Give people credit for their good acts; hold them responsible for the bad

[shadowspar]

So Julian Assange has turned himself into the police and been arrested.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, a spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Assange's arrest is an attack on media freedom...

Uh, no it's not. It's an attempt to bring an individual to trial for criminal acts he's alleged to have committed -- rape and sexual assault, in this case. The charges predate Wikileaks' release of US diplomatic cables, FWIW.

I don't understand all the hand-wringing over this, like the media is trying to make out whether to drape Assange in a hero's cape or a villain's one. People do good things; those same people do bad things, and they should be praised for the former and held to account for the latter. The cells of Torquemada's prisons were apparently "large, airy, clean and with good windows admitting the sun....far superior to the civil prisons of that day", but you don't see anyone holding him up as a wholesome personage to emulate, and rightly so.

We can give Assange credit for his work with Wikileaks without letting him off the hook for his other behaviour. It's that simple.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I'm annoyed that arrests for sexual offenses seem to be pursued much more diligently when it's a convenient way to get hands on a person of political interest.

[shadowspar]

Hear, hear.

[jubu]

I agree, that if Assange is a criminal, then he should be prosecuted and punished according to the law. But in the same time these accusations seem to come in a very convenient time, right after these huge leaks. At this moment I'm feeling very reserved about these accusations.

I know a hero in the public can be a total villain in his personal life or vice versa. But I guess I'm just hoping that Assange is the rebellious-genius-in-the-shining-armor he appears to be and I would hate to see these important issues be muddied by something as horrific as rape.

And even if he is guilty, he has changed the transparency game entirely. There is no returning to the time before these kind of websites and leaks.

[shadowspar]

But in the same time these accusations seem to come in a very convenient time, right after these huge leaks. At this moment I'm feeling very reserved about these accusations.

The thing is, these charges were well under way back in August, long before Wikileaks started to publish cables on 28 Nov.

I agree with azurelunatic, and with what badgerbag said here, though -- given that they're acquaintance rape cases, these charges certainly seem to be being pursued with uncharacteristic zeal.

[jubu]

I stand corrected. And I agree with both those writers on this issue, especially the latter. Well written and well thought.

[annalee]

word.

I was talking to someone today who was telling me that the deal with his arrest was that the woman consented to sleep with him, but wanted him to wear a condom, and he didn't, and wasn't it awful that the media was making it out like he full-on raped someone?

And I had to be like "Woah now. If she did not consent to have a particular kind of sex with him and he proceeded, he raped her. Full stop." Which is a completely separate issue from all the other things he's done in his life.

I suspect that his celebrity has played and will continue to play a part in how the case is carried out (he may have been arrested before the diplomatic cable leak, but that's hardly the first time that wikileaks has embarrassed powerful people). That said, as long as they give him a fair trial, I have a hard time sympathizing with a rich, educated white cisman complaining that sexual assault charges against him are in danger of being pursued with speed and diligence.