Comments | textualdeviance: This is getting silly

textualdeviance

This is getting silly

Jun 26, 2009 08:48

I really should be avoiding the subject, because it's starting to piss me off too much, but...

If Jackson weren't a famous pop star, but instead the plumber down the street, with all the same "quirks", would YOU let your kids sleep at his house? Would you even let your kids play there ( Read more... )

pop culture, crankiness

Comments 26

ceilidh_ann June 26 2009, 17:23:57 UTC

It's his kids I pity. They've had a freakshow surround them their entire lives and now that they're fatherless, they're going to be pulled through the chaos of this aftermath and they'll never get to mourn in peace. His death just took up over 10 minutes on BBC News at 6. That's more than any single segment on the Iran election aftermath. More than Neda. There is the injustice.

falcongirl June 26 2009, 18:39:49 UTC

If you're innocent, you don't pay off your accusers.

Actually, you do. Especially if it's a jury trial and the evidence is circumstantial but damning - as it was in all his trials. There was no direct, physical evidence that he sexually molested anyone. There was circumstantial evidence that he was engaged in corruption of minors. That makes him fucked up, but as he was emotionally about their age, it makes him an object of pity more than anything.

If there had been any physical evidence, he wouldn't have been acquitted. Everyone WANTED him to be guilty. He would have gotten no slack whatsoever.

Do I think he was innocent? No. Do I think he raped kids? No. Do I think he was a very fucked up individual who should have had oversight around minors? Yes.

textualdeviance June 26 2009, 18:44:33 UTC

He may have been emotionally stunted--most pedophiles are--but he was still an adult, with an enormous amount of social power over the kids he was alone with.

I have no more pity for him than I would have for anyone else in the same situation. He did something wrong--repeatedly--and was never brought to justice for it.

textualdeviance June 26 2009, 18:46:11 UTC

Also, there's very rarely physical evidence in cases of molestation that only involve fondling. That doesn't mean those cases are any less real or any less traumatizing than cases that do have that evidence.

Additionally, some of the jurors in the 2005 case admitted that they were starstruck, and regretted their not guilty votes.

spookyevilone June 26 2009, 18:49:05 UTC

I don't deny at all that it was a case of justice not served. I'm also not saying it didn't happen. I'm saying that it was a circumstantial case. And, imnsho, handled extremely poorly. It went to the news before court documents had been filed. It would have been better settled with a private settlement that involved trust funds and court mandated counseling and sex offender watch list or treatment.

Thread 19

pixxelpuss June 26 2009, 19:45:35 UTC

"If you're innocent, you don't pay off your accusers."

I love you to tiny pieces, but this statement is complete bullshit. Innocent people pay off their accusers all the fucking time.

hunnyfreak June 26 2009, 20:28:50 UTC

As someone who has sexual abuse in her family, this whole thing infuriates me! Honestly, I cannot put it into words. People at work wondered why I'm not upset like them about his death and I tell them "He was a pedophile, why would I be sad that he died? Yes his earlier music is awesome and he changed the face of music, but the guy was also a freaky f&*k." And when they said, "But he was never convicted" I told them, "And neither was my relative, but he sure as hell sexually abused 4 of my family members!" That shut them up real quick!

irradiatedsoup June 27 2009, 02:49:52 UTC

Honestly? I don't personally believe he did it. I think he was a very mentally ill and very sad person in many ways, but not a child molester.

I also love his music and always will.

I know it's a really fraught issue, and I'm sorry if my perception of him upsets you.

textualdeviance June 27 2009, 05:06:55 UTC

So how do you explain the pictures of naked children and him sleeping with kids?

irradiatedsoup June 27 2009, 05:55:07 UTC

See my first comment where I said mentally ill, and incredibly sad. He surrounded himself with children, he also surrounded himself with kids toys and spent a great deal of time playing with them by himself. He wasn't right, I'm not disagreeing with you on that point, I just don't think it was sexual.

You have every right to think it was, and I respect you for it.

textualdeviance June 27 2009, 06:25:48 UTC

You do know that this is a really common profile for pedophiles, yes? An awful lot of them don't see themselves as adults. They don't percieve themselves as any different than the children they befriend. And thus they don't see their intimacy with those children as anything other than "innocent" exploration, the same as two children that age would do with each other.