One giant leap for #MeToo
Guilty.
Bill Cosby was convicted last week of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004 as a jury pushed aside his lovable, devoted husband images on a television sitcom to get to the truth.
The news of the guilty verdict came as triumph to those in support of the #MeToo movement, which will surely march onward and upward from here in the fight against sexual misconduct.
As shameful as it sounds, the surprised reaction to the guilty verdict tells the story of a society accustomed to expectancy — as if it was just understood that power would trump paying the price for a sex crime. How many times have you heard, “He’ll just get a slap on the wrist,” said with an eye roll and defeated breath?
However, despite plans by Cosby to appeal, a shift was certainly felt as the verdict was read in the Pennsylvania courtroom Thursday. This could, perhaps, be the very early beginnings of a restored faith in our country’s criminal justice system.
It is our hope that the high-profile court case involving Cosby will spur a closer look at what is happening not only across the county, but specifically in our own neighborhoods in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Perhaps it could be the driving force behind stiffer penalties at the federal, state and local levels for offenders of such crimes. More so, we hope what happened on Thursday allows victims of sex crimes to feel more at ease about coming forward. We hope that more facilitative services may be available to them and that they take advantage of those services without embarrassment.
We hope it never goes back to the way it was.
We applaud the efforts of our local agencies such as the Crime Victims’ Center of Fayette County, which continued its work in demanding change and drawing awareness with a silent rally and end-to-the-silence program open to the public where former victims of violent crimes, including sexual assault, discussed their experiences to help others watch for warning signs and educate the public.
The theme for the event was “Fayette Has a Voice,” and organizers said it seeks to encourage people to stand up for what is right and speak out against what is wrong.
During the rally held last week at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, impact statements were read, including this one from a sexual assault victim: “This isn’t just for me anymore. This is for all the thousands of voices who have been silenced by fear, whose stories have been swept under the rug and ignored, those who have never gotten justice and never will.”
These programs are absolutely vital in helping the #MeToo movement gain momentum and become a part of society, a way of life, rather than ending up as a civics lesson in a chapter of a future history book about that brief change back in 2018.