gonna type up a rebuttal, but I have to disagree about the fact that the accused bounce back quickly, and that the false accusations are non-existent (I've seen many percentages thrown around, but given I can list 10 actual examples off the top of my head, I feel I can safely assume there's a non-inconsequential amount.) A discussion for a different thread though, and I appreciate the civil discussion!