In Defense of Gov. Cuomo
by John Lawrence
One of the principles of American democracy is that people accused of wrongdoing will get their day in court during which they can present their case and their defense against said accusations. Cuomo was accused, tried, judged and found guilty in the media without ever having his day in court or an opportunity to adequately defend himself. The media is only too happy to cooperate with the #MeToo movement because, frankly, their ratings go up any time they report something salacious and titillating. This goes against every principle of jurisprudence and common sense. In a day when everyone has to sign away their rights in order to do business with Google, Facebook, Microsoft and any large corporation (those long legal agreements which no one ever reads but you have to tick the box after scrolling to the bottom), and agree to going to arbitration rather than suing, why don't large business and political entities have a clause in their employee contracts that any grievance should first be taken up with a designated person in human resources? Why doesn't their employee agreement prohibit them from going immediately to the media? Grievances should be settled if possible in house especially the kinds of grievances expressed by several women against Gov. Cuomo for which he would have been found innocent in a court of law if a judge even agreed to take them up.
What if the women who accused Cuomo had gone first to human resources and complained. There should have been a procedure in place for doing that. Then the complainant and complainee could have been brought together in an attempt to work out their differences and come to an understanding or resolution. If no understanding and resolution could take place, then they could be brought before an arbitration or mediation board either in house or before an independent body for resolution and finally, there should be a provision for someone in authority to have the prerogative of meting out punishment. For these kind of grievances, which can't be properly adjudicated in a court of law, there should be a shadow system for resolving them.
The definition of a peccadilloe is a small, relatively unimportant offense or sin, perhaps more appropriately taken up with one's priest in the confession booth rather than tried before the whole world in the media. IMHO this would have been the appropriate place for Gov. Cuomo to deal with his sins, not trying to defend himself in the media. Most of the accusations against him were not worth a hill of beans IMHO. Inappropriate touching is not touching someone's back or stomach or face. Kissing is not inappropriate touching IMHO. Inappropriate touching is touching genitialia or breasts. Whatever Gov. Cuomo has been accused of, in the past, women would have dealt with it by means of a slap across the face or a "Back off buddy" or "My boyfriend wouldn't like that." So why didn't they do that or complain to human resources instead of proceeding to try Cuomo in the media which is only too happy to oblige? We are all human, sinful and fallible. Part of the criminal justice system, and the religious system for that matter, is that we can all be rehabilitated and forgiven. I don't think Cuomo was given that chance. If 100 people accuse someone of a crime, criminal justice demands that he be given a chance to defend himself without being prejudiced in court by the number of accusers. It's not the number of accusers that is relevant; it's the crime in and of itself. However, one of the tenets of the #MeToo movement is that the more women who "come forward," the more likely it is that the accused will be judged guilty in the media and the court of public opinion.
Men will always be making sexual or romantic advances towards women. That's basically what human nature demands. The question is whether these advances are wanted or unwanted on the part of the women. The man making those advances doesn't know this initially. If the advances are unwanted, the woman should make that clear, and then, if the man persists, then that is a problem that needs to be dealt with by the woman. To my knowledge Cuomo didn't persist in any advances for which it was made clear to him by the woman involved that they were unwanted. Cuomo was right in that the line about appropriateness of touching has been redrawn. The line between peccadilloes and casual touching also needs to be redrawn. What were considered harmless peccadilloes in the past are considered by some egregious offenses today and men ignore this line, or the character of whom they are dealing with, at their peril.
