Sexual assaults have been covered up by literally every organization that has ever had people in it. This isn’t a sport issue, the Catholic Church has been doing it for thousands of years. Hell even families have covered up this kind of thing by paying people off for all of known history. Why are you surprised it exists anywhere? Fining people isn’t going to stop that either, even if you started jailing executives from organizations if it happens all you would see is organizations shutting down, there’s nothing they can do to prevent it 100% of the time no matter how much they “change their culture” .

So what’s your solution? How do you prove something that happens only inside someone’s mind?

You could video tape every single sexual encounter from start to finish, require both drug and alchohol tests prior to ensure competence, have the people involved make sworn statements before and every 5 minutes during, and it still wouldn’t hold up if one party said they felt pressured because they thought the person would hurt them (physically, mentally, emotionally) outside the encounter if they didn’t go through with it.

The system doesn’t work.

So either sex has to stop entirely, people need to risk going to jail every time they have sex, or we need to change the system.

I mean, you say hockey is the problem, but people will literally fight you over coffee, a parking spot, or some invisible force in the sky.

It’s not the sport that’s causing problems, it’s just humans being humans.

We like to think we’re evolved beyond such stupidity, but we aren’t even close.

Anyone pretending that “changing the culture” will magically eliminate the problem entirely is just as stupid as the people they’re complaining about.

People are always going to do bad things, and that’s why we have a legal system to deal with those situations.

Because you can’t prove what’s inside your mind, and that’s what a lot of sexual assault cases come down to.

She said and acted one way, but is saying after the fact that in her head she believed something else.

You can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt in that case.

This case has been on my mind a lot lately.

It’s possible that (a) they absolutely committed sexual crimes, and (b) they shouldn’t be convicted.

It is the law’s job to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That means that the accusers in any case have to provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt - which unfortunately means getting grilled mercilessly.

It’s imperfect - it’s a flawed system that lets guilty people go free. HOWEVER, better to let the guilty go free than imprison the innocent. And the thing is, as long as there isn’t a perfect record of all actions and intentions, it’s always going to be imperfect.

My feeling is that they five are dirtbags who at the VERY least, took gross advantage of a woman who didn’t know what she was getting in to; and are almost certainly guilty in a non-legal sense of rape. But generally speaking, if the judge says there isn’t enough evidence to convict them, then I’m inclined to believe the judge.

Now the real question is whether the NHL opens their arms to these shitheads, or whether they say “no, we’d rather not.” Except that it’s not a question - the NHL, like any sports league, will come up with an excuse to allow at least the good ones in without consequence.

Sexual assaults have been covered up by literally every organization that has ever had people in it. This isn’t a sport issue, the Catholic Church has been doing it for thousands of years. Hell even families have covered up this kind of thing by paying people off for all of known history. Why are you surprised it exists anywhere? Fining people isn’t going to stop that either, even if you started jailing executives from organizations if it happens all you would see is organizations shutting down, there’s nothing they can do to prevent it 100% of the time no matter how much they “change their culture” .

So what’s your solution? How do you prove something that happens only inside someone’s mind?

You could video tape every single sexual encounter from start to finish, require both drug and alchohol tests prior to ensure competence, have the people involved make sworn statements before and every 5 minutes during, and it still wouldn’t hold up if one party said they felt pressured because they thought the person would hurt them (physically, mentally, emotionally) outside the encounter if they didn’t go through with it.

The system doesn’t work.

So either sex has to stop entirely, people need to risk going to jail every time they have sex, or we need to change the system.

There is video of her “consenting” but you could hear the men in the background telling her “say it, say it”. A woman in a room of at least 5 large men intimidating her to consent is not consent, that is coercion. And that is not in her head, that is video evidence.

It’s funny, I for one have never had to worry about going to jail after sex… Maybe it has to do with not getting friends to take turns on someone who wasn’t even aware this could be a possibility, who knows.

You seem to be conveniently forgetting the whole part about the judge completely ignoring the 5 men and focusing on accusing the victim of lying. That has nothing to do with proving or not the guilt of the accused.