ALLEDGED - Penn State sex scandal prompts 2 resignations

It's not about football. This is an issue of moral culpability, but that's the point in and of itself. It's hard to suddenly switch from a culture of "It doesn't concern me" back to one that gives a ****. If you had told me this would have happened a year ago I would have looked at you and said did he break the law and would have thought that would suffice. Suddenly, everything has been reversed.

 

We haven't heard the worst yet apparently, reports coming out that Sundusky and Second Mile pimped out boys to rich donors.

 

And paterno couldn't ummmmmmmmmmm go to the city cops why again?

And the fact that no one re interviewed him or his staff ummmmmmmm I don't know might have let him know nothing was being done.

No one said he was otherwise. The fact he initially ran to the AD rather then the police be it campus or otherwise tells me he was in protect the university mode first. You can say all you want about well he contacted the campus cops, the fact remains he did nothing on his own to see this didn't occur again. The fact there were no investigators interviewing his staff, or otherwise also should have sent up red flags. Sorry, I'm not buying the innocent lamb theory.

 

Let's say there was a fire. Instead of calling the fire department, JoePa calls his boss. Someone dies in the fire, just as the fire department gets there a minute too late.

Did Paterno screw up in this hypothetical scenario? Yes.

This isn't different at all.

Sandusky isn't guilty of breaking school rules, he is guilty of breaking the law, therefore the only reasonable course of action is to call in law enforcement, not "school enforcement".

 

Moral culpability is enough IMO. Especially since he just helped smear his own program.
And that we know of it was clean for 46 years.

 

And if someone lives for 46 years never breaking the law, they should be excused for a mistake that helped lead to more kids getting raped?

 

To be fair (since this is a hypothetical) it needs to be like -

Let's say there was a fire. Instead of calling the fire department, the person who witnessed the fire comes to JoePa and vaguely describes what might be a fire. JoePa then calls his boss who's better equipped to deal with allegations of a fire. No one dies in the fire, but they are scarred terribly, just as the fire department gets there way too late.


Did Paterno screw up in this hypothetical scenario? Yes he did.

 

Yes that fits better. Thank you.

And for the record, Paterno isn't the only one that screwed up and deserving of punishment for that screw up, I want to make that clear.

 

I know, though many people (not you, I mean media mostly) say the same thing yet spend 99% of their focus on JoePa. Tons of people fell short, and not just at Penn State either based on what I read in the Grand Jury report (though had people at PSU not fallen short many others wouldn't have had the chance to).

 

The problem is that this entire episode, sordid as it is, is being made worse by lynch mob mentality media ready to assume the position of judge, jury, and executioner without any semblance of due process. No matter what the gravity of the crime, guilt by association is the tool of dictators, frenzied mobs, and people who have not understood the idea of justice - not vengeance, or retribution, but justice.

In my profession, we have a set and steadily evolving series of events we do to respond to this type of situation which has been literally, forced upon us by the failure of others to observe the rules of decency. But we have it, and it works. And most of it tries to avoid the media and mob feeding frenzy which has erupted around this case because it does absolutely nothing to help the victim. We also try to abide with the old legacy of the Constitution which stated that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty - in a court of law and not in the court of public opinion fueled by a frenzied mob - which most of the people who are celebrating the firing of Joe Paterno have become because of the nature of the crime. Not all of the information and evidence is out, yet there are people metaphorically tying hangman's nooses before the trial has begun.

When did lynch mob mentality become the modus operandi of the country?

Where did civility go?

Why isn't all of this energy being spent on discerning the truth about what happened between the time Paterno notified the proper authority (his superior - assuming they had a chain of command in place!) and the time of this arrest.

We cannot allow ourselves the gratification of vengeance to assume that everyone involved with this case is as guilty as the alleged (and that is all that Sandusky is at this point, an alleged perpertrator - he has NOT been convicted) criminal. Is there one scintilla of evidence that Joe Paterno was part of a cover-up, or that he did not follow up? From what I have heard, he was told that nothing came of the investigation(?) conducted by those to whom he reported. Is that a reason to believe that he is culpable of a criminal act?

In the heat of the moment, people often make egregiously wrong choices and statements, and come to decisions which they later find to be unsupportable in the light of cold reality. I hope that those who are decrying Paterno because he was head of a football program and "should have known" never have to respond to a decade old charge of malfeasance by a former employee (at that time) that any of you had thought handled by proper procedures AT THAT TIME!

This kind of thinking is the tool of organizations we do not wish to consider as part of out government - the Gestapo, the KGV, the NKVD - i.e., the power of enforcement of punishment by fiat by any totalitarian regime. Shame on the media! They are doing all of this not for the purpose of helping the victims, or of exposing a wrong doing! They are doing it and feeding the fire of public opinion to make their profit for the year! If they understood the nature of the laws of this land and the reason we have them (to prevent the excesses of total authoritarian government) they would be more concerned with the actual facts and not the sensationalism which has been whored around the news the past few days. I pray we have not seen the days when a person can be accused, tried, judged, and condemned in the press alone - but it sure as hell looks like it is already happening.

God help us!

 

Yes Joe Paterno is getting more heat because he is Joe Paterno.
But he is also getting benefit of the doubt from a lot of people because he is Joe Paterno.
If I was arrested tomorrow, I doubt anyone would be showing up at my house to hold a candle light vigil.

 

I'd show up at your house....but only to rifle through your stuff and wear your underwear.

 

Not if you were arrested, but if you were let go abruptly from your job of 50 yrs (by phone mind you) I might.

 

Simply put, Paterno put himself in the public eye by being the coach of Penn State. Paterno placed himself as a leader and role model by being a coach of nationally relevant college team. Paterno, himself, admits he could have and should have done more.

He would be a hero if he had just called the PROPER authorities. Like a leader and role model should have done.

The media sucks. But this time, it isn't their fault.

 

I seriously doubt it.
Best case scenario, a couple of people show up with mariachis and a jumping balloon.

 

mariachis?

I didn't know you were German.

 

so now PSU is a brothel........reports from EEI saying Sandusky pimped some kids out to rich donors......

please do not let this be true.....cancelling the season needs to be a reality....and soon...

 

Link to sandusky pimping out kids to big money donors: http://www.businessinsider.com/jerry-sandusky-donors-2011-11

Please, please dont be true? i dont want to live in this sick world anymore

 

If only he looked out after that poor boy who Sandusky was raping in the showers as if he was one of his own grandchildren, he wouldn't be in this mess with a tarnished legacy to show for it.

 

This is what I've been thinking happened:

 

Is it 2nd Mile donors or PSU donors?

 

Second Miles

 

Exactly.

I simply refuse to believe that it is too much to ask to call the police when a child is being raped. The people defending Paterno are basically saying, yes it is too much to ask.

 

When it comes to looking out after children and saving them from monsters like Sandusky, there is NOTHING that is too much ask for, people who say it is gotta be smoking crack or have no sense of morality.

 

was it only the school aware of what was going on or were any of the parents of these poor kids aware of thier children being raped?

 

What the hell is this bull****???

http://espn.go.com/college-football...ate-nittany-lions-mike-mcqueary-coach-weekend

You can't hold Paterno accountable for not doing enough and not this coward, he's gotta go too.

 

You need to remember most of these kids were not from good homes, hence the reason they were in the Second Mile.

 

One of them reported sandusky to the school. I think the high school sandusky was "volunteering" at.

 

I'm not that well informed about this story. I do not even know what second mile is. Regardless of what kind of home these children are from if the parents knew and did not inform the police they are equally as culpable IMO

If it were my kid he would be lucky if I called the police:

[video=youtube;X0lvp7a7pmk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0lvp7a7pmk[/video]

 

Yes, just a few years ago (victim #1 from the report).

 

I haven't been following this story so I don't know exactly what the facts are. Justified in the firing of Joe Paterno or not, Penn State's just killed Paterno.

Bear Bryant died three months after retiring from Alabama. After 61 years of coaching at Penn State, Joe Pa will more than likely be joining Bear Bryant pretty soon. The man had no other reason for living than the Nittany Lions.

 

Penn St. students rioting and otherwise acting disgusting. What a disgrace for the entire university.

Surely it is not to much to ask someone to call the cops as a crime is being committed. I think there is a lot more we don't know as well, give it a few more days.

 

Don't know if you saw my earlier post today in this thread but yeah, it's going to get more ugly, MUCH more.

 

That's the complete opposite of what we're saying, actually.

 

No it isn't.

What most Paterno defenders are saying is that he told his boss, therefore he did nothing wrong.

 

Who then told him they alerted the authorities, campus police who have the same authority as municipal police, and Social Services. That was a lie, but that was what he was told. That is enough to take care of the situation had they actually told the truth.

However, we also acknowledge that he should have went to the authorities after it his superiors seemingly swept the sex abuse under the rug. Why didn't he? We don't know. I think he should have and I am disappointed that he didn't, but I don't think he deserves as much blame as he is getting.

 

The first part has been said, yes. The second part, no.

 

I understand that, I just dont agree with it. But a university has their own by-laws and moral codes that they hold people accountable to and are generally run by some of the most self righteous people around so its not really surprising.

It doesnt work that way when you work for a large company or university about to take on something so scandalous as this is. You inform your bosses that stuff is about to hit the fan and you let your PR people and lawyers deal with it. He could have gone to the police and should have gone to the police but you tell your own administration first that its about to get hectic so they can prepare. And after 61 years on that campus I cant really blame him for having the universities interests at heart even if it was handled all wrong.

Again moral culpability vs legal responsibility. There is a huge distinction. Paterno should not be given a pass but hes not the criminal here either.

Not at all. I know Ive mentioned at least 5-6x in this thread that he should have called the police at some point but its also in sworn testimony and remained consistent with his story that he actually did not know the extent to which this had gone on.

 

That's not true. I work for a very large company as in international, and yes we are told in certain cases to call the cops first then inform our manager etc.

Now its changed to he didn't know to what extent it had gone on, before it was he didn't know it was going on, etc. The theories are changing.

 

I'm positive I read the posters who are defending Paterno say that he should have called the police at some point.