Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis • Hacker News Board

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#31

Post by yhoneycomb » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:21 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #26

yhoneycomb wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medical residency for newly graduated medical doctors is another academic training program where abuse runs rampant. Basically, the residency program owns you for at least 3 years (often more) and the only protection you have is that you can’t work over 80 hours per week averaged over a 4 week period (gee, thanks). The issue is that people are afraid to report their hours accurately because if they do the program dir…

> If you’re dismissed, you can’t work as a doctor. No one will hire a doctor without residency training. You’re completely screwed. I thought you needed to complete residency to get a license to practice as a doctor (reimbursable by CMS). Hence, of course no employer will hire you as a doctor because they would not get paid for your work.

That sounds right. Same end result either way.

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#32

Post by merpnderp » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:24 PM UTC

istjohn wrote: post #2

Wow, 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…

Doesn't this go beyond the FBI? Weren't the DOJ, FBI and Olympic committee all implicated by congress?

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#33

Post by programmertote » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:25 PM UTC

FBI ignored a tip/report I filed about the corrupted residency program director at one of the biggest (probably the biggest in NY metro area because they accept like 30+ PGY-1 residency spots each year) training hospitals in Brooklyn, NY. It is well known in the medical community that if one wants to get into that residency program, one needs to approach a woman who has a good connection with the program director. Then one must pay up and get accepted in the residency program (from the rumors, I hear that it costs about $60K). I shared FBI the Facebook profile of the woman and the name of the program director along with other detailed information that I knew. It was enough information for any ambitious FBI agent to start investigating and easily catch the corruption (residency application cycle is short; it starts in September and last until about January/Feburary and one can easily track the communications between that lady and the program director). I also told them that they can contact me if they want more details.

I presume they receive thousands of reports like mine, so my tip/report was probably ignored. I wonder how many people are tasked to filter such reports at FBI and how many credible tips slipped through the cracks.

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#34

Post by orwin » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:27 PM UTC

jasonhansel wrote: post #21

mc32 wrote: post #4

Any 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…

> while also protecting good people from ‘revenge’ unsubstantiated accusations It's important to note that such accusations are incredibly rare, and that the presence of multiple accusers (as in the Larry Nassar case) leaves little room for doubt. Of course there have been cases of false allegations of crimes against children (as in the Satanic panic), but those were due to mishandled interrogations of young children…

> mishandled interrogations of young children

This is a big issue tbh. I've been through one interrogation, in a fairly peacefull country and not as a suspect, i'm sure i could've handled that poorly enough to help convict an innocent man (he was still convicted, then found not guilty).

Interrogations are hard for good reasons (its easier for the police to get people off their feet and incriminate themselves), but using the same interrogation techniques on adults and children is a recipe for disaster. In my country we had a fiasco caused by this.

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#35

Post by chasd00 » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:30 PM UTC

istjohn wrote: post #2

Wow, 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…

Of all things in the world to let slide, sexual assault of a child? I just can't believe it.

How many other people have turned to the FBI for justice and received nothing while the crimes against them continue unabated?

In the real world this level of failure would present significant existential risk to an organization.

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#36

Post by chasd00 » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

kaino128 wrote: post #17

istjohn wrote: post #2

Wow, 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…

It certainly seems like this agent was wildly negligent in his duties but I wonder if part of the slow and insufficient response might have been induced by the way in which the CEO handed over the complaint. One of the hallmarks of this case seems to have been large amounts of willful ignorance of the part of USA gymnastics leadership. I wouldn’t be surprised if less than 100% of the full import of the accusations ma…

i'm not an FBI agent but it seems reasonable to me that the next thing you do after reading one accusation is pick up the phone and call the accuser. Whether you have 1,100, or 1,000 accusations makes no difference, after reading the first, you pick up the phone.

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#37

Post by fabian2k » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #3

I 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…

This dynamic exists in pretty much every situation where you can't switch or move somewhere else without losing your progress or suffering other significant penalties.

If you're doing your PhD, you can't really switch to another supervisor in most cases without almost starting over. Additionally in small fields it could really hurt to make an influential enemy.

This can happen in regular jobs if you are desperate to keep it, e.g. you have no real financial buffer and not many alternative jobs in the area. But in many cases it's a lot easier to just switch to somewhere else, which reduces these kinds of power imbalances.

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#38

Post by pueblito » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

The FBI needs to begin wearing body cameras too, especially when taking statements. That would have prevented this as well as lot of other failures by the agency.

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#39

Post by IgorPartola » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

Consultant32452 wrote: post #28

mc32 wrote: post #4

Any 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…

It should be a requirement that every public school classroom is live streamed so the parents can watch. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy between a government employee and children. University endowments, the crystallization of privilege, should be seized and distributed as reparations. There is very little value in these places besides the maintenance of power and economic hierarchy.

Except I don’t want my kids’ broadcast to other people. Plenty of other kids’ parents are just as problematic as the teachers. It takes one family to opt out of this for the whole thing to be moot for that classroom so this wouldn’t work.

Re: Simone Biles condemns U.S. Olympic Committee, FBI for sex-abuse crisis

#40

Post by Consultant32452 » Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #39

Consultant32452 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be a requirement that every public school classroom is live streamed so the parents can watch. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy between a government employee and children. University endowments, the crystallization of privilege, should be seized and distributed as reparations. There is very little value in these places besides the maintenance of power and economic hierarchy.

Except I don’t want my kids’ broadcast to other people. Plenty of other kids’ parents are just as problematic as the teachers. It takes one family to opt out of this for the whole thing to be moot for that classroom so this wouldn’t work.

You don't get to opt out of police wearing body cams when they arrest you. You don't get to opt out of public school teachers wearing body cams when they teach you.