The jury is not still out on Jacko's guilt or innocence when it comes to child molestation. The facts below should put to rest any doubt that this man endangered the lives of children, including his own. Why then is America, and the world, acting as if he was merely an eccentric genius, as opposed to a child predator with multiple victims?
Finding a balanced view on Michael Jackson is nearly impossible. Mostly because America, and the world, know collectively little about child sexual abuse, it's scope, and those who commit it. Society is often quick to condemn child predators (send them to jail for life! put them on an island! castrate them!) but when faced with actual predators who they might actually like, their responses are woefully opposite.
Such is the case of Michael Jackson.
Most people continue to say that he wasn't convicted, and nobody really knows what happened. The kids' families were looking for money. If you weren't there, how can you point the finger? Well... I wasn't there, and I am pointing the finger. Michael Jackson was a sex offender. He got away with it. Play his music if you like, but bury him, and forget about him. The world is better off without him.
In 1993, during the first molestation trial, the young boy victimized by Jackson accurately described, under oath, exact details about Michael Jackson's penis:
With Los Angeles Police Department detectives weighing his claims, Chandler gave them a roadmap to Jackson's below-the-waist geography, which, he said, includes distinctive "splotches" on his buttocks and one on his penis, "which is a light color similar to the color of his face." The boy's information was so precise, he even pinpointed where the splotch fell while Jackson's penis was erect, the length of the performer's pubic hair, and that he was circumcised.
It wasn't long after law enforcement's photo session that Jackson agreed to settle Chandler's civil claim for north of $20 million.
Read whole article here
Need more? Jackson's own sister, LaToya said in a press conference in 1993: "I can't remain silent. I will not be a silent collaborator in his crimes against small, innocent children." She later went on to say that she knew that Michael had brought young boys to his house to molest them, and that she knew that he had fondled them. She indicated that other family members knew as well, but kept silent.
Need even more?
The lead investigator on Jackson's 1993 case found that Jackson had a secret alarm installed in his hallway to alert him if anyone was walking down the hall toward his bedroom:
DWORIN: Jackson's bedroom suite was off to one side of the house. And it's reached by a hallway. And when an individual walks down that hallway, it sets off an alarm within Jackson's bedroom. Now an alarm is both a buzzer, I believe, as well as a musical tone.
HARRIS (on camera): The reason for that alarm?
DWORIN: You can guess anything you want to guess. My feeling was it's a warning that someone was approaching Jackson's bedroom door.
HARRIS: So that?
DWORIN: If something improper was happening, it would stop. But then we don't know.
Read the whole transcript here- and scroll down.
Now, the most recent molestation case ended in a not guilty verdict. The boy in that case never sought any money from Jackson. And for those (and there are many of you) who say "well, he was found not guilty by a jury of his peers", does the same go for OJ? I guess he didnt' brutally stab his wife Nicole and her waiter friend to death in a jealous rage. It must have been those columbian drug lords again. Maybe they molested the kids in MJ's bed while he was tinkling in the bathroom....
And as far as that jury goes in 2005, most of them said they believed that Jackson had molested kids in his life, but they felt that the evidence in this particular case did not warrant a conviction.
He did it! what more do you need? Some people have said that if I wasn't there, how do I know? That is a classic denial when it comes to child sexual abuse. THe vast majority of sexual molestation of children occurs in one-adult, one-child situations. Molesters of children do that purposely to break down the child's defenses, and to minimize the chances of a witness, also, it's the adult's word against the childs.
Jackson isolated his victims. He preyed upon young boys, some who had cancer. He set his house up like an amusement park to lure children. He even used alcohol to break their defenses down. Court documentation shows that witnesses testified that JAckson gave children wine, callilng it "Jesus Juice". Why was he giving 10 year olds wine????
This is NOT circumstantial evidence. It is actual. And conclusive.
And then Jackson in his own words. He admitted to sleeping in bed with little boys who weren't his own. He saw nothing wrong with it. He claimed he would sleep on the floor, but that's not what 3 of his victims said. And yes, the parents of some of those kids exercised EXTREMELY poor judgement in allowing their kids to sleep over his house, and multiple times. BUT HAVING A CRAZY MOTHER WITH NO JUDGEMENT DOESN'T MEAN THE KIDS WEREN'T MOLESTED, IN FACT IT'S MORE LIKELY THEY WERE IN DANGER BECAUSE THERE WERE NO SANE ADULTS TO KEEP THEM SAFE!
Jackson, like all predators, relied on the ignorance of the rest of us to get away with his crimes. He relied on the disbelief we have when it comes to child sexual abuse. He relied on the silence of his victims, their weekness, and the reality that mostly, when children do come forward, they are not believed. He manipulated them, he hurt them, and he threatened them.
The lead investigator in the 1993 case said that he had interviewed over 4000 victims of child sexual abuse in his life, and that he absolutely believed the allegations against Jackson.
1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthdays, and this will continue as long as the public looks the other way. For more information and statistics on sex abuse, click here.
So, the world mourns the loss of Michael Jackson. They say he had his demons. They call him eccentric, even a little crazy. But no one dares, not on CNN, not on MSNBC, not on FOX, no one dares call him what he was. A child molester. A neglector of his own children (hanging a baby over a balcony in Germany got him photographed, in the US, it would have gotten him charged with parental neglect).
Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, stalwarts of civil rights, continue to heap praises on Michael Jackson, calling him a great human being and a great American. Where is their concern and sympathy for the child victims that he harmed? Or, collectively, for all children victimized by sex abuse? Child sexual abuse needs to be seen as a civil rights issue, then this country will take it seriously, and will work to eradicate it. The hypocryisy of Jesse Jackson, Sharpton et al. when it comes to THIS civil rights issue is truly disappointing, but not unexpected.
Child abuse IS a civil rights issue. Kids are abused, neglected, and molested simply because of their age, and their dependence on and relationship to their attackers. Collectively, we are all at fault, becuase we look the other way. We sometimes look the other way when a relative has "poor boundaries" with children, and we collectively look the other way when we memorialize, and idolize, Michael Jackson.
On the front page of the NY TIMES today, a photograph of a sign in London read "AT THIS POINT OUR THOUGHTS ARE WITH MICHAEL'S CHILDREN, FAMILY AND FRIENDS". My thoughts are with his victims, and the millions of other victims of child abuse, most of them forgotten, silent, and often never believed.
Good riddance, Michael Jackson.