Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
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Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#2Wow, the FBI's failure here is astounding.
> The FBI's investigation into Nassar started in July 2015, after USA Gymnastics President and CEO Stephen Penny reported the allegations to the FBI's Indianapolis field office.
> That office, then led by Special Agent in Charge W. Jay Abbott, did not formally open an investigation.
> The FBI only interviewed one witness - Maroney - several months later, in September 2015. It failed to formally document that interview in an official report known as a "302" until February 2017 - well after the FBI had arrested Nassar on charges of possessing sexually explicit images of children in December 2016.
> Abbott, who retired from the FBI in 2018, also violated the FBI's conflict of interest policy by discussing a possible job with the U.S. Olympic Committee while he was involved with the Nassar investigation.
> As the FBI delayed its probe, Nassar went on to abuse more victims. At one point in Wednesday's hearing, Senator Richard Blumenthal asked all four athletes whether they knew of victims who were abused after the July 2015 disclosure to the FBI.
> "Yes," all four of them said.
Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#3I watched a video the other day of a geologist talking about the fact that the hardest thing she had to deal with when working in Antarctica was the way her thesis advisor acted. And since she needed a letter from him to proceed then his threat of "you'll never work in science again" had some basis in reality.
She talked about how deeply it impacted her but that she only reported when her 3 year old daughter said she wanted to be a scientist like her.
It did make me wonder about how we could restructure academia/society so that random individuals don't have so much power over other people. It seems like a recipe for disaster.
I wonder if this is where the seniority thing that people complain about in unions came from. If there's some subjective element then you've basically given control of your whole life over to the person who makes the decision.
edit: one idea, randomisation. If you give the person in power the ability to choose X people, but then the eventual winner is picked in some documented and fair manner from that list, then that may reduce their leverage.
Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#4Any time you have kids with parents who put them under the care of authority figures you’re setting up a stage for abuse of trust and power. Abusers seeks these positions of trust and exploit them. [edit Penn State] and Sandusky, the Olympics, the Catholic Church, other religious orgs, schools, etc.
There needs to be more oversight and kids need a better reporting environment while also protecting good people from ‘revenge’ unsubstantiated accusations. I don’t see an easy solution. But in most large cases, there are years or even decades of repeated accusations which go ignored. That can’t be squared. That’s a leadership failure.
Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#5All these stories about power/sex abuse sound so similar. It always seems a ton of people knew and did nothing to stop it. Reading about this guy was like reading about Jimmy Savile or Harvey Weinstein.
Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#6> FBI Director Chris Wray made no excuses and said the bureau had fired one of the agents who had falsified the details of Maroney's 2015 interview about the abuse.
I remember there was another FBI agent falsified evidence in Trump investigation. Found it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/kevin-cline...
Now Durham is going to charge a former federal prosecutor of making a false statement to the F.B.I. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/us/politics/durham-michae...
As citizens, we usually put great trust in high level law enforcement persons. It seems many of them do not deserve the trust.
Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#7Any time you have kids with parents who put them under the care of authority figures you’re setting up a stage for abuse of trust and power. Abusers seeks these positions of trust and exploit them. [edit Penn State] and Sandusky, the Olympics, the Catholic Church, other religious orgs, schools, etc. There needs to be more oversight and kids need a better reporting environment while also protecting good people from ‘r…
Not sure why this is down voted.
The last century has been painful for children as every venue of leadership has been used for abuse, the list is vastly longer than what you state.
Understanding why abusers seek out these positions is not difficult. The solution is more transparency of interactions at every position.
Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#8Any time you have kids with parents who put them under the care of authority figures you’re setting up a stage for abuse of trust and power. Abusers seeks these positions of trust and exploit them. [edit Penn State] and Sandusky, the Olympics, the Catholic Church, other religious orgs, schools, etc. There needs to be more oversight and kids need a better reporting environment while also protecting good people from ‘r…
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Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#9Wow, the FBI's failure here is astounding. > The FBI's investigation into Nassar started in July 2015, after USA Gymnastics President and CEO Stephen Penny reported the allegations to the FBI's Indianapolis field office. > That office, then led by Special Agent in Charge W. Jay Abbott, did not formally open an investigation. > The FBI only interviewed one witness - Maroney - several months later, in September 2015. I…
> Wray said the case was presented twice for possible prosecution and declined, but he deferred to federal prosecutors to explain their reasoning.
Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis
#10I watched a video the other day of a geologist talking about the fact that the hardest thing she had to deal with when working in Antarctica was the way her thesis advisor acted. And since she needed a letter from him to proceed then his threat of "you'll never work in science again" had some basis in reality. She talked about how deeply it impacted her but that she only reported when her 3 year old daughter said she…
I’ve noticed this is very prevalent in industries and academia where there are very few spots with oceans of people trying to “make it” into said spots. For example, academia is absolutely insane how insular it is. The communities of experts in fields is so small, and mainly due to tradition in most cases professors pretty much dictate who succeeds because the communities and available positions are so small. Surprise surprise, after decades of this cutthroat rat race in academia, there are many assholes in power. Rinse and repeat for Condé Nast (old school media (newspapers, magazines) were exactly this gate keeping BS. Hollywood!! (Harvey Weinstein and co) and honestly we are starting to hear about it with startups and VC. I’m sure this is everywhere, but especially in these areas/industries where there are a few kingmakers and swathes of people willing to do anything to get ahead, the kingmakers take advantage of their power.