Sexual Harassment in the News

Men are pigs and gross and many are predatory in their behavior.  I would not be upset if we all just decided that men should not be in charge in any workplace for a couple of generations until we learn to control ourselves.  The workplace, government, and media would be so much more productive if women were in charge of everything. Baseball, movies, evening news, and infrastructure would be way more efficient with only female leaders.  But that is not going to happen so where are we?

I am concerned that we have no playbook here and things will spiral out of control.  We have already seen a woman for the evil Project "Veritas" attempt to undermine the First Amendment by falsely claiming to be a victim of Roy Moore.  She posed as a victim to ensnare the Washington Post into reporting false information thus throwing into doubt all the allegations against Roy Moore.  Just as an aside, is this what happened with the news of George W Bush not showing up for Alabama Air National Guard service?  Did someone intentionally mislead CBS News over this story to divert attention from a real story about Bush as a draft dodger?  Back to sexual harassment cases, the other case of Garrison Keillor seems to be kind of sketchy for immediate termination.  I mean, what he did was wrong, but I am not sure it rises to the level of Matt Lauer or Harvey Weinstein who were also terminated immediately.  There should be various levels of punishment so that operating a motor vehicle without a license does not have the same punishment as not strapping in Freddie Gray to the back of your paddy wagon thus killing him on the way to the station.  Wait, that is a bad example because no cop faced any justice in the Freddie Gray case, but you get the picture.

There is no gradation in the punishments.  I can't stand Gerrison Keillor. He always seemed like a  pompous jackass, but it just seemed like immediate termination was extreme for his "inappropriate workplace activity."  I also think Senator Franken may need some punishment, but not an end to his career.  I know these two are liberals so it only natural that I would defend them.  I do not feel the same about John Conyers.  He is a liberal and he must go.   In fact, he may need prosecuted for the settlement using tax payer dollars.  We need a sharpening of the criminal laws to prosecute people like Roy Moore and Harvey Weinstein.  We need some standard for workplace conduct that separates people like Lauer, Louie CK and Charlie Rose from their jobs as soon as possible and then helps their victims.  Then we need something else to punish those suffering from creepy guy syndrome.

When I worked advocating for homeless people there was a case of a homeless guy beat up by a bus driver.  I found the homeless guy a lawyer and tried to get him some funds for housing from the bus company.  The problem was that the company immediately terminated the driver so they held no liability.  We could sue the driver for the assault, but the company had protected themselves in court by taking immediate action. I think that this same principle applies with the sexual harassment claims.  If the company severs their relationship with the individual they limit the insurance exposure and claims in court.  So, no matter the severity of the complaint, the company will terminate to avoid legal problems.  It does not matter if the female employee misunderstood a joke or the male misunderstood a sign, they will be terminated.  In the litigious society that we live, we need some rules for the workplace both for the protections of the victim and setting boundaries for the potential predators.  If nothing else to keep sexual activity out of the workplace.

These rules for the government are not the same at non-profit organizations and not the same at corporations.  Small businesses don't have the same concerns as the front line restaurant employees or the back of the house hotel workers.  It is a mess, and I have no idea how it gets resolved.

Brian Davis