David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons

David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons

The Co-founder of the Weinstein Company, Harvey Weinstein, was fired on Sunday October 8, 2017 when the New York Times uncovered allegations of sexual harassment. Many women have cried out saying that Weinstein had forcibly raped and sexually abused them over the past 3 decades. Evidence is just now being brought to the public’s attention and it has exploded the media everywhere.

The New York Times investigation found many cases against Weinstein and as we know of according to the Times he has paid off at least 8 women in settlements, but the actual amount of cases is still unclear. In my opinion there would be no settlement to pay if he didn’t do it. Weinstein mentioned in a television appearance where he was advised by his lawyer, that he acted inappropriately and reported his actions as illegal. Now if this was someone who wasn’t famous they would be locked up immediately. So why hasn’t Weinstein? He admitted to acting illegally with his models and actors then he needs to be punished as an everyday citizen would be. Just because he is famous and has a lot of money doesn’t mean he gets off the hook. He needs to pay for his actions and not by means of money. He needs to be locked up.

An audiotape of Weinstein aggressively telling a young woman, Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez,  to come into his hotel room and watch him shower was released by the New Yorker. In the audiotape Gutierrez kept saying “No,” and “I don’t want to,” but he kept pushing and pushing verbally. Gutierrez also mentioned that, “Yesterday was too much.” Later in the audio she clarifies what she’s talking about and says he inappropriately touched her and when she asks why Weinstein says “I’m used to that.” This statement is shocking to many because he clearly states he’s used to inappropriately touching women then what else has he done? The full audio can be found on the New Yorker’s website and many other news sources such as Vanity Fair and CNN.

ABC News reporter George Stephanopoulos conducted an interview with one of Weinstein’s lawyers, Lisa Bloom. This is the same lawyer that advised him in his television appearance mentioned earlier.  Stephanopoulos describes Weinstein’s actions in the following statement, “This is a real pattern over 30 years: this is like textbook sexual harassment.” If it is like a textbook example why hasn’t anything been done besides him being fired from his company. And that wasn’t even any legal actions. That was the 4 board members decision.

The 4 remaining board members, because many resigned after the allegations were brought to light, said  Weinstein would take a leave of absence while the case was investigated. The board members, Bob Weinstein, Tarak Ben Ammar, Lance Maeror and Richard Koenigsberg, said to the New York Times,, “As Harvey has said, it is important for him to get professional help for the problems has acknowledged.” I personally don’t believe that professional help will truly turn this man into a saint that should be able to work in the film industry again. We all have heard many cases where in film the staff gets handsy and sexual assault happens a lot, but we need to stop this and allowing another offender to stay in business is insane.

Weinstein apologized for his behavior and mentions to “do better.” I call total BS on this statement because that’s what little kids say when they make a mistake. That they’ll do better or try harder. The damage is already done and now it’s time for Weinstein to face his consequences rather than saying I’ll do better. He has to work for it and mentally want to try and get better and I personally don’t believe he has that mindset. He knew from the first time he did anything inappropriate with an employee that it was wrong so why wouldn’t he try to do better then? He had this inappropriate behavior for 30 years and he just now is realizing it’s wrong. I don’t buy into his “I’ll do better” statement. He could have done better 30 years ago and it wouldn’t have escalated to the point that it did.

No final decision has been made about this case but many news sources believe there is an ample amount of evidence to put him in jail for a long time and money should not be able to buy him out of this situation because if the case were to be dealing with an everyday citizen then there would be no doubt to lock them up. Something needs to be done because the film industry doesn’t need another sex offender in production.