Dr. Bill Cosby's release from prison draws polarizing opinions
Ol' Hobbs's Thursday Thoughts!
Dr. Bill Cosby is free
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the sexual assault conviction of Dr. Bill Cosby, 83, and by evening's end, he was released and heading home to spend time with his wife, Camille, and family.
The court based its ruling on the fact that Cosby executed a Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA) prior to sitting for a civil deposition back in 2005, one in which he very candidly described drugging women—and having sex with incapacitated women—for decades. Among these women was Andrea Constand, a former basketball star at Temple who alleged that Cosby gave her a powerful drug during an encounter that rendered her incapable of granting sexual consent. Cosby did not deny providing drugs to Constand during the deposition, but whether the drugs were qualuudes (illegal) or Benadryl later became a hotly contested point during both trials.
What was not contested at trial was Cosby's own words, ones that his appellate lawyers argued should have never seen the light of day due to the NPA. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed, holding that Cosby never should have been prosecuted in the Constand case because it flowed directly from the crux of the NPA executed long ago.
To be clear, yesterday's ruling DOES NOT mean that Dr. Cosby has been found "innocent;" Cosby is a rapist by his own admission under oath even though the conviction has been fully vacated and his full civil rights restored. What it does mean is that the legal system should not have prosecuted him four years ago based upon a binding NPA, one that rendered Constand's right to have her attacker charged a nullity quite likely due to Cosby's wealth and fame.
On this last point, when a Facebook poster commented on a post of mine yesterday that Cosby was just "setting the mood for sex," I replied that if said poster was to go "set the mood" with illegal drugs, that he would face sexual battery charges that could land him in prison for 10 to 30 years because he lacks Cosby's fame and fortune.
Rape discussions are highly divisive among my Black social media followers
As I posted late last night, I have been blogging on Facebook for ten (10) years and judging from the anecdotal evidence of multiple thousands of comments on my page, the most polarizing posts among Black men and women—BY FAR—have been:
1. Dr. Bill Cosby's rape accusations, trials, conviction (and now release)...
2. FSU Heisman QB Jameis Winston's rape accusation and subsequent legal issues...
3. Robert "Ar-Ruh" Kelley's rape accusations, denials, and arrests...
Noticing that rape draws such triggering, visceral, and emotional responses among the Fam, I can't help but conclude that how we collectively consider, weigh, and discuss rape is a by-product of the legacy of rape by colonizers and slavers among our ancestors; the coping mechanism of staying silent to prevent reprisals from beatings to lynchings, and a patriarchy supporting Christian theology that often "Hester Prynne's" victims—while propping up perpetrators even when the evidence in the form of vaginal rips and semen, deposition admissions, or videotapes of underage sex are on full display.
Public sound off on social media
Sometimes, the words of other intellectuals help to reinforce my own Hobbservations, thus the following from some real life friends of mine on the Cosby case:
Thomas Cunningham, co-host of Steel Sharpens Steel, on why Cosby was prosecuted despite having an NPA:
"...Reading the transcript of his civil suit deposition, he neither sought, nor received her consent... because he gave her an incapacitating drug... from a prescription obtained DECADES ago... based on his stated intent to 'use' the pills on women with whom he sought sex (without their consent).
What is there to defend here? It's not 'her word against his,' it's her word AND his word agreeing that 1) he gave her drugs, 2) she was incapacitated, and 3) he assaulted her, 4) WITHOUT HER CONSENT. He agreed to pay $3.8 million AND force her to sign an NDA to keep the settlement out of the press.Then he broke the terms of the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) by calling her a liar. Breaking the NDA likely factored into the decision to prosecute..."
Darryl Jones, arguing that Phylicia Rashad, the actress turned Howard University Fine Arts Dean, should have refrained from commenting yesterday that her former TV husband was subjected to a "miscarriage of justice:
"I love Phylicia Rashad, as we all do.
She is in the academy now. Her comments were reckless although accurate. It was a miscarriage of justice. His confession of guilt and purposeful drugging of women over decades should not have been admissible. Still, Dean Rashad, like so many of us, absolve Cosby of all wrongdoing for crimes he admitted he did commit. It’s like—“He said he did it, but I don’t believe him.”
I hope Rashad doesn’t lose her job because her long term benefits to the program are immeasurable. But she needs to talk to her students and come clean and apologize for her insensitivity in spite of her loyalty to Cosby. Otherwise when you say you “ride or die,” you might just wind up dead."
Dr. Andrea Howard Oliver, opining about her frustrations with the celebrations that erupted when Dr. Cosby was released:
"...Some of us sadly carry memories and legacies from our past of first hand experiences. To say nothing of the sexual abuse many of us have suffered at the hands of uncles, cousins. passahs, and the like that we were FORCED to keep our mouths closed about for fear of ostracism or rejection by the very people who should have been protecting us. I ain't talking bout the white man here. I'm talking about US. I'm not sure why we are celebrating Cosby's release. He admitted to doing what he was convicted of and now he gets to walk. I hate it here."
Ayanna Hawkins, lawyer and Blogger at Busy Black Woman, on why rape is so divisive among Blacks:
There is a lot to unpack, but I disagree that rape is merely a by-product of colonization since rape is currently used as a weapon of war (and has been since the beginning of time as chronicled in the Bible). I think the rape apologists are more caught up on his fame, wealth, and the notion that he got taken down for behavior that some believe was cancelled out by the payments he made to keep many of the women silent. The fact is, if a woman says No, then drugging her doesn't grant consent. Given that he did pay many of those women, the choice to come forward in violation of the NDAs and exposing themselves to scrutiny isn't evidence of a mass conspiracy to take an innocent man down. An innocent man doesn't establish a 30 year pattern of drugging women and then giving them hush money. A philandering man might pay off various paramours (which we know Trump did), but we already knew that about Cosby after the Autumn Jackson case. It frustrates me that he is cloaking himself in the language of victimhood, but it appears that to the extent that he was railroaded...man, throw the whole system away!
Final Hobbservation
Dr. Cosby was a hero of mine while growing up watching Fat Albert and The Cosby Show, and when I attended Morehouse College at the same time as his late son Ennis, we always knew when "The Coz" was on campus because you could smell the ribeye steaks being broiled and the shrimp being fried in the Chivers Dining Hall for the entire student body!
But when I think of Dr. Cosby now, I remember what former U.S. Representative J.C. Watts (R-Ok) said to me after a speech in Tallahassee about a decade ago, which was "you don't want to meet your hero.” When I asked Rep. Watts, a minister, to expound, he explained that once we meet our heroes, that we realize that they are mere mortal men and women fraught with the same human frailties that we all experience. That point hit home then—and is so very true now, and while we are all sinners and fail miserably at times—all of us have not committed crimes like rape!
While I know that God does not distinguish between degrees of sin and will forgive the criminally accused if they repent, I also know that in a nation where church and state are separate by law, that prosecutors do distinguish between rape and other violent felony offenses. Thus when I finally read Cosby's deposition testimony several years ago, while I knew that secular justice should have been served long ago, I also knew that the NPA being so easily tossed was in bad legal form.
Such is why I cannot join in the chorus of Brothers and Sisters claiming that Dr. Cosby was “innocent” and "lynched"—he was not and he was guilty by his own admissions regarding Ms. Constand (and others). I submit that the real miscarriage of justice was that an NPA was executed in the first place, one that kept Ms. Constand from having her day in criminal court—and Dr. Cosby from having his day in court to defend himself and allow a jury of 12—not a prosecutor of one—to find fault or exonerate based on the evidence submitted in court.
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I grew up watching Fat Albert as well and introduced my kids to it since it was before their time. I also remember checking his albums out at the library to listen to. The man was an entertainment genius and I think very well meaning on assisting the youth of America to make good decisions. Yet, he is another former hero who has fallen. There's just nothing good to say about all this. I hate it.
Thanks Chuck, well said. Stevie Van Zandt taught me to "separate the art from the artist." As an aside, is this candidacy announcement on your radar: https://fb.watch/6tIVDcnWTC/