Bill Cosby

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No charges have been laid and they probably won't be. But the damage is done.

New York Times link

No evidence that he's committed any crimes, either -- only the "testimonies" of a few disgruntled white women against a successful black man.

Number of Bill Cosby accusers grows again - link

The number of women coming forward doesn't really sway me toward believing he's guilty. Certainly there is no shortage of women willing to jump on the bandwagon and lie for their own personal gain once accusations of this sort gain traction. Maybe he's guilty, maybe he isn't.

What I would count as evidence increasing P(guilty) would be records showing that a woman went to the police soon after the alleged incident, regardless of whether the police acted upon it. At the moment, it sounds like it's their word against his, and this long after the alleged incidents happened, there's no actual evidence. Which is no way to run a justice system, regardless of what some people may think.

Unless some had raised this after it allegedly happened? According to this, Barbara Bowman went to a lawyer soon afterwards. Which lawyer? What about the others she spoke to? Has anyone spoken to them recently to check her claims?

Many of the women say, and can corroborate, that they did at the time try to lodge complaints and were dissuaded by employers, Cosby's lawyer, their own parents. One of them explained clearly that nobody was going to believe them at a time when Cosby was the dad king on TV and the first black man to succeed that way. It was a big deal that the Huxtables were black. There had never been a show about a black professional middle class family before.

At the time, there were no rape kits and standard rape-sample-collection procedures, so if a woman was raped she could not go to the hospital and get swabbed and have DNA evidence. It was her word against his and if she had gone willingly into a room with him it was assumed that she had gone there for sex, even if that was not what she had intended.

The OP mentioned that charges "probably won't be laid" which is misleading because there will definitely not be any charges because the statue of limitations for all the reported incidents has already expired.

Murder is one of the only things that doesn't have a statute of limitations.

I feel like my whole childhood was raped.

I thought rape was also one of those few things not subject to the statute of limitations.

I don't know whether he did it or not. Wasn't there, don't know him, can't say.

Part of me would have no trouble believing it, though. There's something about the IMAGE of perfect wholesomeness that is always suspect with me. I guess that's mean-spirited, but so it is.

It is an unfortunate situation all around considering these accusations can never be proved and Cosby cannot defend himself, instead we're just destroying and ostracizing someone in the court of public opinion. The number of accusers certainly is alarming tho.

My understanding is he can't defend himself because he reached a settlement with another woman years ago. If he starts talking she can too, and everything under seal from that one will come out.

To quote Rhett Butler, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

The only time Cosby was ever funny was back in the 1960's, when he was still was working blue, at least what passed for blue in that era. Other than his 1980's series, the only TV show where he was at his best as I Spy, a drama. His first solo series, as a high school basketball coach, was a bomb. To me, Cosby lost his edge once he completed his doctoral degree in Educational Psychology.

he seems full of himself, when he criticizes the fashion of young people. maybe now THEY will have an excuse to tell HIM to "pull up HIS pants."