Al Porter Scandal

AnneFrank wrote: »

why didn't any of them deck him ?

You punch him = assault charges = "homophobic attack"

seachto7 wrote: »

Does this suggest they would have done "anything" to be famous?

No. I’m just baffled at how Al Porter held so much sway at 19/20 that people were afraid to do anything about it.
Had anybody heard of him 5 years ago?

Eponymous wrote: »

You punch him = assault charges = "homophobic attack"

Exactly perfect defence really.who are they going to believe in this situation the less famous,possibly jealous straight white comedian or they already famous nothing to gain from it tv/radio recognised comedian?

Vojera wrote: »

1. Because some people freeze when something like this happens and don't know how to react. A lot of people are kind of reared to laugh things off so as not to make things awkward, but obviously that shouldn't apply to a situation like this.

2. If they hit him, chances are they could end up being the ones in trouble. I'd hate to see someone defending themselves being charged with a hate crime, but look at it this way - the punch is something the guards know for sure happened, but the grope is your word against his.

3. At least one of the alleged incidents took place backstage at a comedy club. If the person in that instance had boxed him, he could seriously damage his career doing something like that in the workplace.

EDIT: Anyway, the question shouldn't be "why did none of the victims hit him?", it should be "why was this man allegedly groping people?"
It's not right to put it back on the victim, man or woman. It's that sort of attitude that makes it so hard for men to come forward in cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault, this idea that if they were a "real man" they would have sorted it out themselves. It's damaging.

That's the key part here. It was done in the toilets with no cameras and likely no one else in there so no witnesses. There's a predatory aspect to that. It's not as if he was out in the open in a pub or club doing it.

He might have expected to get hit for sexually assaulting someone, and if he didn't think that then he is clearly deluded. If he was quite understandably hit then as mentioned it's a case of assault on him and it get's attention as he is a high profile, gay man he could play the homophobic attack angle if he got clattered to escape accountability or responsibility. He get's to play the victim for sympathy and in doing so let's someone, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, get destroyed through the court and media whereas the reality is that is was just someone who simply reacted to his sexual assault.

Also often sexual assault perps carefully choose their victims. They will choose ppl who they feel are vulnerable or won't be able to make a strong deterrence to their assault. They often are extremely cunning in their activities.

Vojera wrote: »

EDIT: Anyway, the question shouldn't be "why did none of the victims hit him?", it should be "why was this man allegedly groping people?"
It's not right to put it back on the victim, man or woman. It's that sort of attitude that makes it so hard for men to come forward in cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault, this idea that if they were a "real man" they would have sorted it out themselves. It's damaging.

The question I would ask is why would a victim not complain to the garda and instead do so via social media.

How many of the assault accusations relate to a time when he was a media figure? As for his career if you can masturbate in a plane....

anna080 wrote: »

His material is totally unsuited now. It's 99% him wanting to ride every man in sight. He'd never get away with it.
As an aside, probably an unpopular opinion but Jesus I feel a bit sorry for the bastard. I don't have Twitter but a girl I work with showed me her timeline there and the abuse he's getting. Jaysus. Are people enjoying his downfall a bit too much? You can condemn his actions and feel what he did was wrong, but some of the abuse he's getting his very personal and it seems like people are revelling in his misery.
I just could never do that.

Maybe but Im not so sure. To me he sees himself as a bit of an old school cabaret presenter / crooner,and was trying to position himself in that direction anyway. I was expecting him to gradually reign in the filth and go more mainstream over time. This might propel him down that road.

Balmed Out wrote: »

The question I would ask is why would a victim not complain to the garda and instead do so via social media.

There are many, many reasons.
The same question is often asked about rape victims - "why didn't she go to the Gardai?", "Why did she spread rumours instead of having him arrested?".

I don't know if you've ever been assaulted - not necessarily sexually, even being punched by someone in the street, or mugged, or some scumbag starting on you.

Everyone reacts differently. There's often an immediate sense of personal shame.
Shame that you didn't react appropriately, that you froze, or ran, or talked softly instead of shouting.
Shame that you may have "exposed" yourself to the behaviour through your actions.
Shame that instead of standing up for yourself, you wilted and relented.
Shame that you missed the warning signs, which were obvious in hindsight.

It is this sense of shame that makes people reluctant to go straight to the Gardai. Instead they'll sit on it for a couple of days, often saying nothing to anyone - nobody wants to admit their personal failings, especially when it's so raw. "If I say nothing to anyone, I can just pretend nothing happened, move on".

In the case of sexual assault, it's this delay that's the big problem. When the fog of shame lifts, you realise that you've been wronged. But now you have no evidence, you've been going about a "normal life" for a couple of days, and so coming forward with an allegation now is a huge deal - one which carries a huge risk of not being believed.
So instead, you double down, you try to move on and forget about it.

Of course, when said person then starts appearing all over the media as great craic, beloved darling of the talk shows, seemingly getting on brilliantly with their own life despite what they've done to you, that's going to make you very bitter and angry. And desperate to get the truth out.

So you're not going to go to the Gardai - what are they going to do about an alleged grope in a nightclub 4 years ago? Instead, you're going to try and find other ways of getting the message out.

Note; I'm not saying that the allegations are true. Simply answering the question of why someone would make their complaint in the media (social or traditional) rather than through the authorities.

anna080 wrote:

His material is totally unsuited now. It's 99% him wanting to ride every man in sight. He'd never get away with it. As an aside, probably an unpopular opinion but Jesus I feel a bit sorry for the bastard. I don't have Twitter but a girl I work with showed me her timeline there and the abuse he's getting. Jaysus. Are people enjoying his downfall a bit too much? You can condemn his actions and feel what he did was wrong, but some of the abuse he's getting his very personal and it seems like people are revelling in his misery. I just could never do that.

I don't have Twitter either, but I'm shocked at how nasty people are here about his comedy. I actually thought he was very good, but you seem to get more abuse for that than for defending his actions.

I suspect people are using this to bash him more than Michael Cogan for example because they don't like how camp he is.

Just to be clear, his alleged actions are reprehensible and well into the realms of sexual assault. But the bashing seems to be much broader than his actions. It seems opportunistic.

blue note wrote: »

I don't have Twitter either, but I'm shocked at how nasty people are here about his comedy. I actually thought he was very good, but you seem to get more abuse for that than for defending his actions.

I suspect people are using this to bash him more than Michael Cogan for example because they don't like how camp he is.

Just to be clear, his alleged actions are reprehensible and well into the realms of sexual assault. But the bashing seems to be much broader than his actions. It seems opportunistic.

I suspect they don't like the sheer overriding arrogance contained in his apology and his attempt to downplay sexual assault. Having been grabbed myself by a random stranger, it is very distressing, and the perpetrator just sneered and smiled at me as he took in how I looked, obviously pleased and satisfied by my look of shock and loss at what to do, I felt sick and it ruined my night. If it's happened to you then you know better, call it life experience.

cloudatlas wrote:

I suspect they don't like the sheer overriding arrogance contained in his apology and his attempt to downplay sexual assault. Having been grabbed myself by a random stranger, it is very distressing, and the perpetrator just sneered and smiled at me as he took in how I looked, obviously pleased and satisfied by my look of shock and loss at what to do, I felt sick and it ruined my night. If it's happened to you then you know better, call it life experience.

People were racing into this thread to say he was completely unfunny and simply a rubbish comedian well before his apology. Now, a significant amount of it was surely posting in the hope of getting lots of thanks, but it came across as nasty to me. Basically that people were delighted they could now have a go at him, rather than what he did.