In the wake of a recent court order to release a hefty set of highly anticipated documents regarding the ongoing Giuffre v. Maxwell trial, we have been reminded once more of the horrors that were revealed to the world. Moreover, when the Miami Herald revisited the criminal past of wealthy financier, Jeffrey Epstein, and his concerning reputation.
This time, however, the article brought a much more public eye to the matter. The article gave voice to a large number of women, many of them at the time as young as 14 years old, who alleged that Epstein had sexually abused them after luring them to his private island in the Virgin Islands.
 100vw, 556px”/></p><p id=)
The publication of Herald’s article brought much more to the public eye on the matter. The piece begged many questions not only of the influential businessman but also of his prosecutors.
In June of 2008, when dozens of allegations were initially made and many believed he would be put away for decades, the prosecutor cut an absurd deal. Moreover, a deal that consisted of him ultimately serving only 13 months in a county jail, dodging federal charges, and the opportunity to leave jail for up to 12 hours a day on a work-release program.
Epstein’s conviction, in essence, was fully paid for room and board for over a year with the opportunity to continue his work as a financier. The deal was suspect at best, and a disgraceful example of America’s judicial system deeply failing the people meant to serve.
Without a doubt, Epstein should have been put away for life in 2008. It’s an absolute disgrace that it took a decade for him and his behavior to be brought to public light. The rich and powerful get away with far too much—we must crack down on such instances of perversions of our judicial systems and of our humanity.
The Miami Herald’s exposé was a brilliant example of investigative journalism and reminded us all of how important journalism is to our democracy. As a result of their report, Epstein was later jailed and likely would have lived out the rest of his life in prison had he not died under suspicious circumstances.
Many of the people Epstien invited to his island on a routine basis are now under severe public scrutiny and, one would hope, will be investigated and tried to reveal the truth regarding the purpose of their visits. The significance of their report cannot be overstated.
 100vw, 820px”/></p><p id=)
Epstein’s 2008 conviction suggests, however, that money can buy you just about anything. Just like he got away with his horrific crimes barely scathed, those who joined him on the island, populated by young girls who were abused, will likely be able to avoid the pains of due process altogether. All of which is made possible by waving their money around easily corruptible public representatives who are supposed to be protecting individuals from such figures.
Epstein is a mere drop in the bucket. Just as his 2008 conviction and dozens of girls who alleged his abuse were glaring signals of his criminal behavior, the largely unheeded allegations of sexual abuse against Bill Cosby were glaring signals of his criminal behavior.
The same applies to Michael Jackson, who faced two separate allegations, both of which he was acquitted of. Moreover, both of which appear to have likely been swept under the rug. Actual instances of him sexually abusing young boys as further posthumous investigations revealed a number of other boys had likely been abused.
This issue of warning signs being ignored even extends internationally, as popular British radio host Jimmy Saville was posthumously revealed to have sexually abused around half a thousand victims, some as young as two years old. He faced multiple allegations throughout his career, all of which went unheeded and were lazily investigated by the police, despite the plethora of people who came forward.
The examples run on. They run on for a shockingly disturbing amount of time.
 and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 507px, 100vw”/></p><p id=)
The release of the Epstein documents is an especially important case.
There are many influential, famous, filthy-rich people on the manifest that traveled back and forth from his island — it’s impossible to imagine not a single one of them either knew about or was directly involved with the abuse that occurred there. It is, however, much easier to imagine that the majority of them were either directly involved or knew in detail. How could they not know? How could nobody said anything?
The judicial system has failed us time and time again on this matter. Not only as Americans, but as human beings interested in equality, decency, the truth, and an expulsion of all evil.
The allegation against Cosby should have been deeply investigated, and his “jokes” more profoundly analyzed and questioned— perhaps we could have locked him away before he drugged and raped more women.
The allegations against Jackson should have been more deeply investigated, and his trial not so quickly thrown to the side, the children who bravely stepped forward not so swiftly dismissed. Perhaps we could have locked him away before he forced more children to commit sexual acts.
The absurdly high number of allegations against Saville should have been a clear sign of his disgusting behavior. How did we not look into that further? All those people, often children, being brave enough to step forward against such a horrible and abusive man, praying on the vulnerability of the weak and powerless. Perhaps we could have locked him away before he continued his rampage totaling a number of, again, nearly 500 victims.
Epstein should not have gotten off so easily in 2008. If the prosecutor had truly cared about the law and what is right, if the judge had not allowed the deal to go through, if the world did not value money and personal enrichment over what is right and what is fair, perhaps we could have locked him away before he went back out into the world, few wounds to lick, and swiftly returned to his island from hell to force young women to commit sexual acts for him and his rich friends as if nothing had changed.
Acosta, his prosecutor in 2008, must be investigated. To say the deal he pulled was suspicious is a gross understatement. The same applies to the judge surveilling his case and the attorneys who represented the defense.
The clients on his manifest need to be investigated further. To think none of them were involved in Epstein’s ring of abuse is absurd and should be laughable were it not such a serious and devastating situation.
Allegations of sexual abuse, especially against those who are rich and powerful, need to be taken seriously. Imagine how difficult it is to be a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a publicly adored figure, for nobody to believe you, to be ridiculed and publicly trialed, to be ignored, discarded, and discredited.
We need to make serious changes. If we can’t prevent something like Epstein’s ring of abuse from occurring again, we can, at the very least, make sure it doesn’t go unpunished. We need to crack down. We need unity on this matter. We need to remind ourselves of what is wrong and what is right, and we need to hold each other accountable for actions that pervert our democracy and our humanity.
Related
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66eb5caecda644b7af4ee264ac6493a2&url=https%3A%2F%2Fhighschool.latimes.com%2Fjohn-marshall-high-school%2Fopinion-let-epstein-be-the-last-of-the-lot-we-need-to-crack-down-on-powerful-abusers%2F&c=3663556745426856784&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-09-18 11:46:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
