Forum - View topicCrimes at Conventions and Official Responses
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
|
||
|
I don't know if anyone here has heard, but it's recently come to light that at a recent anime convention, a young woman was raped by a Guest of the convention. The convention's staff reportedly knew about the Guest's status as a convicted felon for sexual assault of a minor, and, despite reports that he had groped numerous young ladies in previous years (he had been a Guest in 2011 and 2012 as well), still invited and paid the Guest to be at their convention.
Since the incident has come to light, the convention has made a facebook post indicating that the police are dealing with it, but since it was a private hotel room, it's not their responsibility. They have since deleted this post as well, and now seem to be hiding all notice of this occurring. Now, I'm not posting this to play the name-and-shame game (I will not give any more information on this situation), but to pose the question, of what should a convention's response be, and what is a convention's responsibility, for knowingly bringing in a guest who has previously assaulted a minor. |
|||
|
|||
ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
|
||
|
Bringing in a guest who has a history as a sex offender is dubious. It should obviously send up some major red flags and bear further investigation at the very least. I don't know if I'd unequivocally rule out bringing the person but I'd sure as hell be careful about it and make sure to watch them like a hawk and stop inviting them at the slightest hint of trouble. Hence, the fact that they continued to invite this guy year after year despite repeated reports of him doing essentially the same thing to their guests is nothing short of despicable. I mean Jesus Christ! The gropings alone should have gotten this guy booted, even ignoring the danger of it escalating into a rape. The fact that they kept inviting this scum is nothing short of mind boggling. They obviously cared far more about selling their con than protecting their attendees from sexual assault. So yeah, I'd say they are absolutely culpable in what happened. Maybe not legally since it didn't actually happen at their event, but that's just pedantry. They're the ones recklessly bringing the two together despite all the warning signs. I sincerely hope the party responsible for inviting this guy is held accountable. They have no business being involved with a convention ever again.
Also, could you please just tell us the convention and the guest in question. I understand that your goal here is to promote discussion rather than just to shame them but I would really like to know. I would be extremely uncomfortable supporting either in the future. |
|||
|
|||
|
Petrea Mitchell
Posts: 438 Location: Near Portland, OR |
|
||
Here's a good summary with links. |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group