Unlucky Jim

There appears to be a substantial school of thought in the local media, and perhaps in the community at large, that if any crime was committed in connection with Jim Gibbons flirting/not flirting, waiting/not waiting for and touching/not touching inappropriately that woman, it is the crime of political stupidity.  What could Sig and Jim possibly have been thinking to be out drinking with women? How could Gibbons have been so careless as to walk around with a woman that wasn't his wife, and this close to the election, too? Poor Sig. Unlucky Jim.

Poor ... Chrissy Mazzeo? Hey, that's not in the approved narrative. Who's not on board?

The Nevada chapter of the National Organization of Women:

The woman who had been with Congressman Jim Gibbons and then called the police last Friday night, October 13, to report that she had been assaulted by the Congressman, later stated that she did not wish the incident to be further investigated. She did not recant her story; she confirmed that she believed that she had been the victim of an attempted assault. Like so many victims before her, she did not feel it would make a difference to continue with her complaint, because as she stated, "cause who he is and I just don't want to go up against something like that."

While most of the media coverage has focused on discrepancies between differing accounts of the evening, Nevada NOW recognizes that this incident is "just" one more sad example of a serious problem in our state: too many women are afraid that their stories are not be heard fairly -- in the press or in the political or the criminal justice systems. The tragedy of this event is not the impact on Congressman Gibbons' political ambitions; it is the horrific prospect that a human being who believes herself to be the victim of an assault did not believe she could trust the criminal justice system and the media to protect her basic human right of personal security.

This woman's fear of not receiving fair treatment is sadly well founded. Ordinary women who feel they have been assaulted or battered cannot expect multiple officers to respond to their complaint, as occurred Friday night. Far more common is for women who seek help to be ridiculed, not believed or arrested themselves. Indeed, Sheriff Young pointed out as much himself, in Saturday's Sun, when he said that "This thing would not have amounted to anything, if it was anybody but the Congressman" that she mentioned in her 9-1-1 call. Indeed, Nevada NOW was very disappointed that the Sheriff belittled concern for this woman's complaint, implying that any such concern about a possible assault must motivated by "the political ramifications" rather than an interest in the well-being of this woman and all women.

Nevada NOW continues to defend her right to anonymity and her autonomy to determine for herself whether or not she wishes to stay out of the public eye. But there remains a long-standing issue for women in Nevada that has not been raised in most press coverage of this incident or in this year's elections, especially for sheriff, attorney general and governor - which is the need to increase support for women who believe they have been the victims of sexual assault, which is still not considered a priority crime in our state. As the woman pleaded of the 9-1-1 operator, "I just want to feel safe."

If any good might come from this event, it would be a genuine focus on the issue of sexual assault against women in our public policy, with the goal of reaching the day when all women will feel that they can tell their stories without fear of repercussion and with the knowledge that they can expect personal safety, fair treatment, and when needed, real assistance. We have urged and continue to urge the press to cover the positions of candidates for Sheriff, Attorney General and Governor on how best to improve this situation. Some candidates have laid out detailed plans on this issue; others have not addressed it all. Nevada NOW continues to believe that the issue of sexual assault has not received the attention it deserves in this year's election coverage. We hope that there will be greater discussion of this and other issues of importance to women in Nevada for the remainder of the campaign season.

Well, that probably ain't gonna happen. And in Gibbons' case, it's probably for the best, because the only method he's displayed of discussing any issue is through ads characterized by misspellings, deliberate inaccuracies and outright lies.

But a prevailing interpretation of this event's "tragedy" seems to be that gosh. it's just too darned bad if the governor's race is decided by what some commentators prefer to judge as a collapse of campaign discipline rather than an allegation of sexual assault. Kudos to Nevada Now for departing from the storyline. Needed to be said.

UPDATE: The Sun shines on NOW and other women's organizations, drags in DA David Roger. Hey, the DA is a Sig Rogich crony. What are the odds?

Comments

[lisa]

Thank you, Gleaner and Nevada NOW, for bringing up what was immediately forgotten and trampled on. "She's a drunk woman so it's either her fault or she's being paid to hurt the Congressman," has been the immediate reaction of the press and the police. It's no wonder Nevada ranks in the top few states with the highest number of domestic violence incidents and deaths.

Does any woman in Nevada feel protected by Metro? How many rapists have they caught? How many domestic violence calls did they never get to? But when Officer Prendes was killed in the line of duty at a domestic violence call the state came out for his family (not belittling that at all- just comparing the reaction). Does anyone know what happened to the women being battered at that home?

Does Metro care?

[Not Gibbons]

When I say Not Gibbons, I also include that I don't assault women.

Bill Young and Doug Gillespie care only about the following: keeping power and keeping bad stuff about them out of the headlines. The fact that Young screwed up as badly as he did on Gibbons shows how much it sucks that the best we have against the current incompetent Metro regime is Jerry Airola.

Cheers to Nevada NOW. I'd like to know where Sandy Heverly is. She opposes drunk driving, yet I don't see her out there complaining about Jim Gibbons, who encourages it.

[galaxyquest (GQ)]

Why anyone would care what a fringe liberal, man-hating group like NOW thinks, is beyond me. They rank right up there with Jessie Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition--frauds and opportunists. It makes me sick to see them try and exploit this situation. The woman reached out to law enforcement 3 times on the phone. She was DRUNK, slurring, and incoherent! DOes this mean nothing to NOW? They ruin their credibility by jumping on a story like this when the accuser was intoxicated, and then inspite of having one of the most high-powered attornies available to her, likely paid for by a titus supporter, she refuses to commit to her accusations! NOW does some good work, certainly, but to jump on this with the hopes of turning it into something for titus to use as political fodder is disgusting. They should all be ashamed of themselves! But, in the end it won't matter--Gibbons will win, and Titus will be worse off for exploiting this situation.

[lisa]

wow... that's a lot of venom to spew so early in the morning there, galaxyquest. Perhaps, as your name suggests, you are one of the die hard Star Trek fans that longs for homosexual relations but refuses to admit it to yourself so instead you live through hate.

NOW is not a man-hating group, but I'm sure you know that-- just as much as you know that just because a person is drunk doesn't mean they can be assaulted or raped. If that was the case, the Catholic Church could just say that all those boys were drinking the wine at the altars so they were never molested.

And running with your drunk theory... if Gibbons was drunk why should we take his word?? Oh yeah! Metro didn't talk to him until he was sober!

Is it harder to lie when you are drunk or sober?

[Not Gibbons]

GQ stands in other places for Gentleman's Quarterly, but our GQ clearly is no gentleman.

So, Ms. Mazzeo was drunk, slurring, etc. I read what Gibbons said to the police (who no doubt knew of Sheriff Barney Fife Young's closeness to the situation and probably knew what would happen to them if they weren't gentle, but that's another point for another day). If Gibbons was sober when he gave his statement, then he demonstrated that he is a total moron.

But if I am drunk and slurring, I think I would know if I have been assaulted. And since Gibbons may have been drunk at the same time, that means he is excused completely and she is not? GQ, go back to beating your wife.

[Johnathan L. Abbinett]

I'm coming to the conclusion that the ANUS of the Universe is Galaxy Quest's MOUTH!

[JMB]

I believe the silence of Chrissy Mazzeo is speaking volumes about the situation. She knows that sadly no good will come if she speaks out! She understands that Metro is nothing more but a small-town, good old boy network and even the media has portrayed her as a single mother who cannot pay her bills. It's too bad those cameras were not operating properly...we would, more than likely, see Mr. Gibbons withdrawal from the race. I will be voting against Young/Gillepsie as well as Mr. Roger. Their cronyism and unprofessionalism should not be rewarded with another term. And on another note, any single mother in this town will tell you that Jim Gibbons used the oldest, tiredest pick-up line in this town: "I'm-just-an-old-man-in-a-lonely-marriage-I'm-harmless". Just ask your single/divorced 30-something women friends and they will tell you that Gibbons was on the prowl! Guess we now know what he has been doing in Washington DC.

[The Penguin]

GQ, I have yet to see Titus exploit this situation. Since you claim she has, how so? Examples? How many Titus ads has Ms. Mazzeo appeared in? How many public appearances? Last time I looked, Ms. Mazzeo has kept a low profile and Titus has yet to jump on it...at least publicly.

So far the only ones to exploit it have been Gibbons and his supporters (such as thee) through their woe-is-Jim-a-drunk-cocktail-waitress-is-out-to-get-him schtick. Paint the (alleged) perpetrator as a victim and the (yes, alleged) victim as some sort of political pawn. Oldest play in the book.

[MTM]

I observed Damon's mutliple descriptions of Mazzeo's level of intoxication from the get go, because I found them troubling and interesting since I doubt it would have happened in a article in the paper vs. a blog entry. I was struck by the fact that it seemed to be a defense of Gibbons before anyone knew anything about what happened. And of course when you are pointing out how drunk someone was, the implication is that the behavior was their fault. The whole story has been interesting just in terms of following the shifting tone of the coverage. NOW is right, the fact that Mazzeo indicated a fear or not being treated fairly is pretty much par for the course in sexual assault cases. Even worse when it involves someone high profile. Thanks for posting Gleaner.

Nice try gleaner and all the rest of you. It seems like you all are a bit pissed off that it didn't do anything to Gibbons campaign. last I looked at the poll found at www.slate.com, Dina is getting trounced. It is probably because she has negatives close to 50%, and not one republican believes that Titus is above putting this woman in the bar as a setup. Look the fact is Dina is one nasty campaigner, probably the worst in Nevada history.

[Douglas Democrat]

Anon:

Did you bother to read how Slate got their numbers? They didn't conduct a poll - they simply used five other polls to create a baseline. So if they took, say, the Gazette-Journal, the Review-Journal, the Nevada Appeal and then two papers from Eastern Nevada, the numbers would be heavily skewed because of the demographics.

And your assertions about Dina's campaign tactics are absolutely false. Yes, she's competitive. Yes, she's passionate. But I have NEVER seen her resort to "dirty tricks" (unlike the Congressman, who has been caught twice distorting Dina's record).

You're just as bad as those folks saying that Dina somehow set Gibbons up at the bar.

[The Penguin]

I love anonymous posters. All talk, no stones.