Climber Charles Barrett Arrested for Yosemite Sexual Assaults

so, are we done with this douche yet???

Everyone in this country is to blame for creating violent people like the accused. We allow our politicians to steal our collective money for the purposes of death and destruction, and in doing so, we neglect everyone's health and welfare. WE have allowed our culture to be obsessed with the domination and subjugation of the weak and vulnerable. I would guess that 95% of those of you in this thread voted for one of the two presidential candidates this past election who were both credibly accused of sexual assault. The lesser of two evils will always be evil, and you knowingly promote it. The Catholic Church still exists, the names of Epstein's client list will never be revealed, sex slaves exist all over the globe, yet we spend our collective money in foreign campaigns to control oil and resources. Until Congress and the military become truly convinced (by us) that we need to focus on problems that have never been addressed globally, we will continue to see cases of rape and assaults on vulnerable classes in our society by individuals, because we our the outcome of our societal goals. I blame everyone.

Assualts, abuse, harassment, etc are those who have more power over those....who don't. Nothing new there.

And, usually?

This isn't a random stranger, it's people we know. Or people your kid's know. Remember that kid on a climbing team preying on younger kid's on the team?

It's a tough thing. Raise your kid's to be decent humans....

And the natural inclination is to think well of people you know, until it's proven otherwise. Even then, a situation can continue.

I don't have a whole lot of answers to this, the worst part of it imo, more so than the low probability stranger encounter.

Especially not after this summer. I thought things were glacially improving, but....here we are. I definitely feel less respected as a woman than I have for decades. 

As to those rare low probability high consequence events, such as I experienced?

Read "The Gift of Fear", then decide if you want to share it with your kids.

Btw, I'm fairly confident my assailant graduated to murder a few years later, so I was extremely lucky to be "unharmed". That last would have gone against me in court. No real harm done, right???

Best, Helen

Matthew Jaggerswrote:

Everyone in this country is to blame for creating violent people like the accused. We allow our politicians to steal our collective money for the purposes of death and destruction, and in doing so, we neglect everyone's health and welfare. WE have allowed our culture to be obsessed with the domination and subjugation of the weak and vulnerable. I would guess that 95% of those of you in this thread voted for one of the two presidential candidates this past election who were both credibly accused of sexual assault. The lesser of two evils will always be evil, and you knowingly promote it. The Catholic Church still exists, the names of Epstein's client list will never be revealed, sex slaves exist all over the globe, yet we spend our collective money in foreign campaigns to control oil and resources. Until Congress and the military become truly convinced (by us) that we need to focus on problems that have never been addressed globally, we will continue to see cases of rape and assaults on vulnerable classes in our society by individuals, because we our the outcome of our societal goals. I blame everyone.

First, only one of the two presidents attempted a coup. Don’t try with this “both sides” thing. Biden was not responsible for Jan 6th, Trump is. Trump has been accused of sexual assault by 26 women. Biden has been accused of sexual harassment by one woman, who is currently under investigation for lying under oath. She also claims to have degrees that she does not have, according to the collage that she claims to have gotten her degrees from. I agree with you that Biden is the less of two evils. He evidentially won’t do what we need. We need comprehensive climate legislation. We need laws that protect people who come forward to accuse others of sexual assault. We need a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage. But Biden won’t do that. At least he’s not trump. At least he’s not banning abortion, or banning Muslims from coming into this country. Lastly, we don’t need congress to stop rapes. We need to change the culture of this nation, and to arrest the rapists. We have the tools to stop rape, we just don’t use them because of our bias against women.

Old lady Hwrote:

Read "The Gift of Fear", then decide if you want to share it with your kids.

Wow, that's a lovely random thing. I used to know Gavin de Becker, socially,  and LOVE that book. It taught me a lot. Highly recommended reading. 

Alright you two. Get a room.

Ezra Hendersonwrote:

First, only one of the two presidents attempted a coup. Don’t try with this “both sides” thing. Biden was not responsible for Jan 6th, Trump is. Trump has been accused of sexual assault by 26 women. Biden has been accused of sexual harassment by one woman, who is currently under investigation for lying under oath. She also claims to have degrees that she does not have, according to the collage that she claims to have gotten her degrees from. I agree with you that Biden is the less of two evils. He evidentially won’t do what we need. We need comprehensive climate legislation. We need laws that protect people who come forward to accuse others of sexual assault. We need a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage. But Biden won’t do that. At least he’s not trump. At least he’s not banning abortion, or banning Muslims from coming into this country. Lastly, we don’t need congress to stop rapes. We need to change the culture of this nation, and to arrest the rapists. We have the tools to stop rape, we just don’t use them because of our bias against women.

The ol' 'believe the old white guy over the victim' approach. Nice shift in narrative too, it's almost like Biden climbs V14 and your guilt of spotting him for his greatest send is more important than actually listening to a woman victim. Nice. 

Ezra Hendersonwrote:

…..We have the tools to stop rape, we just don’t use them because of our bias against women.

Curious for some elaboration on this one. 

Matthew Jaggerswrote:

The ol' 'believe the old white guy over the victim' approach. Nice shift in narrative too, it's almost like Biden climbs V14 and your guilt of spotting him for his greatest send is more important than actually listening to a woman victim. Nice. 

Are you related to the My Pillow Guy by any chance?

Mark Pilatewrote:

Curious for some elaboration on this one. 

This whole thread. CB has been arrested and will hopefully se consequences for his actions (Like jail time.) The thing is, this is really rare. The culture America is heavily based against women. More than half of rapes are unreported. Most rapists see very little consequences for their actions. We should work to make a safer environment for accusers, and more punishments for rapists.

Ezra Hendersonwrote:

This whole thread. CB has been arrested and will hopefully se consequences for his actions (Like jail time.) The thing is, this is really rare. The culture America is heavily based against women. More than half of rapes are unreported. Most rapists see very little consequences for their actions. We should work to make a safer environment for accusers, and more punishments for rapists.

Have any specifics in mind?

Yoda Jedi Knightwrote:

Have any specifics in mind?

We could make place for those who have been raped to make anonymous accusations, but a lot of this is cultural. We have to change the “boys will be boys” culture, and teach everyone that it is not ok to sexually harass or assault people, and we should see the accuser’s allegations as correct, unless the evidence suggests the opposite. We should also add a minimum sentence for rapists.

Ezra Hendersonwrote:

We should work to make a safer environment for accusers, and more punishments for rapists.

Punishments are not a viable deterrent for committing crimes. The tools we have are limited but education and therapy would be more helpful. Ensuring a safer environment like limiting access to guns and alcohol could be really beneficial, and I support that idea wholeheartedly though enforcement could also be challenging. They aren't easy problems to solve but it is sad that someone could live their life so free to infringe on the happiness of others after serving time and having a known issue. When you hear about "repeat offenders" it's really a complete system failure.

on deterrence:

https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/lbrr/archives/cnmcs-plcng/cn31136-eng.pdf

petzl logicwrote:

Punishments are not a viable deterrent for committing crimes. The tools we have are limited but education and therapy would be more helpful. Ensuring a safer environment like limiting access to guns and alcohol could be really beneficial, and I support that idea wholeheartedly though enforcement could also be challenging. They aren't easy problems to solve but it is sad that someone could live their life so free to infringe on the happiness of others after serving time and having a known issue. When you hear about "repeat offenders" it's really a complete system failure.

I agree with you. However, many rapists get off with no punishments whatsoever. We should stop that. We should provide therapy and help for all involved. Limiting access to alcohol, however, will not do anything. Most people who are raped trusted their rapist before they were raped.

Ezra Hendersonwrote:

I agree with you. However, many rapists get off with no punishments whatsoever. We should stop that. We should provide therapy and help for all involved. Limiting access to alcohol, however, will not do anything. Most people who are raped trusted their rapist before they were raped.

I am not in the victim blaming crowd here that is saying that women who have used alcohol bear some responsibility. I am saying that rapists and domestic abusers should lose their ability to purchase guns and alcohol because the stats show that those things make them more dangerous to society (as well as the women).

Ezra Hendersonwrote:

We could make place for those who have been raped to make anonymous accusations, but a lot of this is cultural. We have to change the “boys will be boys” culture, and teach everyone that it is not ok to sexually harass or assault people, and we should see the accuser’s allegations as correct, unless the evidence suggests the opposite. We should also add a minimum sentence for rapists.

But it's totally fine to support them if they're running for president, so long as they've assaulted a few less than the other monster! Got it.

---------

Ezra Henderson wrote:

I agree with you. However, many rapists get off with no punishments whatsoever. We should stop that. We should provide therapy and help for all involved. Limiting access to alcohol, however, will not do anything. Most people who are raped trusted their rapist before they were raped.

---------

We spend all of our money blowing up women and children in other countries to be able to take care of our women and children here.

Ezra Hendersonwrote:

We could make place for those who have been raped to make anonymous accusations, but a lot of this is cultural. We have to change the “boys will be boys” culture, and teach everyone that it is not ok to sexually harass or assault people, and we should see the accuser’s allegations as correct, unless the evidence suggests the opposite. We should also add a minimum sentence for rapists.

Don’t we already do most of those things? I agree that changes in culture/societal norms are important.

Ezra Hendersonwrote:

 we should see the accuser’s allegations as correct, unless the evidence suggests the opposite

uh this is extremely concerning if you believe this on a legal level. Outside this case, this an extremely dangerous belief. It is far far easier logistically to provide evidence someone did something, than provide the proof of the opposite. 

In this very thread, I could say you attacked me. Now provide me with proof you didn't attack me?

I would also say socially people side with the people they know. If they don't know them most reasonable people side with outcome of the court. Then like 5% of people; like this thread determine the outcome based on whatever their belief system is regardless of any evidence they might have. 

Well said Andrew.

Recall again the extremely low percentage of false accusations of sexual assault, as discussed earlier in this thread. 

Andrew, not to derail this thread, but I think the way the police treat sexual assault accusations is part of a much bigger problem with law enforcement culture, Misogyny is part of it. Racism too. And the number of law enforcement officers who are members of Oath Keepers and similar groups. I see that as the highly troublesome Big Picture for both law enforcement and the military.