John has a good post below on the primary this that’s worth reading, but I wanted to put up a thread to share the news that Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison today – 20 years for forcing oral sex on his production assistant, and three years for third-degree rape of another woman, to be served consecutively. Adios, motherfucker.
23 and Thee
by @heymistermix.com| 76 Comments
This post is in: Criminal Justice
Kent
Good riddance!
Booger
..but what about his lifetime of contribution to the motio…nah, I got nuthin’.
Soprano2
JUSTICE!!!!! Hope he dies in prison, the sick fuck.
feebog
Sounds about right. 23 years means the rest of his life. No tears to shed here.
germy
Aleta
“I’m totally confused, men are confused about all of this issue.” -HW
Thanks mistermix for not being “confused” and for speaking out. It means a lot.
Yutsano
BRING ON THE APPEALS!!!
germy
@Aleta: He says he’s confused, but he wasn’t confused at all. He couldn’t enjoy sex unless his “partner” felt degraded and frightened.
And the way he hired foreign agents to chase and discredit his accusers was despicable. He deserves jail for that alone.
EDIT:
Why is Moonves a free man?
MattF
@germy: He’s a bit confused about the actual meaning of ‘due process’, I think. He got due process, and he was convicted.
MazeDancer
Seems light.
Gin & Tonic
@germy:
I’m pretty close to Harvey’s age, and I have to admit that I am not now, nor was I ever, “confused” about raping women.
Mandalay
@germy:
That is not a claim I want to dwell on.
germy
We don’t have Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer or Chris Matthews to report this news.
Captain C
Is he saying he didn’t have a fair trial and they went right to sentencing? That the jury was completely confused and clueless (as well as his own lawyers)? If not, what the hell is he getting at?
delk
Well Harvey, now those confused men have a pretty good example about those issues.
germy
Just Chuck
@Captain C: “Due Process” to people like Weinstein means “I’m rich, so I’m not guilty.”
germy
@Captain C: I think he means he was just being a charming rogue and thought the ladies were delighted and amused by his behavior.
Men like him pretend that “the rules are changing, so men can’t joke around or flirt anymore” when instead they’re alarmed they can no longer use power and status and violence to control other human beings.
We still have a long way to go, though.
Mandalay
This article provides a ton of detail about what a piece of shit Weinstein was as a human being, but this example stands out for being so pointless, and so gratuitously nasty:
I’m not defending Weinstein at all, and I am no expert, but it seems pretty clear that he had severe mental issues over and above his sexual behavior.
MomSense
??Sanders is going to speak from Burlington at 1:00.
germy
Yutsano
germy
geg6
Amidst all the craziness and bad news, this totally made my day. Maybe my week, month and year. No, wait…I want what totally makes my year to happen in November. But yeah, this is excellent news.
Aleta
@germy: Confused that all the people and systems that protected him for so many years didn’t work this time. Confused bc this isn’t supposed to happen to anyone at the top (top meaning “relative to any person you believe is below you”).
If he’s confused (a lie I bet–more like angry) it means that the trial and the statements of the women, meant nothing to him. It means that “Humbled” is another lie, of course.
“A sentence of 23 years also underlines the new severity with which the legal system now treats such cases.” I think that’s a premature assumption.
Spanky
@germy: Oooooo! This’ll be sweet!
Scout211
We likely will be looking at a long and drawn out appeals process, but this verdict is a great relief. I am not necessarily happy, because I am a female and have been in contact with a few (many?) “confused” males throughout my lifetime and I have deep compassion for all of his victims and huge admiration for the women who testified.
But I am relieved.
germy
Every time I saw Weinstein’s face, I’d be reminded of the pig from the car insurance commercial. The GEICO pig who yells “weee!” and waves a pinwheel out a car window. The resemblance is uncanny.
Baud
@germy: Suspense!
Gin & Tonic
@germy:
“we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
Bernard S., Burlington, VT
L85NJGT
@Spanky:
He’s headed to CNMI to finger wag at all caucus goers?
Spanky
He’s probably confused because all of his predecessors in the movie industry had free rein (and reign) on the casting couch. After all, if those women didn’t want it, why are they in the industry?
Mike in NC
This is excellent news. Let’s all stand by for the inevitable tweet from the serial sexual predator residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, whose life of crime appears to be untouchable.
Shalimar
@Captain C: He’s saying no one was ever held accountable when he committed thousands of criminal acts, so it is unfair to retroactively enforce laws that were on the books at the time.
The Moar You Know
I had a former girlfriend, briefly, who, when confronted with attempts to limit her antisocial behavior, resorted to this as her default response…”I’m totally confused and just don’t understand why everyone got so upset when I set the host’s cat on fire.” “I’m just so totally confused why the bank called the cops on me, I’ve always cashed grandma’s Social Security checks with no problem before. I’m so confused!”
Oddly enough, she understood “if you ever show up at my house again I’m calling the cops” with no confusion at all.
Weinstein is a world-class rapey sack of shit who ought to thank whatever God he believes in that he doesn’t live in a society that weighs his future value (zero) against the costs of keeping him alive in prison (substantial). Because if we did, his sentence might be…somewhat harsher.
PS: kudos to this judge for not pulling a Brock Turner.
scav
As for due process, he could very well by wanting to insist that he should only be judged by a jury of his peers, that is to say, rich, powerful, sexually predatory confused white CEOs. You know, the mighty arbitrators of consensual.
Couch Thing
Despite this likely being a life sentence, given his age, it still feels like not enough.
Scout211
Before #metoo, there was a huge HR issue that arose in workplaces everywhere, what, 20-25 years ago? Sexual harassment in the workplace. There were HR trainings and employee hand book changes . . .
If he is still confused, he is just a malignant narcissistic. But that should be obvious.
chopper
woo hoo! die in prison, dickbag.
Timurid
@Gin & Tonic:
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender this semester.”
-The college I teach at
Administration is continuing to flex and posture about business as usual to the extent that it’s become annoying as well as scary. We’re getting barraged with trivial e-mails about how we should be sure not to miss this invited speaker or that sports team promotion. I had to push through a crowd to get into my building today because they were holding some kind of engineering fair outside. The extent of their planning is “wash your hands” and “stay home if you’re sick.” It’s notable that all the schools that have canceled classes so far are higher end private schools or state flagships. Second tier state schools (like mine) apparently don’t have time for that…
Kent
Due process? He got his due process.
What he *meant* was “Dude Process” That is what was denied him in this instance. For the first time in his horrid life the “Dude Process” didn’t come through for him.
catclub
Why wasn’t the post title “23 skidoo!”
patrick Il
One of the purposes of jail time is as a cautionary to other prospective Criminals. It has not been clear enough that raping women is wrong. Now potential entitled rapists will no longer be confused.
Marcopolo
No green river in Chicago this year :(
Just One More Canuck
@Just Chuck:
affluenza
hitchhiker
Things that are on the record. Verified. True.
He hired spies to find material that would help him bully women into silence.
He used his power in the industry to blackball women who resisted him.
He was indifferent to “no.” For as long as it took, he would press women half his size and half his age to let him have his “five minutes” of sick “pleasure.”
And much, much more. He’s not confused; he’s just very, very surprised that anyone cares about these women, because, obviously, he never did.
Dorothy A. Winsor
His statements about this made it worse, and that’s a high bar.
trollhattan
@germy:
“Bernie Sanders will appear at a news conference at 1 p.m. Eastern time to discuss his future in the Democratic primary”
That’s an interesting way to phrase it, since he’s not technically in the Democratic primary. [I’m an outsider, yo.]
dmsilev
@Timurid: We (smallish private university) ran out the clock on classes for the winter quarter (last day of teaching is today), and then are going virtual for exams next week (which doesn’t require any fancy videoconferencing infrastructure, just students emailing their take-home tests back to the profs). Spring quarter is “to be determined” at this point.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Suspend!
Humdog
You know the saying, “Lord, grant me the self confidence of a mediocre white man”? I could have gone my whole life not knowing Harvey had “hideous, misshapen genitalia”, but now I marvel that he wanted to show it off to unwilling witnesses.
Sick, sick, sick. And not chastened in the least.
CaseyL
Moonves still walks free because he’s a GOP supporter.
The rapists who get taken down tend to be Democratic supporters.
We don’t want their support, let me be clear about that, but I have noticed the RW rapists aren’t charged, don’t go to trial, don’t get convicted, and don’t serve time.
Mandalay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Right. And I’ve yet to read a statement from Weinstein admitting that he did anything wrong.
IANAL, but I’m wondering (with hindsight) if the deny everything! strategy was sensible when there were almost 100 accusers.
Would his sentence have been any worse if he had admitted everything and thrown himself at the mercy of the court?
PaulWartenberg
Weinstein – or his lawyer(s) – is complaining that this sentence will erode “due process”.
Dude. It was a trial by jury. There were years of investigations. These were the cases the DA could reasonably present out of HUNDREDS of other claims. This was as due process as it could get.
A black guy facing life in prison for ten ounces of weed thanks to an all-white jury and no witnesses on the stand has more right to complain about due process than this raping SOB.
Elizabelle
Is he in or is he out? Goddamn. Maybe he’s staying in. Unless he’s pumping himself up to show what we missed by not nominating him….
Redshift
@germy:
I’ve seen plenty of non-apology apologies before, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen not-remorse remorse. The only possible way to read this phrase is “I am very sorry I got caught.”
Timurid
@dmsilev: We’re on semesters and our spring break (which many schools appear to be using as an off ramp) is still a month away. (Spring break here is tied to Easter because this is a very Catholic area and we get a long weekend earlier in the semester for Mardi Gras.) And there’s already a cluster in New Orleans, two hours drive from here…
eemom
Can’t see why Bernie would call a presser unless it’s to drop out.
randy khan
@germy:
Harvey Weinstein saying that “thousands of men are losing due process” after he mounted a multi-million dollar defense that included PR people sending journalists smear jobs on the women accusing him may, in fact, have added a couple of years to his sentence. Or at least it should have.
randy khan
@Couch Thing:
Yeah. If it only had happened years ago, think how many women would have avoided getting assaulted and harassed by him.
cckids
Don’t forget, he still faces trial in California; with many more victims and (I believe) a different slate of charges due to state law. Preet Bharara stated that would be an harsher trial.
Fingers crossed.
Mo Salad
@catclub: 23 and #Me Too?
MCA1
@Mo Salad:
Winner!
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Do you think he might drop out?
The only reason I can imagine he would stop when it’s obvious he can’t win is that it’s one thing to risk your life (heart attack) in order to be president, but it’s another thing to risk it when you can no longer in.
eemom
Fucker’s not dropping out. Of course not.
Can’t believe I am still capable of naivete at my advanced age.
Couch Thing
@chopper: The thought of him dying alone on a gurney in a prison hospital cheers me.
Couch Thing
@cckids: My fingers are crossed along with you!
WaterGirl
@Mo Salad: Having a moment of silence in honor of your lost apostrophe.
FYI: During development of the website, I checked for punctuation in nyms and knew there were two that wouldn’t work. I talked to the developers at the time, and they said it’s a wordpress thing and not a programming thing, so there was nothing to be done.
Kent
It will be a LOT harsher, because the bubble has popped for him. The sense of invulnerability is gone. He will have no one standing by him this time around.
Mnemosyne
Sad that this passes for a good news thread, but happy that some measure of justice is being done.
pluky
@germy: The pig is cuter.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Thank God the ampersand survived.
Feathers
Good on this. It’s a message to prosecutors that juries are shifting on sexual assault. Fewer than one percent of sexual assaults see the inside of a courtroom. It’s time we realize that arguments about “due process” and “rights of the accused” are simply excuses to silence women (and men) and keep them from telling the truth about the violence they face. Weinstein even openly admits that he saw “due process” as making him invulnerable to the consequences of his actions. When you use the same arguments as Weinstein to silence women, just stop.
Remember that there was a time when women weren’t supposed to talk about domestic violence because it would endanger “the sanctity of marriage.” “Presumption of innocence” needs to face the same fate. When it gets to a courtroom, yes. But there is no route to the courtroom without publically recognizing the problem.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic:
:: mops sweat from brow ::
J R in WV
So glad to hear that this piece of shit is going away for a long time / forever.
What about those “doctors” who used their expertise to molest/rape women? Ob/Gyn perv, how monstrous can you get!!! And the DA let that motherfucker walk??!
debbie
One of my closest friends was Harvey’s assistant back at the beginning of Miramax. It hadn’t yet occurred to him to be a sexual predator, but he was a horrible bully. Today is her birthday. This will be a nice little gift for her.