America's biggest flop – allegations against Harvey Weinstein were shocking. But it took months for him to surrender
Harvey Weinstein surrendered to the New York City police on May 25.
Almost seven months after he was accused of sexual assault by multiple women, Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein surrendered to the New York City police on May 25.
Weinstein’s case is ironic. While his fall from grace seemed to herald a new understanding of the power play involved in sexual harassment and shook up many established notions and conventions – The New York Times had rather eloquently called it the “deep confusion of the post-Weinstein moment” – little seemed to happen to the man himself.
Allegations against Weinstein sparked off the #MeToo movement that resonated worldwide, the Time’s Up initiative that has been making waves, but the most basic expectation after an allegation is made – of the accused being taken into custody – remained unmet.
The law finally caught up with the movie director only on Friday, when he himself charitably surrendered.
That this could happen in America, in a case where the accusers too were people with powerful, difficult-to-ignore voices, and the entire scandal was playing out in front of the global media – indeed, it had been brought to the fore by The New York Times and New Yorker, which then won Pulitzer prizes for their exposes – shows that kanoon ke hath may be lambe, but adequate money and clout might keep you just out of their reach.
Even in the USA.
This seeming imperviousness, this protection that some people seem able to buy or maneouvre – where their misdeeds will be known but not questioned, where the system will always back them – emboldens others like them, and makes their victims lose hope and, slwoly, the will to fight.
Actor Uma Thurman, one of the many alleged victims of Weinstein, had said: “The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was… I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of Kill Bill, a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.”
Of course, even a disgraced Weinstein commanded some power and clout, at least whatever money could buy. Of course, he managed to rally a formidable legal team to defend him. But even so, taking seven months to arrest a man who was publicly accused of sexual harassment by over 80 women, including the likes of Angelina Jolie, Rose McGowan, Salma Hayek, Gwyneth Paltrow, says a lot about the American legal system.
On May 25, Weinstein was charged with rape, sexual misconduct, sex abuse and committing a criminal sex act against two women, the New York Police Department said. The women have not been identified.
The wheels of justice have been set in motion. One hopes they move faster than they have so far.