Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Hysteria: "Remembering when ‘sketchiest of evidence or none at all’ was plenty."... Some more relevant analysis (Judith Levine in the Boston Review) from the "Little Rascals Day Care Case Blog."..."In its review of exonerations from 1989 to 2012, the National Registry of Exonerations reported that among convictions for crimes that never occurred, over half involved child sexual abuse: ‘Two-thirds of these cases were generated in a wave of child sexual abuse hysteria that swept the country three decades ago.”


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "With the sketchiest of evidence or none at all, child protective agencies removed kids from their parents. Credulous juries sent day-care workers to prison on charges of ‘satanic ritual abuse.’ Adults denounced their aging parents, guilty of nothing more than imperfect love, as sadistic rapists. It took only one accusation to ruin a person’s life. Bus drivers, babysitters, divorcing fathers, and boyfriends at the wrong end of a grudge lost jobs, families, and reputations with one accusation, one newspaper item."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: For several years I have been following a Blog  on what has become known as the "Little Rascals Day Care Case" by former Charlotte journalist Lew Powell. I have learned a great  deal about waves of fear and hatred, and  prosecutions motivated by mass hysteria  from Mr. Powell's Blog and recommend it heartily to our readers.  Lew Powell writes that he didn't cover the Little Rascal's case, and does not know anyone involved. "My motivation is simple outrage and shame over how North Carolina prosecutors maliciously denied justice – and continue to deny exoneration – to seven innocent defendants." He has been described as "an early and persistent critic of the madness who  does not waiver in his plea for belated justice."

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:

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POST: "Remembering when ‘sketchiest of evidence or none at all’ was plenty, by Lew Powell, published on his Blog  on January 8, 2018.

GIST: Excerpt from  'Will Feminism’s Past Mistakes Haunt #MeToo?(Dec. 8) by Judith Levine in Boston Review:  “Because [this movement] was about sex and children, hysteria was not far behind. Before long, an industry of feminist and Christian therapists and self-help writers were claiming that virtually every behavioral quirk or emotional trouble could be traced to sexual abuse, even if – especially if – the alleged victim did not remember it. ‘If you think you were abused and your life shows the symptoms, then you were,’ wrote poet Ellen Bass and journalist Laura Davis in their massive bestseller The Courage to Heal  (1988). The symptom checklists in it and similar books include everything from arthritis to feeling ugly. Bass’s book launched a battery of unscientific ‘therapeutic’ and forensic interviewing techniques to extract false and ‘recovered’ memories of sexual depredation. …“A new crusade marched under the banner ‘Believe the Children.’ With the sketchiest of evidence or none at all, child protective agencies removed kids from their parents. Credulous juries sent day-care workers to prison on charges of ‘satanic ritual abuse.’ Adults denounced their aging parents, guilty of nothing more than imperfect love, as sadistic rapists. It took only one accusation to ruin a person’s life. Bus drivers, babysitters, divorcing fathers, and boyfriends at the wrong end of a grudge lost jobs, families, and reputations with one accusation, one newspaper item. In its review of exonerations from 1989 to 2012, the National Registry of Exonerations reported that among convictions for crimes that never occurred, over half involved child sexual abuse: ‘Two-thirds of these cases were generated in a wave of child sexual abuse hysteria that swept the country three decades ago.”

The entire post can be found at the link below:
https://www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org/wordpress/?p=3032

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog."