Olympic athlete who raped British girl weeps in interview after Paris games
www.mirror.co.uk
Steven van de Velde, who was jailed for raping a 12 year old girl in 2014, was allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics and has now spoken out on the controversy

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’.

  • Viccar@lemmy.world
    222·
    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.worksEnglish
      67·
      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
        5·
        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.