Why? He was credibly accused of sexual assault. He was arrested and charged. The victim refused to testify, so the case was dropped. He was sued and entered into a "settlement agreement" with the victim. He bought his wife a ridiculously large diamond ring. It was not an "adventure," it was sexual assault. I am surprised that you are so flippant about a sexual assault.
To make it more interesting, Snoop also thinks Bill Cosby's innocent ("free Bill Cosby") and Bill gave Snoop a shout out from his prison Twitter account. 1225519733442740224 is not a valid tweet id 1225519997969223681 is not a valid tweet id
Maybe I'm reading Stanger's post incorrectly, but I think he's saying that he's uncomfortable with people like Gayle King being given a lot of crap for pointing out that Kobe was no saint and had lots of baggage. Just because he died doesn't erase all that... And some day when Bill Clinton passes, certainly his "character" issues will be brought up. Will anyone pointing out his flaws get the same level of flack?
I'm not, but pointing out Kobe raped a 19 year old doesn't seem to be a proper topic when his jersey is being retired. Or so a shit-ton of people have pointed out on Twitter to anyone that dared to mention it. Exactly.
And lest anyone think it was an instance of "he said, she said," there was plenty of corroborating physical evidence in this case. The young woman went to the hospital the morning after the assault, and the examining nurse found lacerations on her genitals. Her blood was found on Kobe's clothing. She also had bruising on her throat and jaw, consistent with her claim that he choked her. Kobe's DNA was found inside her. I think Kobe is a pretty perfect example of why we need to not monster-ize rapists, even if we perceive the crime of rape to be monstrous. Regular, otherwise good dudes who are pillars of their communities and good dads etc. etc. etc. commit rape. The perception that only weird, deviant, obvious creeps commit rape allows clean-cut, well respected guys to get away with their crimes.
I'm pretty sure that when former president Clinton dies, we'll be treated to a solid month of those who will spend the time discounting his accomplishments as a president and touting his many and several sexual assaults, all while defenders of his legacy will spend the same month slutshaming all of these women to "protect his legacy. I'll be taking a two month media break for that... Sadly, since HRC didn't get to be president, she won't have a presidential library to be located up the hill from Bill's in Little Rock. She'll have to settle for it being constructed on lease free land in the head of every American conservative for the next century
I'm pretty sure what Auriaprottu was saying was that, if you're a black man, raping a young white woman is....not a smart life choice.
I think time and place has a lot to do with it. I certainly am not a big Kobe fan, but a man and his daughter were killed in a tragic accident along with other people. They left behind a wife/mother/kids/siblings. Let people morn. The fact that he was accused of rape does not make this event any less tragic. There is a time and place for the discussion of the allegations, while people are mourning isn't it. I do find it sad that there are people who didn't give a flying F$$$ about the rape allegations until he died and then they had a chance to shit on everything so it somehow became important at that moment.
I never was Kobe fan, I gave up on watching basketball with the passing of the torch from the Lakers / Celtics / Pistons era of the NBA, he was arguably the dominant player of his generation, but make no mistake, no matter what he did after extricating himself from that allegation via his fuckton of money and the media / hype machine that relied on him for money, I refused to watch anything involving him or purchase any product that he endorsed or that relied on him. He was from that time onward, an unconvicted rapist. He simply had the money / power to make it go away. Harvey had that clout for decades, so did Cosby & MJ. Eventually that all evaporates as your fans age enough to realize that their heroes can be exploitative people all the way down rapists too, and more importantly, once you are no longer someone's cash cow. Same thing happens all the way down to the Nice guy at Church / Office, captain of the HS football team, etc, etc, etc
The media, and the NBA in particular, has been falling over themselves to praise Bryant. Apart from a couple of women - WOMEN! - who dared to criticize the rah! rah! of Bryan't life. And remember, one of those women was suspended from her job because she dared to bring up the rape. Bryant was a great player, and it appears that he took that moment and turned his life around, strongly supporting the WNBA. But that does not excuse that he violently raped a woman, who is likely to have life long issues because of the rape. When his legacy is discussed, that should be mentioned, too.
Joseph Shabalala, headman of Ladysmith Black Mambazo has died. The singing group was a big deal tword the end of Apartheid, working with Paul Simon on that really famous Graceland album (Diamonds on the soles of her shoes) Their mainstream notoriety was a 6-8 year run but their quality showed long before and after. Great sound!! which helped with the change in South Africa. [/url]
Great song from the Greatest country album of all time. A great tribute to the man, Paul English will be missed.