Let’s begin with what’s now undisputed: Sean “Diddy” Combs was violent towards Cassie Ventura.
That’s not alleged anymore; it’s admitted. In truth, throughout a federal courtroom alternate that may solely be described as each surreal and strategic, Combs’ protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo went as far as to say, “We’re completely going to confess to home violence.”
Sure, you learn that proper.
However don’t mistake this uncommon second of authorized readability for a full reckoning. Sean Combs’ authorized crew shortly pivoted to what’s being branded the “mutual abuse” protection. In accordance with Agnifilo, the violence of their relationship wasn’t one-sided. Cassie, he contends, gave pretty much as good as she acquired—as a result of apparently that one way or the other makes it higher?
The alternate unfolded throughout Day 4 of pretrial hearings in Combs’ upcoming intercourse trafficking trial, which is about to start in earnest this week in Manhattan federal court docket. Whereas the jury is anticipated to be finalized Monday, the court docket of public opinion has been deliberating for months, particularly because the launch of a 2023 CNN video exhibiting Combs violently assaulting Ventura in a Los Angeles resort hallway.
Cassie Ventura, whose civil swimsuit towards Sean Combs was settled in simply sooner or later in November 2023, is anticipated to be the prosecution’s star witness. That lawsuit, which alleged rape, sexual assault, and bodily violence, cracked open the floodgates.
Since then, dozens of civil claims and a September 2024 felony indictment have painted an image of Combs because the ringleader of a sprawling felony enterprise, one which the Justice Division alleges lured ladies into “Freak Off” events; which in response to prosecutors, included orchestrated intercourse acts, drug use—typically involuntary—and a poisonous energy construction that left ladies manipulated, abused, and in some circumstances, trafficked.
But right here we’re, with Sean Combs’ authorized crew arguing not that he didn’t hit Cassie, however that she hit again. The implication, in fact, is that her “power” one way or the other neutralizes his coercion. Decide Arun Subramanian didn’t let that framing slide. “Sturdy folks might be coerced identical to weak folks,” he reminded the court docket—a essential and sobering fact in an period the place victim-blaming usually comes wrapped in legalese.
A 2016 surveillance video obtained by CNN exhibits Sean "Diddy" Combs violently seize, shove, drag and kick his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura throughout an altercation in a resort in California. https://t.co/qgD40mRPtQ pic.twitter.com/1u7qJgn3mC
— CNN Breaking Information (@cnnbrk) Could 17, 2024
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Let’s pause right here to look at what this “mutual abuse” declare actually means, and why it’s not simply legally strategic however socially harmful.
In accordance with the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline, mutual abuse is essentially a fantasy. Whereas each companions could use pressure in a relationship, home violence is essentially about energy and management. It’s not a boxing match; it’s a sample. And the one that initiates, escalates, and sustains that sample isn’t at all times the one with the bruises seen on the skin.
Within the U.S., home violence continues to be a disaster hiding in plain sight. In accordance with the Nationwide Coalition In opposition to Home Violence (NCADV), 1 in 4 ladies and 1 in 9 males expertise extreme intimate companion bodily violence. Each minute, practically 20 persons are bodily abused by an intimate companion in the USA. That equates to greater than 10 million men and women annually. And in households the place there may be energy, cash, and movie star? The silence round abuse solely deepens.
Including insult to precise damage is the lingering impression of coverage rollbacks just like the Trump-era Govt Order that gutted Title IX protections and rescinded essential pointers on how schools deal with sexual assault allegations. In 2017, the Division of Schooling beneath Betsy DeVos rescinded the Obama-era “Expensive Colleague Letter,” which had established clearer requirements for responding to sexual violence on campus. The administration’s subsequent adjustments raised the burden of proof for victims and narrowed the definition of sexual harassment, successfully giving establishments extra cowl to under-respond.
Although President Biden has since tried to revive a few of these protections, the broader sign—that victims might be doubted, dissected, and presumably discredited in public view—stays loud and clear. Which brings us again to Diddy.
If the “mutual abuse” declare seems like an try to dilute the seriousness of the allegations, that’s as a result of it’s. It’s a basic protection transfer: for those who can’t deny the conduct, reframe it. Make the sufferer appear complicit. Use their power towards them. However what does it say about our authorized system that the one path to act of contrition is to tug the survivor down with you?
Let’s not neglect what else Sean Combs stands accused of: racketeering, intercourse trafficking, drugging ladies with out their consent, kidnapping, and arson. If convicted, the previous mogul might face life in jail. For now, he sits within the Particular Housing Unit of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart, a far cry from his Unhealthy Boy Data heyday.
Final week, as jurors have been requested in the event that they acknowledged names like Kanye West, Michael B. Jordan, Mike Myers, and Child Cudi (who, for the document, usually are not anticipated to testify), one couldn’t assist however surprise: Are we so enamored by movie star that we neglect the actual human harm beneath the glitz?
Cassie Ventura’s story is not only about one girl’s survival. It’s a reminder of how fame, energy, and unchecked male entitlement can kind a virtually impenetrable protect—till it cracks. And whereas some could clutch pearls over the alleged “mutual violence,” these of us who’ve watched too many ladies erased by public skepticism know higher.
Sean Comb’s authorized crew can twist language and throw round courtroom jargon, however the video doesn’t lie. The info doesn’t lie. And girls—sturdy or not—deserve justice that doesn’t include an asterisk.
So no, this isn’t simply one other movie star scandal. It’s a take a look at of whether or not our programs—authorized, social, and cultural—can inform the distinction between a messy breakup and a cycle of abuse fueled by energy and intimidation.
And if we nonetheless want a reminder that abuse isn’t about who hit whom tougher, however who held management longer, then we haven’t discovered practically sufficient.
As a result of mutual abuse? Unhealthy Boy, please.
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