The next three paragraphs concern the experiences of men in prison.
Whether one reads books written about prison life, talks to former or current prisoners, or watches movies or television shows, one theme comes up again and again: there is a hierarchy in the various prisons in America. In the largest and longest established prisons, there are social structures that are built on money and power. If you go to prison and you are rich, you can have lots of money transferred into the prison store, which you can use to buy lots of cigarettes and other items that you can use to motivate other prisoners to treat you well. You can use money to hire bodyguards in prison. Also, If you are the head of a powerful gang, you can use that power to make all kinds of things happen that you want to happen.
On the other end of the spectrum, are the people who are the lowest of the low in prison, and they tend to fall into three categories: Snitches, people who commit sexual assault (such as rapists), and molesters (including child molesters). Snitches are hated for obvious reasons. If you will snitch on one person, it is figured you might snitch on anyone, and so those people are often abused. Rapists are hated so much because all of the men in prison have a mother, and a great many of the men in prison have sisters, daughters, and nieces. Child molesters are hated because so many men in prison have children or siblings and because they all were children once themselves.
Now think about this for a second. Among these prisoners, these men who have questionable morals, since so many of them have committed the crimes of stealing, drug dealing, drug possession, murder, and assault, the overwhelming majority of them think that the truly heinous crimes are those of molestation and rape. Now, look at how our Republican politicians have acted for the past week or so. They have acted as if allegations of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment are no big deal. Even prisoners know better than that.
The television show, “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” is an extremely well done and popular show. It has had over 400 episodes. The show follows the lives of New York City detectives who are in a special crime unit that handles sexual crimes. At the opening of every show, you will hear the following voiceover narration as they show the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” logo:
In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit.
In our criminal justice system, in addition to prisoners, as noted above, police officers, district attorneys, and defense attorneys all think that sexual crimes are especially heinous, and it has been my experience that that is the way pretty much everyone in the general public thinks...except, apparently, select members of the Republican Party. First, the Republican President refuses to have the FBI, our nation’s premier investigative unit, investigate the claims of people like Christine Blasey Ford. Next, after tomorrow's testimony (occurring 9/27/2018), you can expect that Republican Senators will say there is not enough evidence, and of course, the reason that there will not be enough evidence is they did no investigation.
Apparently, they think that the American people are too stupid to realize why there is not enough evidence. Well, America, are you really that stupid? I really do not think so.
Bill Cosby, who once was one of the most beloved and famous people in the world, is now one of the most hated people in the whole world. He was just sentenced to 3 to 10 years in jail. Why was he sentenced to jail? He was sentenced to jail because of the sexual offenses he committed. But, hey, Republicans want you to think that sexual offenses are no big deal.
They certainly do not think they are worth investigating...unless of course the charges are made against someone the Democrats like. In that case, you would hear endless speeches about how terrible things are. But since the charges are made against someone the Republicans like, we hear “it was just horseplay”, or “the charges do not matter because the alleged victim was drunk” or “the alleged perpetrator was only 17” while completely ignoring the fact that the alleged victim was only 15.
If it were your daughter, and she was assaulted, would you care if your daughter was drunk or if the guy accused of assaulting her was only 17? We <s>send people to the death chamber</s> convict people of murder <s>and sentence them to death</s> every year who are only 16, but hey, if you assault someone at 17, then it is just kid’s stuff, right? Assaulting someone isn't especially heinous, is it? Police officers, district attorneys, defense attorneys, and even prisoners all know better, as does most of America. Let's make sure the Republican politicians know it too.
Update: I added endnotes below so that people can check my research. Just click on the links.
Endnotes:
1. Hierarchystructure.com: Prison Social Hierarchy
2. Wikipedia: Prison Social Hierarchy
3. Correctionsone.com: What is the inmate "pecking order"?
4. Quora.com: What is the inmate pecking order in
prisons?
5. Are Child Molesters Really the Most Hated People
in Prison?