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Comment by rhblake | Hacker News Reader

I think the first-person stories of @hypatiadotca [0] and @violetblue [1] suggest more than that.

[0] https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/07/he-said-they-said/

[1] https://twitter.com/violetblue/status/740446500891860992 / https://twitter.com/violetblue/status/740446782505779200 / etc. (argh twitter)

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I think these people would be wise to go to the police rather than writing blog posts/twitter comments that imply vague wrong doing without any clear crimes involved.

If no clear crime was committed, why on earth would going to the police have done any good?

I feel for the victims not going to the police, but then my question is what is the alternative?

If the "victims" don't go to the police, then the alternative is we all slowly devolve into a world of smearing, guilt-upon-accusation, witch hunts, vigilantes, blackmail, shared-make-believe and anarchy.

Honeywell stated a couple things that clearly violate consent, and could reasonably be described as rising to the level of legally actionable. I was very critical of some of the weak discounting of the possibility of JTRIG-style character attacks, but when notable, reputable people in the community come forward with specific relevant first-person claims, I believe it's important to take it more seriously.

It's impossible to draw any conclusions without a fair trial. Apart from saying we should assume innocent until proven guilty. It's a really good idea that seems to have been marginalised in the age of the web.

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