Diddy's acquittals herald the death of #metoo

National Post

2 days ago

There is little question that Diddy — the mono-monikered rapper and producer whose trial for sex crimes concluded in New York yesterday — is a violent and despicable man. One look, which is all any decent person can stomach, at the 2016 video of him assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and Diddy's innate odiousness becomes impossible to deny.
Article content
But the trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs wasn't merely about determining whether the man was distasteful or deplorable — but whether he had broken the law. And which laws, exactly? A jury found him guilty on two lesser charges related to prostitution, but failed to convict him on the far more serious allegations of sex trafficking which could have sent Combs to prison for life. Instead, say sentencing experts, he will probably serve just a handful of years behind bars — possibly even less — most likely at some sort of minimum-security facility, much like convicted securities felon Martha Stewart more than two decades ago.
Article content
Article content
Article content
Of course, Diddy is no Martha Stewart, the goddess of expertly curated elevated living who has managed to remain relevant for nearly half a century through shrewd business moves, cleverly-calculated reinvention and sheer hard work.
Article content
Diddy, too, has been a master of reinvention, literally renaming himself — from Sean to Puffy to P. Diddy and finally just Diddy — as he aged out of conventional pop culture coolness. But this is where the similarities to Stewart end. As his trial so luridly detailed, every stage of Diddy's public persona masked a parallel existence laden with the most extreme intersections of sex, drugs, money and often violence. Fueled by power and wealth — and the impunity both afford without measure — Diddy raped and beat, and bought libidinous satisfaction with craven disregard for compassion or consequence.
Article content
But again, we know all this — we've known it for years. After all, Diddy's crime-adjacent rap sheet is decades long; remember the infamous New York City nightclub shooting during his Jennifer Lopez-period back in 1999. Lopez, then equally shrewd and famous, summarily dropped Diddy after the gun shots quieted — one of the few lucky enough to escape his orbit.
Article content
Article content
But as Diddy's acquittal of the most severe charge illustrates, a lack of luck isn't necessarily criminal. Particularly when so much of Diddy's deviousness was known for so long — and by so many. The botched — or at least bungled — trial of Diddy confirms yet again that you can't litigate morality and good behavior. Or in this case, a clear lack of both.
Article content
This was essentially what the #metoo movement tried to accomplish — a very public reckoning of often very private misdeeds. And as we saw this week in a Manhattan courtroom, yet again such efforts have failed. True, Harvey Weinstein — #metoo's most-infamous predator — remains behind bars, as he should, for life. But nearly 20 years after it first entered the public consciousness, the Diddy trial could mark the end of #metoo, or at least its ability to manifest in the courtroom.
Article content
So much of the Diddy trial focused on the performer's distinct sexual depravity — most notably those lotion-filled 'freak-offs' described in nauseating ad nauseam. But this was a case equally defined by a pathological consumption of drugs. Indeed, as the proceedings revealed, Diddy had a constant supply of narcotics on hand: marijuana, ecstasy, Klonopin — which he fed to girlfriends like Cassie and their revolving door of hired and acquired paramours.
Article content
Drugs complicate, well, everything and they complicated the Diddy case even as they took a backseat to sex. So much of the proceedings — along with the roots of #metoo — were wrapped up in consent, and nothing warps consent more than days-long binges of narcotics. This helps explain why Combs was exonerated on the most serious charges of 'sex trafficking' and racketeering conspiracy. His defense claimed the debauchery — the freak offs — were merely amped-up versions of old-fashioned swingerism, set — much like with Weinstein — against a backdrop of luxury yachts and five star hotels.
Article content
Despite observers who insist there can never be consent when abuse is involved, Diddy's lawyers reiterated that consent was ever-present and implied. Folks freaked-off because they were being loved or paid — whether in cash or via career boost. Such combustible overlaps shadow many of the highest-profile #metoo-styled cases, which is why so few of them have resulted in actual jail time. Indeed, Weinstein is a rare movement outlier — imprisoned likely for life when men like Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose merely languish behind the bars of ruinous disgrace and irrelevance.
Article content
Article content
Such a future is unlikely to await Diddy, who as the New York Post noted on Wednesday could emerge from the trial as a 'martyr.' And why not (besides his clear cravenness)? In the near year since his arrest, article after article has appeared detailing some former friend, colleague, or interviewer recounting Diddy's alleged sexism or hypocrisy or penchant for violence.
Article content
Yet besides Cassie, almost no one stepped forward. Many, as in many other #metoo cases, claimed fear — of his power, his proximity to guns and those who use them. Only Shyne, the Belize-born rapper who served nearly a decade in jail for that infamous 1999 nightclub shooting, had the guts to speak out. And perhaps only because he is now back in Belize serving as the Opposition Leader of its House of Representatives.
Article content
As they say on billboards across New York City's subway system — 'if you see something — say something.' But when it came to Sean 'Diddy' Combs, almost no one said anything. For years, decades even. And the results speak for themselves: Diddy is likely to walk free, exonerated by a soft-on-crime New York City judicial system failing their soft-on-crime citizens.
Article content
Article content
Social justice movements like #metoo are rooted in accountability — particularly from the alleged perpetrators. But accountability also extends to those who remained silent — or stoned or paid — at the sidelines. Because without their willingness to also demand justice, the actual justice system can only go so far. As Diddy prepares for likely bail and, ultimately, release, his trial may not officially kill #metoo off. But its already dwindling momentum is unlikely to ever recover.
Article content