Friday, November 11, 2011
What has most struck me about the coverage of the child sexual assault scandal at Penn State is the complete lack of understanding on the part of the media about the dynamics of child sexual assaults. Mike and Mike in the morning has focused on this tragedy extensively, and they are completely at a loss to understand how members of the athletic department at Penn State could know damning details and yet fail to instigate direct action like calling the police themselves. How naive they are.
I do not have extensive experience with child sexual assaults, but I have been around the edges of their prosecution enough to know it is very common that everyone around the perpetrator engages in denial. Nobody wants to believe their friend, colleague, co-worker, boss, relative, or neighbor engages in this most-vile crime. And even if they believe, they really want no part of bringing it into the open and prosecuting the matter. The visceral disgust with this evil makes everyone want to run the other way. So I completely understand why graduate assistant McQueary, now promoted to coach, was satisfied with making a report to the legend Joe Paterno, and feeling his obligation ended there. The media has been all over this guy for why he didn’t take it upon himself to call the police. They just don’t have any concept about the dynamics of this situation.
Similarly, I can understand why Paterno felt that his cursory report to higher-ups was sufficient response. He is a football coach, nothing more. Whether criminal investigation is necessary is something he does not want to contemplate. A quick report to someone in power and he is done, and can go back to working on developing a game plan, arranging a schedule, speaking to the media, or arranging a visit to some oversized high school kid’s house to tell his parents how Penn State is the answer to their family’s prayers. The idea that his locker room not only shelters a disgusting pervert, but hosts the despicable behavior is not something Paterno wanted to dwell upon.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not approving of these reactions, but I have some glimmer of understanding, in ways the media seems not to, how everyone involved wanted to merely get Sandusky away from them and move on. People want to pass the buck in this situation because anything more drags them deeply into something they don’t even want to acknowledge exists. We have seen this reaction to sexual perversion regularly. School officials denying what students report, for example, or clergy members merely moving a perverted priest to another parish while shuffling the victim off to religious counseling. It is more common than not that a mother will deny their her child’s outcry that daddy is putting his thing in her mouth. Doing more means scrutiny, involvement with a justice system most people try to avoid, and ultimately confronting their own insecurities about how evil lived with them and they never knew it.
Sure, we would all like to believe that when confronted with something that needs reporting we will do the right thing. But when it comes to child sexual assaults denial is a strong reaction; or if not denial, doing the minimum and telling yourself it is out of your hands. McQueary could have called the police himself. Doing so would have risked everything he had at the moment—a graduate assistant position leading to what probably was his dream job, coaching football at his alma mater. Castigating him for failing to be more aggressive makes Mike Golic look like a champion of the victim, but displays ignorance of the world of child sexual assaults.
Do I think McQuery should have called the cops? Sure. Would I expect him to? No. I would have expected more from Joe Pa, but looked what he risked. The consequences for his reporting were not much different from what ultimately happened to him for not reporting. I suggest that in his mind the arrest of Sandusky would have been tantamount to Paterno’s termination and the destruction of his program. Of course, now Paterno is tainted with his inaction, but like most people, I bet he thought some words to the perp would be enough for this behavior to stop.
Few people understand pedophilia. I doubt the Penn State administrators understood that failure to act aggressively against Sandusky could only result in more victims. So many people think pedophilia is a disease like the flu which can be cured with some minor intervention. They told him to stop, they probably figured he would.
Whatever they were thinking, they for sure wanted no part of any kind of prosecution. And when the local DA declined charges I am sure they felt the issue was closed. Whatever ole Jerry was up to in the shower room was not criminal, or at least not prosecutable, so they turned the page and moved on.
Many questions have been asked about why the long-lost DA declined to prosecute. (Isn’t that the strangest twist in a bizarre story?) Of course, we don’t know exactly was presented to him. What has been called a confession I think was merely an admission Sandusky showered with the boy, but not a confession to sexual activity. That may have been enough to support proseuction, depending on what other information the DA had, but perhaps not. I don’t know how much experience that office had with crimes against children, but I know when I first started screening cases in the ‘80s I had no idea how to size up an allegation of this kind. I routinely rejected cases which seemed to be no more than a child’s accusation denied by a respected adult. Only through the advent of specialized units did the prosecution of child sex assault advance sufficiently to know how to evaluate a filing of this nature. Even so, most child sex assault prosecutors accept that many of these cases will result in acquittals, for the same reason no one wants to report them—juries don’t want to believe an upstanding member of the community forms a charity for children as a ruse to get them alone so he can assault them. But accepting a case against a highly-placed football coach in the county where Penn State football reigns supreme would not be something a prosecutor would want to do without strong proof. The alternative is a horrible, drawn-out process resulting in an acquittal which may help no one. Let’s not forget the impact of a prosecution like this on the victim, even a child victim.
All in all it added up to years of abuse by Sandusky.
What outrages me much more than McQueary’s and Paterno’s inactions is the perjury committed by the Penn State officials. The media seems to ignore this. Of course we have gotten used to misconduct by athletes and the cover-up of that behavior by athletic organizations. Still, lying to a grand jury is a serious matter. It got Barry Bonds a federal felony conviction and Bill Clinton the second impeachment trial in U.S. history. Golic cannot seem to channel his outrage against these men who not only failed to act, but deliberately lied to the authorities trying to get it right. I guess he gets no props from his supporters for merely standing up for the rule of law. In truth I like Golic, but I think sometimes he, and Greenberg, too, choose to opine on matters of which they know little. I guess that is the job of a talk show host. And frankly their so-called legal “experts” help them very little. This morning some attorney suggested that the reason McQueary has kept his job is that the state attorney general, who is prosecuting this case, told Penn State to keep him employed because he is the star witness. Seriously? Mike and Mike bought this conspiracy-theory mentality because who doesn’t like a good government manipulation of a situation? I guarantee no prosecutor would take such an action, in large part because it would undermine McQueary’s credibility as a witness.
So I will watch this drama play out, but I will be glad when Mike and Mike get back to fawning over the Jets and Notre Dame (which also is annoying, but at least is within their bailiwick) and making sophomoric predictions for the weekend’s football action.
I do not have extensive experience with child sexual assaults, but I have been around the edges of their prosecution enough to know it is very common that everyone around the perpetrator engages in denial. Nobody wants to believe their friend, colleague, co-worker, boss, relative, or neighbor engages in this most-vile crime. And even if they believe, they really want no part of bringing it into the open and prosecuting the matter. The visceral disgust with this evil makes everyone want to run the other way. So I completely understand why graduate assistant McQueary, now promoted to coach, was satisfied with making a report to the legend Joe Paterno, and feeling his obligation ended there. The media has been all over this guy for why he didn’t take it upon himself to call the police. They just don’t have any concept about the dynamics of this situation.
Similarly, I can understand why Paterno felt that his cursory report to higher-ups was sufficient response. He is a football coach, nothing more. Whether criminal investigation is necessary is something he does not want to contemplate. A quick report to someone in power and he is done, and can go back to working on developing a game plan, arranging a schedule, speaking to the media, or arranging a visit to some oversized high school kid’s house to tell his parents how Penn State is the answer to their family’s prayers. The idea that his locker room not only shelters a disgusting pervert, but hosts the despicable behavior is not something Paterno wanted to dwell upon.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not approving of these reactions, but I have some glimmer of understanding, in ways the media seems not to, how everyone involved wanted to merely get Sandusky away from them and move on. People want to pass the buck in this situation because anything more drags them deeply into something they don’t even want to acknowledge exists. We have seen this reaction to sexual perversion regularly. School officials denying what students report, for example, or clergy members merely moving a perverted priest to another parish while shuffling the victim off to religious counseling. It is more common than not that a mother will deny their her child’s outcry that daddy is putting his thing in her mouth. Doing more means scrutiny, involvement with a justice system most people try to avoid, and ultimately confronting their own insecurities about how evil lived with them and they never knew it.
Sure, we would all like to believe that when confronted with something that needs reporting we will do the right thing. But when it comes to child sexual assaults denial is a strong reaction; or if not denial, doing the minimum and telling yourself it is out of your hands. McQueary could have called the police himself. Doing so would have risked everything he had at the moment—a graduate assistant position leading to what probably was his dream job, coaching football at his alma mater. Castigating him for failing to be more aggressive makes Mike Golic look like a champion of the victim, but displays ignorance of the world of child sexual assaults.
Do I think McQuery should have called the cops? Sure. Would I expect him to? No. I would have expected more from Joe Pa, but looked what he risked. The consequences for his reporting were not much different from what ultimately happened to him for not reporting. I suggest that in his mind the arrest of Sandusky would have been tantamount to Paterno’s termination and the destruction of his program. Of course, now Paterno is tainted with his inaction, but like most people, I bet he thought some words to the perp would be enough for this behavior to stop.
Few people understand pedophilia. I doubt the Penn State administrators understood that failure to act aggressively against Sandusky could only result in more victims. So many people think pedophilia is a disease like the flu which can be cured with some minor intervention. They told him to stop, they probably figured he would.
Whatever they were thinking, they for sure wanted no part of any kind of prosecution. And when the local DA declined charges I am sure they felt the issue was closed. Whatever ole Jerry was up to in the shower room was not criminal, or at least not prosecutable, so they turned the page and moved on.
Many questions have been asked about why the long-lost DA declined to prosecute. (Isn’t that the strangest twist in a bizarre story?) Of course, we don’t know exactly was presented to him. What has been called a confession I think was merely an admission Sandusky showered with the boy, but not a confession to sexual activity. That may have been enough to support proseuction, depending on what other information the DA had, but perhaps not. I don’t know how much experience that office had with crimes against children, but I know when I first started screening cases in the ‘80s I had no idea how to size up an allegation of this kind. I routinely rejected cases which seemed to be no more than a child’s accusation denied by a respected adult. Only through the advent of specialized units did the prosecution of child sex assault advance sufficiently to know how to evaluate a filing of this nature. Even so, most child sex assault prosecutors accept that many of these cases will result in acquittals, for the same reason no one wants to report them—juries don’t want to believe an upstanding member of the community forms a charity for children as a ruse to get them alone so he can assault them. But accepting a case against a highly-placed football coach in the county where Penn State football reigns supreme would not be something a prosecutor would want to do without strong proof. The alternative is a horrible, drawn-out process resulting in an acquittal which may help no one. Let’s not forget the impact of a prosecution like this on the victim, even a child victim.
All in all it added up to years of abuse by Sandusky.
What outrages me much more than McQueary’s and Paterno’s inactions is the perjury committed by the Penn State officials. The media seems to ignore this. Of course we have gotten used to misconduct by athletes and the cover-up of that behavior by athletic organizations. Still, lying to a grand jury is a serious matter. It got Barry Bonds a federal felony conviction and Bill Clinton the second impeachment trial in U.S. history. Golic cannot seem to channel his outrage against these men who not only failed to act, but deliberately lied to the authorities trying to get it right. I guess he gets no props from his supporters for merely standing up for the rule of law. In truth I like Golic, but I think sometimes he, and Greenberg, too, choose to opine on matters of which they know little. I guess that is the job of a talk show host. And frankly their so-called legal “experts” help them very little. This morning some attorney suggested that the reason McQueary has kept his job is that the state attorney general, who is prosecuting this case, told Penn State to keep him employed because he is the star witness. Seriously? Mike and Mike bought this conspiracy-theory mentality because who doesn’t like a good government manipulation of a situation? I guarantee no prosecutor would take such an action, in large part because it would undermine McQueary’s credibility as a witness.
So I will watch this drama play out, but I will be glad when Mike and Mike get back to fawning over the Jets and Notre Dame (which also is annoying, but at least is within their bailiwick) and making sophomoric predictions for the weekend’s football action.
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