Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Danielle,
I’m not going to presume to speak for those who might benefit from it.
No, me neither.
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Hard News: On Telly, Telly Off, in reply to izogi,
as if the “flat screen” part of a TV is somehow more of a luxury for prisoners than the dollar savings on retail, energy and maintenance are for taxpayers over a CRT.
Not to mention that for quite some time it's been impossible to buy a TV with a screen that's not flat.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Danielle,
The thing about the phrase “trigger warning” is that you don’t have to be a “fan” of it to recognise that it’s useful for a lot of people. Even if they aren’t, y’know, you. I personally don’t have any need for the phrase but I can see why other people would.
Of course. I'm still not entirely sure that the majority of people who'd benefit from such a warning are actually familiar with the phrase. They won't have read it in the paper or heard it on TV or radio, and probably haven't even encountered it on the internet. But that's fine: whatever the words, it's the principle of a warning that matters.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Bob Dobelina,
If my daughter came home and said she’d been wandering around in a park at night I’d tell her it’s a dumb thing to do and it’s unfortunate that’s the reality of it. If something happened to her, I wouldn’t tell her she asked for it but I would suggest that she regulate her behaviour to align with reality.
Isn’t that fair? Isn’t that what Jones is trying to say through his hyperbole. Isn’t that all Priestly was saying?
Oh, good lord. That's extremely disingenuous. Priestley offered "the foolishness of your two victims, venturing out alone at night in a park in a strange city, dressed as they were" as a potential basis for the acquittal.
I'm sorry, but the victims being "dressed as they were" is a basis for acquittal? Are we living in Saudi fucking Arabia?
And is an indecent assault not really an indecent assault if two visitors to a city choose the "wrong" path home to put themselves in the way of it?
Also, I'm a bit over the idea that Albert Park is some kind of dark place where no one should go. It is lit, it's in the centre of the city and it's fucking thoroughfare for young people. The idea that two young tourists contributed to a traumatic and demeaning assault by walking that way not only misses the fucking point, it's offensive.
Grrr. Hulk smash.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Jackie Clark,
That people were tweeting at the Herald, when the person who really makes the decisions will not be the one reading all the tweets, every single last one, but an employee who is paid to do that, and how distressing and demoralising they may have found that.
That's the social media editor and it's their job to field that stuff and pass it on and up. If you want the paper to register your complaint, including the newspaper's twitter handle is how you do it.
I think I was the first to tweet the link to the Jones column, because I was up so early yesterday morning. My message was concise and blunt: "Dear Bob Jones. Fuck off."
I don't regret the language at all (even after spending half the day debating it with that weirdo ex-cop). But I do wish I'd included some indication of the content of the column, because that tweet got RTd 20+ times, and that's a lot of people potentially reading something that will upset them, including friends of mine like Megan. I'm not a big fan of the phrase "trigger warning", because not everyone knows what it means and because it's bound up in a bunch of social signalling I'm not part of. But next time something's about rape, I'll try and make that clear.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Bob Dobelina,
“I found the idea that the young women had somehow contributed to the indecent assault on themselves at the same time as they were suffering an aggravated robbery offensive, not to mention unlikely.”
But they weren’t indecently assaulted because the Accused was acquitted.
Do you think the victims lied about one of them being forced to strip at knifepoint? More to the point, do you think the jury thought they lied? Or did the jury accept their account as credible, but decline to convict on it? It seems more likely it's the latter.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Bob Dobelina,
Wasn’t he charged with indecent assault, not sexual assault?
Thank you for pointing out that error, I’ve amended it. I had correctly had it as “indecent assault” in other parts of the post.
And if so, why do you use the word “rape” in your headline. He wasn’t charged with rape.
Because Jones’ column was about rape. He talks about it repeatedly.
5. “On the face of it, it’s a completely irrational verdict.” That’s a big claim unless your answers to my first two questions at point 1 above are yes.
No, I have not read the notes of evidence. That’s precisely why I said, “on the face of it”. As you note, the judge, who obviously did watch the trial, seemed incredulous at the jury’s decision.
The judge’s attempt to rationalise the jury’s decision dwelt pretty heavily on the idea that the two young women bore some blame for the assault, an idea Jones enthusiastically endorsed.
I found the idea that the young women had somehow contributed to the indecent assault on themselves at the same time as they were suffering an aggravated robbery offensive, not to mention unlikely. But it also seemed unlikely to me that the jury had completely rejected Clements’ story in the case of the robbery charge, but accepted the same story in the case of the indecent assault, or found doubt that wasn’t present on the robbery charge.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Sorry to sound like a broken record here, but the real question is why Tim Murphy didn’t pick up the phone and tell Bob Jones it wasn’t going to run.
It would've been Shayne Currie to do that.
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Hard News: On Telly, Telly Off, in reply to Brent Jackson,
I’d like to take exception to your anecdata.
Happy to be corrected. Perhaps God is having his revenge on Grey Lynn.
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Hard News: On Telly, Telly Off, in reply to Julian Melville,
(btw Russell I think you’ve marked up an extra para at the end of Tim’s bit that’s actually back to you talking: “I’m not sure how many CRT sets” etc.)
Gah! Thanks.