Friday, February 26, 2021

Killed for being a tough coach

I am all for locking up child molesters, but this story is about applying sex abuse laws to prosecute a coach who merely supervised rigorous training of young athletes.

NY Times reports:

The sexual abuse crisis that has shaken American gymnastics deepened on Thursday when a coach of the 2012 women’s Olympic team was charged with human trafficking and sexually assaulting a teenage girl, before killing himself a short time later. ...

The accusations against Mr. Geddert, 63, revealed a previously unreported level of abuse at the hands of a coach who helped the 2012 team to a gold medal and had worked closely with Mr. Nassar. ...

Ms. Nessel had planned a new legal strategy in charging Mr. Geddert with human trafficking. The term refers not only to sexual exploitation but to coerced labor of any kind, and Ms. Nessel charged that Geddert had “subjected his athletes to forced labor or services under extreme conditions that contributed to them suffering injuries and harm.” The charge was added in an effort designed to stop coaches and other people in power in gymnastics from abusing young athletes who might be too intimidated or frightened to speak out. ...

“It checks all the boxes,” she said. “They don’t have to be kidnapped. The coercion is inherent in the way that he was exploiting their careers.”

A coach trained some champion athletes 9 years ago. The "forced labor" is telling them to do exercises. How do they think champions get where they are? Coaches tell them to do exercises.

All of this went on many years ago, with the approval of parents, schools, sports organizations, and everyone else. Why is it suddenly a crime?

And why is it a sex crime?

He killed himself because he was going to get the Nassar treatment -- branded a monstrous pervert and locked up for the rest of his life, without even getting a fair trial.

Nassar got 100s of years in prison on federal and state charges. His crime was to do some medical exams on teenaged girls. Many of the exams were in the presence of the parents. Some of his colleagues thought that his methods were unusual, but nobody thought that they were criminal.

Here is more info on these charges. I haven't studied this closely, but I haven't seen anything criminal. It appears that some groups are out to destroy girls gymnastics. Any sensible man will stay far away from the sport.

Another article says that the Minnesota cop will be prosecuted on federal and state charges for murdering George Floyd. Everyone knows he is innocent, but is being prosecuted to reduce race riots. If the jury acquits him in his state trial this year, the Biden administration wants to be ready to put him in federal prison anyway. Never mind that the Bill of Rights says "nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb".

2 comments:

MikeAdamson said...

Digital penetration is sexual assault. This may be considered an sjw point of view by some but I'm confident most would agree.

Roger said...

I cannot find any specifics on the charge. Some of the charges go back to 2008. The sexual assault charge just involves one girl. There is no mention of witnesses. The news article says that details were to be revealed later in court. It all sounds dubious to me. This is the second suicide related to Nassar.