The People's Democratic Republic of Insomnia

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Monday, August 17, 2009

New Discussion Question

This one's a little grim. Viewer discretion is advised.

A woman in Connecticut was recently raped in the parking garage of a major hotel chain. I think we can all agree that's awful. The discussion comes about afterwards: The victim is now suing the hotel chain in question for failing to observe or stop the crime. Based on the one article I've been able to find, the case is getting ugly.

Relevant article available here.

The question is this: Is the hotel responsible for any part of this crime? If so, how much?

posted by Ted @ 14:25  

7 Comments:

  • At 18/8/09 00:45 , Blogger KAISER ANDY I said...

    If the hotel was told of the weird guy in the garage, then yes they are, to a degree. If not, then no, seeing as it's not an issue of culpability on the part of the hotel. She's hurt, and I understand that, but I think her lawyer pressed her into this.

    Of course, the holtel said they weren't told.

     

  • At 18/8/09 00:47 , Blogger KAISER ANDY I said...

    I'm sorry. I used was instead of were for the opening subjunctive.
    sorry

     

  • At 18/8/09 04:09 , Blogger Ted said...

    "Was" is correct under certain rules of English grammar; American rules to be precise. American English typically treats collectives as singular (because it's one group) where British English treats collectives as plural (because the group is made up of many entities). So an American football team was going to play, whereas an English football team were going to play.

    Oh, wait: No-one cares about English football, 'cos it's soccer.

     

  • At 19/8/09 04:24 , Blogger Richard Noggin said...

    Speaking as the unwilling participant on the business end of an armed robbery I feel that I am indeed qualified to opine on this, based on the information available.
    There are 3 things you need to do as an individual:
    A: Practice Situational Awareness at all times.

    B: Report any Suspicious Activity that causes you alarm.

    C: See Point A above.

    That being said, it still sucks that the events happened to the victims. Based on what information I've viewed though I unfortunately would call it a draw.

    I sat on a Jury back in 1983 in a Murder trial that resulted in a "Hung Jury". It was the defendant's second trial on that charge. In my opinion he was guilty as a puppy dog shitting on the living room carpet, but "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" was not proven by the Commonwealth's Attorney.
    Lawyers..... Sons of Bitches anyhow.

     

  • At 19/8/09 11:32 , Blogger MelloYello said...

    I dunno about this, the hotel seems to be acting pretty fishy. It seems to me that if a woman was raped in the parking lot of my business i would apologize for something so awful happening to her. Instead they are basically saying "well she was asking for it" as some of you know, wrangling a 3 and 5 year old tends to lower your situational awareness. While I'm not saying that it was necessarily their job to stop this dude, it is not their place to put the blame on the victim

     

  • At 19/8/09 21:07 , Blogger Ted said...

    I agree completely that blaming the victim is not at all cool. That said, I get the impression that the "blame the victim" part of the article comes directly from the hotel's defense filing. In other words, they're saying "she's trying to blame us, but it's not our fault, and here's why". I think I'd react similarly if someone got raped on my front lawn and tried to sue me for damages.

    So, blaming the victim=bad. Using every method available to defend myself from a spurious lawsuit=good.

    Now, if I'm wrong about this and the hotel sent out a press release with those statements then they're a bunch of wankers who should spend a lively afternoon with Quentin Tarentino's Zed, Maynard and the gimp.

     

  • At 20/8/09 03:13 , Blogger Richard Noggin said...

    One must also consider, if there was a press release, was it a direct quote or some spin that the local media put on the story???

    I had an employee about 10 years ago who shot and killed a burglar in a home invasion. He was made out by the local news to be a "Rambo" type who set a trap and "laid in wait" in Camo clothes "barricaded in his bathroom with multiple assault weapons".
    According to one of my friends on the Police force who was one of the first respondents at the scene he was wearing sweats, was on the shitter in the middle of the night, and grabbed a shotgun from the hall closet. My former employee called 911 and was found performing CPR on the burglar when the powers that be arrived 7 minutes later.

     

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