I followed all the sordid details in the sex trafficking case against Sean “Diddy” Combs. I’ve seen the evidence of the alleged beatings, the rapes, and the unchecked power of yet another influential person surrounded by sycophants and enablers. When the verdicts were revealed on Wednesday, I felt pure, undadulterated disgust.
I am not disgusted that Combs couldn’t be convicted on every charge. That would be nonsensical for someone who covered the trial as closely as I did. The prosecution simply did not do a good job on several of the charges. Even as someone who believed that Combs should be held accountable for the seemingly indisputable abuses that were alleged, I could see the gaping holes in the government’s case early on.
The prosecution seemed to acknowledge its shortcomings when it dropped several of the charges against Diddy just before the case’s closing arguments, despite having spent hours trying to prove them to the jury over the course of the trial.
After their efforts to “streamline” the charges against Combs, he was still found not guilty of racketeering conspiracy and the sex trafficking of his exes Casandra Ventura and “Jane.” He was found guilty of the lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs was giddy as the decision was read Wednesday, reportedly fist-pumping and nodding with glee. He still faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years, but could ultimately walk out a free man on bond in just a few hours.
If the body of jurors was not presented with enough evidence that Combs had committed every legally necessary element of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, then they did their duty as jurors by acquitting him on those serious charges. It’s the message this verdict sends that disgusts me.
The oversimplified lesson from this trial to much of the public will be that Combs didn’t do anything wrong. That is after everything that has been reported about his behavior and the fact that many of his defenders don’t even dispute that he committed the acts presented in court.
The stage for this was already set long before proceedings began in May. The question was never, “Did he do it?” but “Was he bad enough?”
After all, millions of Americans had already elected as their president someone with several instances of alleged sexual misconduct and a court declaration that they were liable for sexual abuse in their past.
This verdict effectively declares that Diddy’s alleged coercion tactics of blackmail and beatings were not really coercion at all. It sets yet another precedent that we don’t have any standards or measures for when a powerful person should be stripped of their privileges. The bar is so low it’s on the floor. Actually, reader, the bar is in Hell.
Years before Diddy’s trial began, the #MeToo movement had already brought many stories of abuse to light and they seemed to numb some of the public. Add to that the old-fashioned distrust of women—sentiments like: “She must have wanted it,” or, “Why didn’t she just leave?” And, in retrospect, the trial was over before it even began.
Never mind that we watched Diddy drag one of these women down a hallway and stomp on her as she lay helplessly on the floor. Never mind the hours of testimony about how he’d beaten a woman in front of other people who remained silent or even stood watch. Never mind that he threatened to send videos of them performing sexual acts to the public—and in “Jane’s” case, directly to her child’s father.
No, we just can’t get past that they still said “I love you” afterwards.
It has always been the case that the victim has to react ”correctly” if they are to secure the public’s empathy. But what’s new in the age of Diddy’s trial is that there’s minimal room for the shock value that used to embolden people to denounce an abuser’s behavior or hold them accountable. This verdict—and the desensitized attitude it encourages—makes society less safe for everyone.
The unsequestered jury is not to blame for the weak case against Combs. And the outcome of Combs’ case is not to blame for accountability getting harder and harder to come by in America. But the horrific details made public in this trial should cause us all to think about the dulling of our sensitivities. The fact that most of us will not is what makes this verdict so disturbing.
The post Opinion: I Saw it All and I am Disgusted by the Diddy Verdict appeared first on The Daily Beast.
