Dutch beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, who served time in prison after he was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl, won his second match at the Paris Olympics and received an even harsher reaction from the crowd on Wednesday than for his first match.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      I disagree with that. There’s no need to put the victim on the spot like that. True remorse definitely doesn’t involve rejecting culpability like that though.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        How is making a public apology to the victim putting them on the spot? I would say that a public apology is almost literally the least he could do for her.

        • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          It means she has to decide if she’ll listen to it, when and how she’ll be able to process it, and whether she forgives him. All of that in public? Not a chance in hell I’d want my rapist to do that.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            4 months ago

            Only if people expected her to respond, which they wouldn’t. The press would not be clamoring to see if she accepted it. They haven’t even named her as far as I know, since she was a minor, so they wouldn’t be able to.

            Because all of that would be true regardless of whether he apologized in public or in private.

            I’ve never heard anyone take a stance against a public apology before. This is honestly a very strange stance.

            • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              4 months ago

              It’s still just hanging there, over her head, even if nobody expects an answer.

              I’ve never heard anyone take a stance against a public apology before. This is honestly a very strange stance.

              Weird, most of the people I’ve talked to while witnessing public apologies agree that they’d feel awful to receive. I don’t really talk about it in other scenarios, so I don’t know how common it is.