Philly IMC Says No Problem To Child Rape In MOVE

The following is a response to my last blog post which was also posted at the Philly IMC. It seems that when it comes to MOVE, that there is no lack of moral blindness on the part of those who support them.

"FYI, under Pennsylvania law, sexual activity between a minor and an adult is not prosecuted as any criminal offense if it occurs within the context of a common-law marriage (i.e. - a marriage contracted before witnesses and held out to the community as a marriage but not performed "on paper" by a civil or religious authority signing a marriage license). The courts apply the principle of "marital privilege". The minimum age of consent for a legal common-law marriage is seven years old. While Pennsylvania has recently stopped the practice of recognizing new common-law marriages, any common-law marriage entered into before 2003 (or 2005, depending on which court's precedent applies in the jurisdiction) is still recognized as valid. Therefore, even if Tony's email quote were accurate, the fact that child marriage (even, or especially unofficial marriage practiced informally) is legal in Pennsylvania might explain why the Philadelphia District Attorney and Human Services would still not get involved"

Had the person who posted the above drivel left their email I would have responded to their bullshit on a more personal level, but they did not, so I take it here.

Let me be clear. It is rape when an 11 or twelve year old girl, who can barely read or write is forced to become pregnant and than "married" to a "man" five or six years her senior.

Why on earth am I still fighting this battle with some people seems to me to be beyond ludicrous. I have never seen the kind of wasteland of pseudo-intellectualism of the kind that currently finds acceptable the kind of sexual violence that is perpetrated among these children of MOVE members.

It is like arguing with people who find no problem at all with the "clitoral circumcision" that happens in certain Islamic societies. It just boggles the mind.

What is perhaps more vexing is that invariably those making the arguments for the allowance of the rape of children are the same people who hold themselves above society as bastions of freedom and tolerance and who readily spit contempt upon anyone who they perceive as some kind of agent of patriarchy. It is bullshit.

I could care less what kind of erroneous cognitive dissonance that allows for this kind of acceptance of abuse. I don't have time for it.

But while it is easy for me in a sense to walk away and say that I am done with it all, it is not so easy to forget what is going on behind the well-manicured and well-kept homes of MOVE's leaders.

And while most of those among MOVE chose to ignore the very real crimes that are being committed around them, I find those on the outside who go out of there way to justify the unjustifiable. It is beyond sick.