Van de Velde was booed and jeered while competing at the Games. Dutch Olympic officials went to lengths to protect him from the press during the event.

He has now opened up to Dutch publication NOS about his experience, admitting that while he anticipated backlash, the intensity of it took him by surprise. "I definitely had a moment of breaking down, both before the tournament and during it. But I thought ‘I’m not going to give others the power to bully me away or get me away’.

  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Controversial take: If people don’t want pedos back in society, don’t let them back in society. Change the laws.

    • Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Here’s another controversial take. We did something like that before, where we excluded a group of people from society because we didn’t like them. In the US we called it “Separate but Equal” and “Jim Crow”. I think it was called Apartheid in South Africa. Now I understand you aren’t suggesting we segregate people based on their race but rather their past convictions but it is similar and will have a similar outcome. Though you may want to limit it to a specific type of crime I will guarantee that it will expand to encompass more crimes and more people will be convicted of those crimes so that they can be excluded from society as well. Even here in the US there are some Republicans talking about adding teachers to the sex offender list if they talk about the wrong topic to their students.

      • Viccar@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        You are seriously comparing punishing pedophiles to Jim Crow laws? Are you really comparing the abuse and mistreatment of black people to the punishment of pedophiles? Do you have any idea how that makes you sound?

        • Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          Did you even read my post? Here is what I said:

          Now I understand you aren’t suggesting we segregate people based on their race but rather their past convictions but it is similar and will have a similar outcome.

          I was pretty clear on what I said. Segregation is bad no matter your excuse. If they did their time in prison then they return to society. If you don’t like how much time they served then argue for a longer sentence without it being cruel and unusual punishment. Further excluding them from society after their sentence is up does no good except make some people feel better. Why not do that for all crimes from the terrible ones like murder and manslaughter to DUIs and fraud. Kick everyone out of society so we can have only people with clean records. But since you came to my reply with your outrage why don’t you elaborate on why you are upset. What problems do you have with what I said?

          • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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            3 months ago

            You can argue rehab vs punishment, but what you are being downvoted for, correctly in my view, is for comparing people who were convicted for crimes according to law directly with people who never did anything wrong in first place.

            You may say that everyone who finished serving a sentence is equal to anyone else before the law, but that may not be the case in practice, there are lots of legitimate reasons for people to stigmatize e.g. if they personally don’t agree with the sentencing length.

            That may or may not be fair, but it is what it is.

            Stigmatizing someone just because of the way they look is just wrong, people may have tastes in who they want to hang out with, but it is not equivalent to naturally fearing an ex-convict.

      • gearheart@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Rapist vs segregation?.. Really.

        This is like boomers saying calling them boomers is the same as the N word.

      • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        You’re right it will be abused. I would like to say, in no way was I advocating for anything. I personally feel that once a person has completed their sentence they should be done. Period. Pedos disgust me but if they’re done with their sentence that’s it. They’re done.