Deadspin: Jameis Winston Isn't The Only Problem Here

Just smh if this is true

This is not correct at all.*

1.) Headline generating arrests are a good way to become ostracized from the good ole boy network that runs ****. Headline generating arrests of Important People that turn out to be false are a good way to get ****canned/runoutoftownonarail.

2.) The foot soldiers on the ground are oblivious to everything we are talking about. As a rule, they are not the ambitious sort. When an arrest is going to involve an Important Person they do what they have been trained to do; call the Man, shut-up, and do what he says. That's how they ensure the light bill gets paid, the fridge stays stocked with Cold Beer, and the cable TV works on Race Day. Ambition???lol.

+1 to college football culture WOAT.

*I am referring specifically to backwater small towns like Tallahassee.

I think anyone who has attended a D-1 college knows this is true.

Seems like a typical athlete rape allegation thread:

[x] Victim-blaming
[x] Knee-jerk defenses of athlete
[ ] Firsthand knowledge of the facts
[x] gifs galore!

Yeah, I'm sure FSU is the only school this happens at.

who said that it was?

It's not, obviously.

But hey, the girl in that case sued and got paid, so she was probably making it all up.

He's implying that this is some rare instance. I imagine similar instances occur in most if not all major d1 programs

College football in its current form is simply indefensible.

I'm ashamed that I used to be a fan of the sport.

i don't think he was implying anything

i also don't think that if this happens anywhere or everywhere it excuses it happening at FSU in any way, which is what you seem to be implying

is Duke the only school where the reverse coverup happens?

Obviously arresting someone when the evidence isn't there is -EV, and that is magnified if it's a high profile arrest. I'm not insinuating that cops would jump at the chance to arrest anyone for any reason simply because they're high profile. I'm saying that if there's grounds for an arrest a cop isn't a lock to shy away from it merely because the subject is high profile. I mean, look at the blowback from that (alleged) comment the detective (allegedly) made to the (alleged) victim and her family. Cops don't want that kind of press at all.

As to your second point, we're talking about a detective here, which is a rung or two up the LEO latter from a traffic grunt. I'm not saying they're all "ambitious" but it's reasonable to assume that a detective would like to move up in the world of law enforcement. I base this mostly on having watched The Wire.

And it's obviously not LA or NYC but Tallahassee has a metro population of over 300k. It's not Mayberry.

.

I'm implying that it's a ****ed up instance, not necessarily rare. It wouldn't floor me to learn this happens elsewhere, but it wouldn't be any less ****ed up if it happens elsewhere.

Hearing that the cop said this to the family's attorney, not directly to the victim, and not seeing anything that indicates he explicitly said "don't press charges" puts that piece of the story in a slightly new light for me. Can't read the cop's intent with certainty without hearing exactly what he said and how he said it, but this version of the story sounds a little less terrible.

At least it allows for the vague possibility that he was offering a (sadly) valid warning about the social consequences the victim might face if she proceeds, but not actually trying to prevent her from pressing charges. This would still be bad, but much less so than actively trying to dissuade her from proceeding.

I mean the cop most likely is a douche, but there's room to hold back judgement based on this, imo.

The cop isn't wrong tho, what he said is absolutely true and could simply be a warning.

Yeah, there's some validity to what he said, and I have less of a problem with him saying it to the attorney than directly to the victim.

I'd expect that the attorney would already know this and would (and should) be the one to tell this to the family. I'd also expect the cop to know that any attorney with any experience in the criminal justice system would know this as well, which makes it weird to me that he'd say it to the attorney at all.

But apparently TPD has denied that the statement was ever uttered so unless there's a recording of it somewhere it's likely moot, except as a propaganda tool.

As long as we're blindly speculating about things we have no first, second, or twelfth hand knowledge of, I will posit that the bolded could tie in with the discussion about whether people knew who Winston was back then.

In the "cop didn't say anything wrong" narrative, he could have told the attorney something like "Oh by the way, I'm not sure if you are aware that this kid was a top QB recruit for FSU. You know what that will mean if your client proceeds with the charges, so you may want to mention that when discussing options with the family."

"We have professionally tried to maintain the dignity of an investigation," said Tim Jansen, Winston's attorney. "However, either the Tallahassee Police Department or Mr. Meggs' office has decided they're going to improperly leak evidence to the media. We are saddened to learn that someone has decided to leak evidence to the public before Mr. Meggs has had time to make a decision. The improperly leaked report, if true, has zero impact on Mr. Winston's defense, and Mr. Winston maintains his innocence. We voluntarily submitted DNA last week."

right, should be more like 99.9999% when it comes to college baseball, sorry.

As for recruiting, 99.99% seems about right for co-eds.

Lol, cmon bro. A cop should never say this kind of thing.

That must be why the average attendance of college baseball games is ~5 people.

So you're saying that out of the >30,000 undergraduate students attending FSU, roughly three of them follow recruiting for the football team? And that the baseball team's total attendance for the season was like someone's left foot?

Note the "this would still be bad" line in my post. A cop should never say this kind of thing, I agree, and if he did it's bad. However there are varying degrees of "bad", and if he said it to the family's attorney, without the intent of talking the family out of pressing charges, it's a lot *less* bad than if he said it to the victim with the intent of intimidating her.

If that's the way the conversation went down then obviously it isn't nearly as bad as the family is letting on. It's still a stupid thing to say though. Like, really stupid. Not as stupid as asking the victim what she was wearing and whether or not she said anything to "lead him on" but still stupid. This is why I have a hard time believing he said it at all. There's almost no upside to uttering those words even in the nicest, most well-meaning way possible and a LOT of downside.

It's not like this is an original story; See: Steubenville Ohio, The girl in ND who was raped and committed suicide, the Taylor Lewan (sp?) incident at Michigan, Nebraska Football, also here

How many of these "events" happen that are swept under the rug by local LE and the university? Who knows. How many things do you think were swept under the rug for Dis ***** before he finally did something so unbeleivably stupid it couldn't be swept under the rug?


Look what happened to Major "Bunny" Colvin for showing initiative! I rest my case!

I think you would be surprised how much politics as usual goes on in any sized city much less a long standing Deep South town like Tallahassee.