Joe Paterno failed to notify the police when advised of Jerry Sandusky's antics. The coach and others at Happy Valley put their campus above the law and everyone involved must go. Penn State should be tossed out of the Big Ten for all of the above. Paterno should not be permitted to resign..he and the others involved should be shown the door now.
Joe Must Go
Comments ... #
Tell me something that I don't know. Haha, haven't heard anyone say different. Save for removing them from the big ten.
posted by OmarLittle on Nov 09, 2011 at 07:02:13 pm # 1 person liked this
popcorn
Blind faith is so common in NCAA gridiron. The amount of apologists (especially on sports talk radio) during the Tressel ordeal was facepalmtastic. The emotional attachment to the school can cloud objective mental judgement on these issues.
Look, not matter where people stand on the issue, please note that in regards to the grand jury report on the issue, I stopped reading at the very first thing that happened to those boys. I skimmed through the rest and well, almost destroyed this monitor with my fist. That report will literally have you going from sadness to rage.
It is a slap in the face for the victims of such a horrible crime that Joe Paterno gets to finish out the season and retire. We are talking about being told about a crime by an eyewitness and not following up.
This is horrible.
Oh trust me there are a few people in the Toledo area that feel that Jo-pa didn't do anything wrong and feel he shouldn't have to retire. Just reporting it to the school was enough for them.
posted by lfrost2125 on Nov 09, 2011 at 08:47:43 pm #
I don't get it. I just don't get it at all. How can you keep silent about seeing a child raped? First there should have been instantaneous intervention, then a call to police. What goes through a person's mind that subverts that process?
I don't get it either.
I also don't get why people are so upset that Joe has to retire.
I understand his position in college football, I get that he's the best of coaches. But, he was personally told of this by an EYE WITNESS??
I actually subjected myself to reading the Grand Jury Report after hearing so much on the news these past couple days....and it is unreal. Total moral, ethical, and systematic failure. Paterno is only the most visible component. Penn State is going to be cleaned from top to bottom by the time this is all said and done...and I think there are going to be a couple more people in handcuffs too.
Not at all, in any way, excusing Paterno, but I kinda think I get the dynamic of what happened. Paterno is a god in State College, PA. He is Penn State. And I'm sure that he has had his share of little scandals over the years and has simply let other people deal with it so he wouldn't get his hands dirty. He's Joe Paterno, football coaching god. He doesn't deal with this shit--that's what administrators, assistants, and other people are for. As long as he moved it away from him, he was (in his thinking) OK.
So even though someone told this horrible story to his face, I'm guessing he either (a) recognized the seriousness and did not want to get remotely near it and kicked it to the AD and administration or, (b) more sinisterly, he tried to use his power to quash the report in order to help a man who coached "his" team's defense for close to 30 years. Either option was an extremely bad, bad, bad choice. For a man whose whole reputation has been based upon decency, playing and winning "the right way", and integrity, this is a nuclear bomb.
But in the end, it's about the victims and justice for them. Rick Reilly has published a column on ESPN.com that will alternately chill you (regarding the unfettered access some of these "coaches" get to young children) and sadden you (when you read about the adult after-affects of childhood abuse). Give it a read.
Rick Reilly (ESPN.com): Remember the Children
This is not about Joe Paterno.
If these boys really were molested, groped and raped by a middle-aged ex-Penn State football coach, then whatever misjudgment Paterno made will be a single lit match compared to the bonfire these boys will walk in for years to come.
Many of them won't be able to trust. Won't be able to love. Won't be able to feel -- nor trust or love themselves.
Don't feel sorry for Paterno. He's had his life. Feel sorry for these boys, because they may never get one.
posted by oldhometown on Nov 09, 2011 at 09:37:47 pm # 5 people liked this
I agree with all of you. I wonder if some of this is related to Paterno's age and the era he grew up in. I can't tell you how many cases of child molestation went unreported 30 years ago...and it was PARENTS who failed to report the molestation to police (committed by a relative or neighbor).
No excuse. The President of PS is going to resign, Paterno must go NOW along with anyone else who knew.
One can hope that Sandusky kills himself while awaiting trial and thus sparing the young people the trial details.
oldhometown said much of what I was thinking, and said it better than I would have (he is a good writer, and I have the flu). I just want to add that I am shocked how many administrators at PSU knew about this colossally f**ked up situation and helped sweep it under the rug. We are talking about a dozen or more key people, and not a single one of them had the integrity to call the police or talk to a prosecutor?
Un-f**king-believable.
In some ways this is even more corrupt than some of the worst church pedophile scandals, since many of those ecclesiastical coverups occurred in an era when folks never discussed sex crimes in polite company (heck, in almost ANY company) and when many people walked around with blinders on.
Sandusky's purported crimes are very recent: 21st century child molesters can no longer skulk around as seemingly unnoticed as they could in the 1950s and 1960s. This is an era of hyper-vigilance with regard to sex abuse, and while this does not mean the problem is solved, a helluva lot more people will fight to protect children.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with the morally bankrupt PSU administration, and how any of these spineless bastards can sleep at night is beyond my ability to fathom.
posted by historymike on Nov 09, 2011 at 10:24:23 pm # 1 person liked this
Oh, and God better help the sick SOB who molests a child and I were to happen upon the event. I am not one to lightly issue threats (and I consider myself a non-violent person) but I would be inclined to grab a Louisville Slugger, swinging mightily and with great repetition upon the skull of the rat-bastard pedophile.
posted by historymike on Nov 09, 2011 at 10:29:02 pm # 1 person liked this
(Note: I blame the above rant on NyQuil)
posted by historymike on Nov 09, 2011 at 10:29:24 pm #
Thanks, HM. Feel better.
BREAKING NEWS: Paterno out (trustees canned him). PSU President Spanier also resigned.
posted by oldhometown on Nov 09, 2011 at 11:21:57 pm #
Well well well. After all the shit Tressel took for the Tattooed Five, and the story out of UMiami (hookers and pay for hits for players), we finally come to JoePa's demise: failing to turn in a child molesting coach.
What the hell is going to come out next, and at what school? What could top this one?
posted by anonymouscoward on Nov 10, 2011 at 12:20:42 am # 1 person liked this
The fact that Paterno said he would resign after the season was over as a response to this shows how he still doesn't get it. How selfish! Glad he was fired. Many more, I'm sure, will also get canned.
Anyone who would do such things to a child should suffer an agonizing, slow, public execution.
And now there are rumors that Sandusky's foundation might have been "pimping" out boys to wealthy donors?
Yes, it's only a rumor at this point, but as Mark Madden pointed out, the initial report about Sandusky started off as a rumor. I was surprised that Madden was writing about this as far back as April, given that the first I hear anything about this was last weekend.
Kinda makes some OSU players getting free tat's pale in comparison...
posted by billy on Nov 10, 2011 at 02:34:19 pm # 4 people liked this
The quote scrolling across the ESPN screen said something to the effect of Paterno remembering something about touching, fondling, or horseplay, but he didn't think it worthy of pursuing. I was shocked to read it. Paterno has been so out of touch with football for so long, but now I see how far out of touch he is with society. Watching him make statements at his home was painful. It's like he has no concept of what's going on. All he keeps saying is how he appreciates the support as his crypt-keeper wife hangs on his side.
The students rallying in his support are just as out of touch as he is. It all gets back to the attitude of Americans today. The lack of responsibility and accountability.
posted by hockeyfan on Nov 10, 2011 at 03:40:21 pm # 1 person liked this
He'll be making some good money in retirement, unfortunately. Probably.
It's getting worse by the moment.
posted by Molsonator on Nov 10, 2011 at 03:57:58 pm #
Comments from above:
"Joe Paterno failed to notify the police when advised of Jerry Sandusky's antics."
"How can you keep silent about seeing a child raped? First there should have been instantaneous intervention, then a call to police."
"I can't tell you how many cases of child molestation went unreported 30 years ago...and it was PARENTS who failed to report the molestation to police."
"We are talking about a dozen or more key people, and not a single one of them had the integrity to call the police or talk to a prosecutor?"
According to this timeline, police and a district attorney knew about Sandusky's actions four years before Paterno did.
1998 — Victim 6 is taken into the locker rooms and showers when he is 11 years old. When Victim 6 is dropped off at home, his hair is wet from showering with Sandusky. His mother reports the incident to the university police, who investigate.
Detective Ronald Schreffler testifies that he and State College Police Department Detective Ralph Ralston, with the consent of the mother of Victim 6, eavesdrop on two conversations the mother of Victim 6 has with Sandusky.
Sandusky says he has showered with other boys and Victim 6's mother tries to make Sandusky promise never to shower with a boy again but he will not. At the end of the second conversation, after Sandusky is told he cannot see Victim 6 anymore, Schreffler testifies Sandusky says, "I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won't get it from you. I wish I were dead."
Jerry Lauro, an investigator with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, testifies he and Schreffler interviewed Sandusky, and that Sandusky admits showering naked with Victim 6, admits to hugging Victim 6 while in the shower and admits that it was wrong.
The case is closed after then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decides there will be no criminal charge.
Opportunities existed to slam Sandusky in the late 1990s, but nothing was done, which meant the assaults continued for about another 10 years.
In 1998, a mom, detectives, a district attorney, and the Department of Welfare knew about Sandusky showering with boys.
McCreary just can't run on that field Saturday. I mean, bad enough he's a true ginger like that. :Op
The case is closed after then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decides there will be no criminal charge.
A few years later, Gricar disappeared into thin air. His body was never found.
Boy, I thought that name sounded familiar.
I'm truly amazed at the raw mass of data on youtube. Nice link renegade, wish I had a crack at recovering the data.
posted by INeedCoffee on Nov 10, 2011 at 10:01:26 pm #
Then again no HD so nvm (posted while listening). You'd be amazed at data recovering techniques. I've been able to recover data fairly reliably without needing a white room and special equipment.
posted by INeedCoffee on Nov 10, 2011 at 10:03:05 pm #
Login or create an account to post a comment.