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    jinniAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 4:09pm

    “Hindsight is 20/20 and in my desire to help her as she was displaced, I did not protect myself,” Wade writes, “As I did not know her or her prior behavior other than substance abuse that I was told she had ‘kicked.’”

    Nice victim-blaming. You lost me right there.

    So depressing.

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      Siphanjinni
      5/19/16 4:12pm

      I want to defend him but I know that predators love to use systems like these to get at victims. The latest being Fogel and his help the children charity...

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      MacOircjinni
      5/19/16 4:20pm

      If it’s true that he wasn’t helping her prostitute herself, then yes, him denouncing her is completely valid.

      That organization he is apart of sounds like it is fantastic at supporting those that need help. All of us know certain parties will now try to tear it apart while also trashing him and the Black Lives Matter movement.

      I hope she is lying and it’s proven. She can be forgiven and can move forward. If this is true, the following shit show will make the #BlueLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter look like nothing.

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    32_FootstepsAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 4:12pm

    Well, can’t wait for this one guy to be used as “proof” that the entire movement is irredeemably awful and needs to be shut down. That’s going to be tons of fun on Twitter and Facebook.

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      BookonBob32_Footsteps
      5/19/16 4:18pm

      I will bet this will be the lead story on Hannity tonight. With an all white panel discussing how bad BLM is.

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      FIGJAM32_Footsteps
      5/19/16 4:19pm

      You mean like when the headline says “Conservative caught in sex sting” or “Trump supporter sends racist tweets” or maybe “Republican Senator indicted on money laundering charges”.

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    BadkinjauserAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 4:13pm

    The details of this situation (backpage ad, motel, young girl, “manager”) sadly sound exactly like the situation we are dealing with right now involving our young daughter. And it sucks.

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      sybannBadkinjauser
      5/19/16 4:18pm

      I am so sorry.

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      darleeeeeene aka deraaiilleeeeeeneBadkinjauser
      5/19/16 4:19pm

      I am so sorry you are going through this.

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    The Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabyStepsAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 4:12pm

    I await the evidence.

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      Hoyo AfrikaThe Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabySteps
      5/19/16 4:14pm

      I thought the same thing. Whenever black people (in the US) mobilize and organize to press for better living conditions and legal equality, the state is always ready to implicate them (the leaders of the movement(s)) in some criminal bullshit.

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      HesterMofetHoyo Afrika
      5/19/16 4:19pm

      Even the best and most needed movements will have a victimizer among them. It’s a shame. No good deed goes unpunished?

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    CaliforlifeAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 4:25pm

    #blacklivesexceptunderagegirlsIcanpimpoutmatters

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      foxGreyjoy and the salty cynicCaliforlife
      5/19/16 4:47pm

      Someone leading or supporting a movement isn’t the movement. The ideals are. I hope he is treated appropriately after this is investigated, whether it is criminal charges or his name being cleared. It’s a serious accusation and deserves to be treated seriously and investigated thoroughly.

      I hope the girl finds help and can make a better future for herself in any case.

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      JanznajfoxGreyjoy and the salty cynic
      5/19/16 6:16pm

      “Someone leading or supporting a movement isn’t the movement”

      “Hitler didn’t know about the camps”/”If Stalin knew he would’ve surely stopped this”
      Two sentences. Both real. I mean, three with yours.
      I know that good movements can be spoiled by stupid people, just as this one.

      But someone associated with the movement is associated with the movement. Howgh.

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    DeccaLeChatAnna Merlan
    5/20/16 1:09am

    I have nothing against BLM, and am generally supportive of it and its goals while realizing that it’s not a cohesive enough movement to support across the board. But the comments here are disheartening to me, because they remind me once again that for so many people (women included; maybe women especially here, since I suspect the majority of these commenters are female), a black male will always be more important and worthy of support than a female of any color.

    I mean, I think it’s easier for some people to justify questioning the veracity of the story because the girl is white, but I suspect that most of those people would come down on the guy’s side no matter what. Because there seems to be some unspoken (?) rule in black society that black men have far more worth and are more worthy of support than black women. (Granted, that’s not much different from white society, but I think the reasons for it are a little different.)

    I don’t object to a hesitation to rush to judgement, but peoples’ eagerness to believe that the guy is the victim here and that the SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL is some sort of siren who lured him to his doom, in conjunction with the cops - again, it’s disheartening.

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      SarsAttacksDeccaLeChat
      5/20/16 7:14am
      a black male will always be more important and worthy of support than a female of any color.

      Christ. Speaking as a white woman, no, this isn’t true, not here and not in the real world and certainly not from a historical perspective. White women are just one step removed from the highest perch on the socio-economic and cultural totem pole. Just stop. No one here has called this young woman a siren; people are questioning the conclusions drawn by police and their motivations for drawing those conclusions and want to see firm evidence in support of them. The skepticism demonstrated here is reasonable and balanced. It’s not impossible to imagine a situation in which the young woman is a victim (of someone else, of the poverty and homelessness she’s been forced into, of police entrapping her, of police possibly targeting her to get to Wade) and Wade is being used as a scapegoat.

      In fact, the only person who has been casting aspersions on her, as far as I can tell, is Wade himself. And that’s a dick move, and often a victim-blaming strategy employed by men trying to explain their way out of a sexual assault. But he hasn’t been accused of assault.

      Because there seems to be some unspoken (?) rule in black society that black men have far more worth and are more worthy of support than black women.

      The young woman is white. And that’s not a “rule in black society,” that’s a rule everywhere that black women are treated as disposable when they’re not being pilloried or erased altogether.

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    SheeshTheseNamesAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 4:07pm

    This is why we need to just leave the women in charge. Sigh.

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      JasperJaySheeshTheseNames
      5/19/16 4:18pm

      of BLM or prostitution? Both?

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      HesterMofetSheeshTheseNames
      5/19/16 4:20pm

      Women are arrested for human trafficking regularly. A friend of mine in NOLA is an advocate and posts articles on it all the time. It’s pretty horrifying.

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    Llama Del ReyAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 6:05pm

    Really disheartening to see so many comments along the lines of “well, let’s wait and see, this sounds fishy.” What happened to believing victims? This is a 17-year-old, a child, who was raped and trafficked. I’m choosing to believe the victim. (And equally, it’s depressing that Republicans will try to use this to unfairly delegitimise the entire BLM movement.)

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      ConvictedFeministLlama Del Rey
      5/19/16 6:37pm

      Finally a voice of reason.

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    Dobby's-SockAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 4:07pm

    Invalidation of an entire valid movement in 3...2....1.......

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      CaptOtterDobby's-Sock
      5/19/16 4:37pm

      Invalidation of an entire valid movement in 3...2....1.......

      Obviously these allegations, on their own, prove that the thesis of the BLM movement is false.

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    FuckingIdiotTheSequelAnna Merlan
    5/19/16 4:07pm

    I look forward to not hearing Fox News reporting on this for the next 12 months.

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      DarthPumpkinFuckingIdiotTheSequel
      5/19/16 4:23pm

      I’m sure they’ll wrap up the story quickly and professionally. You know, like they did with Benghazi.

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