Please tell me i’m not the only one who still finds this ridiculous and believes that only a court of law can determine guilt?
You forgot to mention how it’s antisemitic to point out Politico and NYT are both very pro Israel and are the ones coordinating the timing of these releases, not for any journalistic reasons, but to apply the most pressure possible to make a progressive who’s vocally against genocide to drop out of a Senate race he’s basically guaranteed to win…
Wait do the Democrats support the other ones
Who cares who supported who. My point is that people are innocent until proven guilty and that the facts don’t show without a shadow of a doubt that he’s guilty. And even when it does point to guilt our country never treats everyone the same and even ignores the lack of attributed justice.
I think I don’t understand the meme then? I think it’s saying the Democrats were harsher on him than the others, despite him not being convinced? But how?
They’re asking him to stand down without an actual court proceeding and weak facts.
So wait you are comparing asking someone to step down until this can be sorted out or because there is concern it will hurt the party is equivalent to being arrested and imprisoned?
Or at least that it requires the same level of evidence?
I think the ideal situation is that he agrees to go to court and stands firm in his innocence if he is innocent. Get elected anyway. If he’s guilty in a court of law THEN he should step down.
But i’m not FOR Americans and their culture of becoming vultures against someone due to weak evidence because the Media or political figures tell them so. So yes, I am someone who supports evidence and a jury to determine guilt in a court of law.
I don’t understand this logic unless being a senator brings significant personal benefit instead of being a service in which case, that explains a lot about how people behave
And further if it considered good leadership to put your personal benefit above the good of your movement
Most senators do make quite a lot of money during their careers.
Edit: hopefully the picture works better. But yeah, it’s pretty bad. Too many selfish people in charge.
When you’re talking about overriding the will of the voters, yes, a similar burdain of proof should exist as imprisoning someone.
I thought they couldn’t force him to quit
You have a problem with literalism.
Not really.
First off they are asking him to step down, which he should have done ages ago. For oh-so-many reasons.
Platner received more primary votes than any Senate candidate in Maine history. You’re damn right forcing him to step down is overriding the will of the voters.
I support doing that if he’s proven to be a rapist, but that is not the kind of thing you do lightly. It’s at least as serious as say, giving someone jail sentence for a few years.
Yeah, because they don’t want a candidate with credible rape accusations. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
The outlet reported it reviewed text messages and interviewed people whom Racicot had previously told about the incident, including her therapist and an ex-boyfriend. The Hill
Rep. Ro Khanna rescinded his endorsement of Graham Platner and called the allegations “serious and credible”.
Politico was the outlet. Text Messages screenshots can be fabricated. All the communication outside of those screenshots conveniently left out. And all other witnesses conveniently wanting to be remaining anonymous.
I don’t care if Bernie Sanders asked him to step down. They aren’t a jury or a judge.
Oh, you’re confused. This is a political process, not a judicial one. There’s no “beyond a reasonable doubt” here, and this isn’t the first issue with Platner.
No im not confused. And i dont care about the previous allegation or this one until its presented before a judge and not the court of dumbass American media consumers.
The bar you used to have for elected office was quite a bit higher than “technically not yet convicted of actual rape”.
But hey, you do you. All sorts of criminals walking around in Washington these days.
He’s doing a lot more good for Americans on his platform and I think the elites are afraid of the rising amount of socialists running and winning. They’ll do anything to find a hit piece. But this hit piece is weak AF.
Wow now I know what american individualism applied to “socialism” looks like.
😂
Platner has said himself that he has committed multiple war crimes. This includes firing mortars at crowds of random Afghans, getting caught, having the the firing platforms taken away, then modifying other rocket firing systems to continue firing mortars onto crowds of people. This is just one of the horrific things he himself has said he has done. He never deserved to be a candidate.
Sorry guys, I do think this is a case of “The most terrible person you know just made a great point”, re: NYTimes timing of oppo research releases. Having serious accusations of rape in his past isn’t just an ethical black mark among a whole closet of other black marks we’ve already decided to look past, it could also mean he gets charged with rape while in office. And if it’s actually credible, you know for sure that they’ll indict him. Even ignoring the simple fact that we shouldn’t have rapists in government, Platner’s goose is completely cooked at this point in terms of the large pile of personal issues. Who knows, maybe he doesn’t drop out and Maine votes him in anyway and he ends up being a fantastic rep while in office. But he also still has time to swap with another equally-progressive candidate. A true leftist coalition has all types of people in it, but a true leftist coalition also needs to be honest with itself about sexual violence. We’ve racked up so many Ws this summer, I think we can bare one L if it means keeping a hard stance against sexual violence. This is for better or worse the exact sort of thing a democratic process is meant to filter for.
y’all got a name of this Maine progressive candidate waiting in the wings?
Troy Jackson is looking more and more like the best candidate to replace Platner.
What’s with all the chuds going all in for abu ghraib totenkopf mercenary guy?
Not even like “we don’t have enough info yet” but rather “this is a list of all ways the accuser wasn’t a perfect victim. She is a liar and like many women is lying to ruin a man’s life”
Why don’t you believe victims? Platner says he’s a victim of a false rape accusation. Therefore, since we can never question someone once they’ve been ordained as a victim, we have to believe Platner. Will you be demanding that the woman who he claims is his abuser be fired from her job without trial?
Where on earth did you get any of that?
I have no idea which claim is factual, neither do you. But you make a meme with a list of reasons we should not believe the accuser. Is suggesting accusations need to be treated with care and consideration the same thing as saying the accused is guilty?
Is it better to imply someone is lying instead of just saying “we don’t know enough yet”? Unjust things happen but folks don’t need to demonstrate what happens when you accuse the wrong man of a crime. That if you come forward and there is no conviction you will be branded as a liar.
Fired from his job? Is being a candidate his job? What a fucked up system. Edit: wait isn’t this the country that wants your social media log ins on job applications so they can decide if they should hire you or not?
Have you never had a moment in your life when you were like, I want to do this but the right thing to do is let someone else go for it? Or everything is our right and we don’t think of the collective good?
You completely missed the point of my comment. (And I’m not OP.)
My point is not that Platner must actually be a victim. My point, which went over your head, is that “always believe victims” could just as easily be applied to Platner as to his accuser. This is why we shouldn’t punish people just based on accusations. Investigate every claim. Take every claim seriously. But it’s unamerican to punish people without trial.
It didn’t go over my head.
American bootlickers are so uncreative. Accusations don’t need to ruin lives but the obsession with punishment and 100% right vs 100% wrong doesn’t leave any option.
This is the environment that abuse thrives in. Harmed people see what scrutiny they will face because the risk of “ruining a man’s life” over a false accusation is too much to take chances with. People who would perpetuate the abuse know that they can exploit others because reporting would lead to being called a traitor. The community doesn’t get the opportunity to make sure that people are safe, because even putting out feelers to check if certain behaviors are normal before it progresses to bigger harm is risky. It totally ignores all the other systemic barriers that face marginalized folk to begin with. Maybe the cops harass you and your friends. Are you going to run to them for help?
Maybe you don’t want the person to face punishment but you want them to acknowledge that they harmed you and demonstrate to the community that they have grown and will not harm others. In the punishment model people who have been harmed face blame for not coming forward sooner to prevent the same from happening to others. Why should harmed people face this responsibility?
In a better model, if all parties agreed to it, alternative justice practices could be used. They could come together and identify the harm and come to a shared agreement of what happened and what could have been done to prevent the harm. They can then discuss how to correct some of the impacts. This can be done privately, quickly, and with the guidance of trusted community members who can ensure the process is safe. Part of the resolution would be to determine how much of this should be shared with the wider community and how.
If the case that an assault did occur, perhaps the outcome is that the community would come together to support the harmed party in healing and dealing with any practical impacts, something they may not have been able to do before if it wasn’t known. The accused may be part of this if appropriate. Together, the community and the person who did the harm could decide if they should be in a position of power, and if they should be focusing on being a representative or focused on addressing how to prevent this from happening while supporting others with taking on the role of representative. A person who thinks losing the community’s trust is punishment should not be leading! The universe is not fair and bad things happen. If someone feels entitled to a role they are going to have a very hard time. Maybe they can be paired with others who have gone through similar things as accountability buddies and safe people to work through difficult unlearning where they don’t need to be afraid to say they are struggling.
If it turns out the person making the accusations either lied for gain or the situation was complex and after talking through it was determined that harm occurred but there is no accountability to be taken or the accountability is equally shared, this could be addressed privately. No need to be scared of ruining someone’s life if something felt wrong but you aren’t sure if it was worth speaking up about.
If the accusations were falsified and shared in the community, the resolution could be that the person making the accusations needs to take accountability for the harm they caused including sharing with the community the steps they are taking to address why they sought to weaponize accusations. The accused could continue seeking the leadership position with that put behind them. Because the community has trust in the accountability process being accused of something having it come out that it was false does not leave a stain on someone.
People say all sorts of terrible things to leaders. You get to act as a pinching bag/processing space while people sort themselves out. You have to realize this is part of what leadership is. If you aren’t going to be open to working with people to actually understand what their issue is even if you know what they are saying in the moment is bullshit, you are not going to do a good job.
I agree that restorative justice models have merit, but I think this is a red herring to the discussion at hand. We’re not talking about some ideal perfect world. We’re talking about whether a Maine Senate candidate should resign in the next week.
I mean, I’m not talking about if he should resign. It doesn’t concern me.
The restorative justice example is extremely relevant because it shows the harm that is caused by being obsessed with punishment.
If stepping down can only be seen as punishment then he has no choice.
- If he steps down for whatever reason she will be blamed. If she doesn’t make a police report, she will be accused of lying. If it goes to court and he’s found not guilty, she gets accused of lying. If he pleas to a lesser charge or agrees to some other form of justice people will say “see, he didn’t get convicted of what he was accused of! It didn’t happen! She lied to harm him!”. Isn’t the idea that it’s better to let 100 people free than one person be falsely convicted? But at the same time unless it is proven in court it didn’t happen?
- If he runs, wins and later agrees the accusations are true and wants to repair the harm, is he safe to say that? Will people tell him to keep his mouth shut because winning is more important? What happens if it comes out later and it also comes out that people knew? How can the party be trusted to represent the public good?
If people were committed to figuring out the best path forward for everyone rather than being right or wrong I’m sure they could figure something out. But if him choosing to step down so that another candidate can be the offical nomine is seen as him being “punished” there is no way the situation can be discussed until after the election. So he runs and people get told you should report assault, but only in very specific ways and not if the accused has a chance to face consequences as a result.
I had a nice time with my flowers and thought about options. Here are two possible ways he can run while minimizing harm:
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He can tell the party he is innocent and intends to run, and that it will be sorted out afterwards. They can’t do anything about it, but he owes a duty of care to the party he is representing and should listen to their concerns. He can ask them to help with messaging and shutting down any speculation and accusations about the accuser(s). He can tell the public that he is innocent and intends to follow due process. He can remind everyone that accusations need to be taken seriously and that people need to be safe to speak up. It endangers people if they are tried in the court of public opinion and it does not reflect the values of the party. He can remind them that if the accusations are intended to discredit him, then this will be helped if his supporters attack the accuser or her credibility. They aren’t going to sort this out immediately and we need to let the justice system take it’s course (if that’s what they are doing) because the american justice system is the best in the world or something.
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It would be even better if they could agree to some sort of restorative justice, especially given she does not appear to want to involve the police. He can maintain his innocence, show that he wants to understand why he is being accused and that he wants people to feel safe coming forward. He can ask people to refrain from attacking the accused, and to let them go through the process. Doing this isn’t saying he did these things, but trying to understand what happened and how two people can see it differently. It would be a great opportunity for a discussion about how complicated discussions around SA can be. It can be a jump off point for discussion on how we can make power dynamics safe, and the importance of making space for hard conversations. It if comes out she was lying to harm him, they need to condem that behavior and highlight that it’s not just to discredit him but also to divide people. False accusations don’t mean that people don’t deserve to speak up and that we should be suspicious of accusations. Because that’s what the bad guys want. They want you to hate women, and the woke because they are stronger when we are divided. Etc.
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Mind if I ask a simple question: how many sexual assault accusations do you think are fake? Like, percentage-wise? How many rape accusations are fake? Just, rough estimate. What do you do to figure out they’re fake?
You’re making the mistake of comparing general rape accusations to highly political ones. They are not equivalent in any way.
By far the vast majority of rape accusations are not fake. And if this accusation had come out in a way that didn’t make it highly likely to be politically motivated, then I would assume the same probability applies. But we’re not talking about a typical rape accusation here. False rape accusations due occur in politics. It’s a tool Republicans have used before.
The nature of elections make false rape accusations to be massively more likely than the usual case. In the case of elections, you’re not trying to create a case convincing enough to convince a jury; all you need to do is to dominate the headlines for a few days. Drop the accusation at the right time, and the candidate won’t have time to properly investigate or debunk it.
You can make it a percentage of accusations on political candidates. I’m not gonna gotcha here, I just want to know what you think the percentage is, and what about this accusation you think is false. The only thing you’re saying is that it came out so late, but that’s not particularly weird for rape accusations, even those not against political candidates, so if there was more to why you think it’s fake, you should point out those details and how they differ from a normal accusation.
You’re overthinking this. It’s just a matter of having a proper bullshit detector. Historically, these kinds of October surprises often turn out false. Republicans have used false rape allegations against Democrats before. You’re portraying this as me thinking the victim is lying, but all I want is for this to be properly adjudicated. I don’t support crucifying people without trial.
You’re obsessing over a percentage because you’re playing a gotcha game, and honestly I just don’t have the patience for that nonsense.
I think you’re over thinking this. If you don’t want to give a percentage, and you don’t want to point out what is different about this accusation from any other one… Then it just feels like you don’t care about the accusation. You say you have a bullshit detector, but you haven’t really brought up what part is bullshit other than the timing.
Oh yeah, just straight up patriarchy juice.
They just grab onto anything. Next thing you know they’ll pull out the “America bad” list for roughly no reason.
It smells like bullshit to me too. I dont live anywhere near Maine to have personal experience about it, but reading mainstream media stuff about the “terrible things platner has done” feels a lot like reading a study paid for by an oil company about how climate change isnt really that bad. The incentives of the sources are far too conflicted for me to put much stock in what they say
Historically, the Democrats actually care about the scandals of their own. Al Franken was solid as a US Senator, and yet when allegations came out of sexual harassment, he was pressured to step down, even when he expressed remorse.
As came out during the #MeToo movement regarding the predatory patterns of Harvey Weinstein, most women are not given regard when they report sexual assault or sexual harassment, and with the rise of the internet and social media (which allowed for the dialogue to spread faster and more widely) we now are seeing the glimmers of sexual predator culture being taken seriously.
What is terrifying to me is the Trump effect, the power of cult think, of propaganda and of religious conditioning is such that men on the right side have been getting away with predatory behavior for decades (the early ones that got caught were television evangelists, and despite their scandals they just had to pretend to show remorse and wait a while.)
We expected the same religious groups that condemned Clinton for his scandal with Lewinsky (a consensual affair between adults, according to Lewinsky) would also condemn Trump for his 2005 Access Hollywood hot mic comment, and yet 80% of white Evangelical Christians voted for Trump. Nearly that many Catholics voted for him as well.
Since then, we’ve seen US officials not even trying to hide their corruption, short of actually producing the Epstein files. And despite that we know that Trump and several political and ultra-wealthy figures are implicated in them, the Republican base doesn’t care.
That’s the power of cult methods and propaganda, and until we figure out a way to inoculate the public from those schemes, it’s going to factor largely in how human society organizes from now on.
And in the meantime, the conditions will stay in place in which predation prevails. Not just the sexual violence of men upon women, but also the deceptive and predatory practices of corporations on their
consumerscustomer base. See TERMS OF SERVICE and END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, especially how they are applied to products that are directed at children.Is this a loophole in law?
Like, you can publicly accuse someone of sexual assault without filing a police report…
But then what? That person could respond with slander…but now instead of the state having to prove he did do it, he has to prove that he didn’t?
How do you prove you didn’t do something?
I really don’t like the precedent this is setting…
The problem is sexual assault is not taken seriously by law enforcement, nor has it in recorded history. And this is a problem not unique to the United States.
In fact most municipal counties have an immense backlog of unprocessed rape kits. So most SA, by far, goes unreported, most reported SA goes uninvestigated, and most investigations don’t lead to encryptions.
This is why Epstein could proceed with his predatory ring and expect to get away with it.
I believe her style movements in response to SA are not new, and tragically a recurring theme. Sometimes the public cares about SA allegations or sexual harassment patterns, and sometimes it’s very meh.
Also, in the narrative, he was apparently black out drunk, so he conveniently has no recollection and cannot defend himself.
Like seriously, what are you supposed to do if this happens to you? Someone you used to date comes out of the woodwork and accuses you of rape, in a form you wouldn’t even remember.
How are you supposed to react to such a thing? How would you react if someone showed up at your work, accusing you of rape, demanding you be fired without trial?
If you’re black out drunk enough that this is a legitimate risk, there is already an underlying problem.
You’re right that this will boil down to a he said/she said, but it’s concerning this is the best candidate Maine could come up with just based on the facts that he can’t refute.
You’re right that this will boil down to a he said/she said, but it’s concerning this is the best candidate Maine could come up with just based on the facts that he can’t refute.
What candidate isn’t vulnerable to this type of charge though? Should you be fired from your job, immediately and without trial, if one of your exes comes out of the woodwork to accuse you of something?
People get drunk. The vast majority of the US population has been drunk at some point in their life. Most people could have such accusations leveled against them, and they would have no way of refuting it.
Should you be fired from your job, immediately and without trial, if one of your exes comes out of the woodwork to accuse you of something
If there’s evidence from multiple people and text messages and therapist notes all from before a run for a government position that indicates you have a problem with boundaries and sexual assault, yes.
Or maybe you prefer Platner’s approach to talking to rape victims:
“Holy fuck, how about people just take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to? Men and women, you make a choice to consume enough of a substance to lose your self control. So if you don’t want to be in a comprising situation, act like an adult for fucks sake.”
If there’s evidence from multiple people and text messages and therapist notes all from before a run for a government position that indicates you have a problem with boundaries and sexual assault, yes.
You are spreading misinformation. Please read the actual NYTimes and Politico articles carefully. There is one and only one piece of contemporary evidence - screenshots of facebook messages that could have been easily photoshopped. And the name of the person they were sent to was kept secret.
That’s it. Literally everything else has either been deleted or is more recent. The therapist notes are recent.
Or maybe you prefer Platner’s approach to talking to rape victims:
Planter isn’t gonna fuck you, bro. He’s too into raping women while blackout drunk.
You are spreading misinformation. Please read the actual NYTimes and Politico articles carefully. There is one and only one piece of contemporary evidence - screenshots of facebook messages that could have been easily photoshopped. And the name of the person they were sent to was kept secret.
That’s it. Literally everything else has either been deleted or is more recent. The therapist notes are recent.
Just because you don’t know the names of the friend and ex-boyfriend doesn’t mean they are completely unknown or that they are not credible. Likewise, the therapist’s notes are still evidence.
His quote speaks to how he views rape victims which is relevant.
You said:
If there’s evidence from multiple people and text messages and therapist notes all from before a run for a government position that indicates you have a problem with boundaries and sexual assault, yes.
I pointed out that in fact there is very little evidence contemporary to the alleged rape. You ignored this and instead replied, “but it’s still evidence.”
His quote speaks to how he views rape victims which is relevant.
Here’s what he wrote about a soldier convicted of raping and murdering a 14 year old Iraqi girl:
Well, luckily Green just hung himself a few days ago while serving life without parole.
Again, Platner could release his side of the conversations. I wonder how much different his texts are from what his victim is saying about that night.
It is still evidence whether you want it to be or not.
I think he should take her to court there are things that can prove his innocence. Warrants to get the cell phone pings of his location, the instagram data that was supposedly deleted can still be retrieved. The emails to the Therapist. He should also have other women in his life that he’s dated speak on his character.
If Johnny Depp can win against Amber Heard I think he still has a chance.
The women he’s dated have spoken on his character, it was pretty bad.
I dunno, this feels like how Republicans defend their own regardless of what comes out. I get you can like a guy’s stances but at some point, if we want to be the party of good, we have to act like it.
Nah Republicans are a different breed because they’ll keep supporting even after the court of law has been applied to establish guilt. I’m asking for people to at least let him get to court. Also what sources do you have to show people speaking on his character?
Also what sources do you have to show people speaking on his character?
Oh you have no idea about Platner’s history at all but you’re going this hard against his victim?
Mr. Platner could be rough with her, Ms. Fifield said, particularly when they were drinking, leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid. In the interviews, Ms. Fifield grappled with how to process her experiences. She was quick to note that he “never hit me, he never punched me.”
But she said he regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks — and, on one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car.
During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she was “calm.” Eventually, Ms. Fifield said, she fell asleep and left the next morning.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/platner-maine-senate-girlfriends-relationships.html
There are people seriously pushing here that because this woman is conservative she must be lying.
I believe her.
That’s such a weird line, like she planned this out a decade before Platner got into politics?
It’s just so depressing. I get that folks can love his positions but goddamn, I also thought we had standards.
There’s some real conspiracy theory shit brewing here. Talk about the text messages being made up by Israel and whatnot. It’s a little much considering the most believable part of this story is that a man got drunk and forced himself on the woman he was seeing at the time.
Fine. Indict him for rape. Senators are not exempt from felony prosecution.
Sure, that’s up to the victim etc.
And as far as I’m aware, being a felon doesn’t make someone ineligible for running for Senate.
If he was convicted, and he didn’t have the honor to step down, the Senate would vote to kick him out at that point. The Senate has routinely voted to kick people out convicted of serious felonies. And he would be replaced with another Democrat anyway. Plus the establishment dems would be happy to see him go.
If he’s convicted, and if he doesn’t step down, he would be kicked out of the Senate by a vote of 99-1.
So, if his victim doesn’t feel comfortable undergoing the emotional toil of a legal battle about rape, that means he’s good people?
Have you also lobbied and argued for folks who stepped down etc after the Epstein files as almost none of that has gone to court yet?
So, if his victim doesn’t feel comfortable undergoing the emotional toil of a legal battle about rape, that means he’s good people?
If you really internalize the foundational values of our democracy, yes. You do understand that we’re not supposed to punish people without trial, right? If a victim doesn’t want to come forward, I can understand why. But protecting victims is no excuse to dismantle the very foundations of justice.
Have you also lobbied and argued for folks who stepped down etc after the Epstein files as almost none of that has gone to court yet?
To my knowledge, none of those accusations were made in an extremely opportune manner that demanded action be immediately taken without proper time to investigate them. And the people who were asked to step down are those who we have clear evidence of making damning emails with Epstein. That’s the key thing - we have the actual damning emails. We have very little contemporary evidence here.
I think he should take her to court there are things that can prove his innocence.
Like what?
To quote the sentences immediately after your quote:
Warrants to get the cell phone pings of his location, the instagram data that was supposedly deleted can still be retrieved. The emails to the Therapist.
He should also have other women in his life that he’s dated speak on his character.
We’ve already heard from other women in his life and y’all soundly rejected what they had to say.
Warrants to get the cell phone pings of his location, the instagram data that was supposedly deleted can still be retrieved.
Gonna call the victim’s evidence weak and then posit that this will exonerate him? All the instagram data is her messages to him. If he didn’t delete his side, he could produce them himself.
The evidence the victim has already produced is compelling.
Gonna call the victim’s evidence weak and then posit that this will exonerate him?
Nope, I’m not. I dunno anything about this case, just that you were asking a question that was answered in the next sentence, which is usually a sign of someone acting in bad faith.
The evidence the victim has already produced is compelling.
I firmly disagree. The ONLY evidence contemporary to the events that exists are screenshots of facebook messages that do not explicitly state that Platner raped her. Everything else is either recent or has been deleted. Read the original articles carefully, there’s a lot of people spreading misinformation, recasting recent messages as older than they were described in the articles. I don’t think you’re doing that intentionally, but you should be aware you’re spreading falsehoods.
Platner could release his side of the Instagram messages.
He could release his side of the text messages from the night in question as well for that matter.
According to his side, the damning messages don’t exist. Yes, he dated her, so he would have had some messages from her, but that isn’t in dispute. But if what he says is true, those messages won’t exist.
How would you feel if someone falsely accused you of a crime, claimed you have non-existant evidence that damns you, and then demanded you produce this nonexistent evidence?
Again, I am not accusing the accuser of lying. I am not however willing to join a witch hunt that crucifies a man based on suspiciously timed accusations. But if Platner is telling the truth, that is the situation you are placing him in. You are demanding he produce damning evidence, evidence that he’s claiming never existed.
Exactly. I want to see him indicted and charged with rape. We aren’t supposed to operate by witch hunts. We’re supposed to operate by the rule of law. Republican lawlessness does not excuse Democratic lawlessness.
Rapists are very rarely convicted in court.
98% of perpetrators walk free.
For every 1000 sexual assaults, 50 reports lead to arrests, 28 cases lead to felony convictions, and only 25 perpetrators are sentenced to incarceration.
So by your numbers, there’s a greater than fifty percent conviction rate once the thing actually goes to trial. And I see no reason this case can’t go to trial, as the accuser has already taken the most difficult step of going public. The hardest part is just getting to the point of public accusation and trial. If the evidence is compelling as everyone here is saying, then there should be no problem convicting him.
Do some rapists go free? Yes. But even beyond sexism, that’s simply a function of the foundations of our justice system. Most rape occurs in a setting where it’s one person’s word against the other. Hell, what starts as a private consensual act can turn into rape. (Not what’s being alleged in this case.)
Have you forgotten the basic foundations of our justice system? Did you receive that poor of a civics education? Have you forgotten, “it’s better for ten guilty men to go free than for one to be wrongfully punished?”
Well I actually believe that. I don’t want to see anyone guilty go free. But I also don’t want to see our country become a place where people can easily be falsely convicted of crimes based on little evidence. (And people still end up falsely convicted.) I want to see rape convictions be as successful as possible. But if you actually care about human rights and justice, you have to acknowledge that the conviction rate for rape is always going to be lower than other crimes. It’s just the nature of the crime itself.
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I grabbed the wrong part of your comment to quote, it’s corrected now.
I doubt this woman gets a fair trial at this point to be honest.
Have the day you deserve after working so hard to discredit this woman.
Its fucking ridiculous
There are emails between the accuser and her therapist that corroborate the incident. This isn’t a case where she is retroactively changing her story.
Show me the emails.
Platner should definitely get his day in court, and CNN and politco arent reliable sources of much of anything. They are doing something similar to Imram Khan over at the International criminal court.
Yeah if he is truly innocent he shouldn’t have dropped out. To me now that he dropped out it appears to make him look guilty.
But yes, anyone facing accusations should be able to defend themselves in court.
Is this still that heritage foundation or whatever person? OOTL.
No, it’s a different person. Appears more credible but I haven’t investigated too deeply.
They are bernie-ing him again
Bernie didn’t have credible rape accusations like this.
I’m sad that Bernie asked him to stand down without Platner being taken to court.
