A Georgia sheriff pleaded guilty Monday to groping TV Judge Glenda Hatchett, who recalled being so stunned that she froze when the lawman grabbed and squeezed her breast at a hotel bar last year during a law enforcement conference.
Hatchett said she told Coody she wasn’t sure where his home county was located. The sheriff pointed a finger at her chest, she said, and replied: “In the heart of Georgia.” She said he then repeated those words as he grabbed her left breast and began squeezing and rubbing it.
I rarely have cause to use this word, but I am absolutely flabbergasted at this behavior. I mean, what was going through his head? Seriously, I would love to know what he was thinking in that moment, because I just don’t understand his actions. This is the kind of thing I could see a 12-year-old thinking was funny, maybe, but a full-grown man? I don’t get it.
at a hotel bar
I’m guessing alcohol was involved.
Good point. If true, that would help explain it. But still…it would have to be really true. Like, 0.3% BAC true.
Some people get really drunk at the hotel bar at conventions. I would be completely unsurprised if that’s exactly what happened.
Maybe not 0.3%, but still up there.
I dunno, I’ve been pretty fuckin’ hammered before and nothing like this has ever crossed my mind. I’d be more likely to lose my balance and accidentally grab her tit whilst stumbling for support. I think I just need to accept that there are limits to my ability to understand others.
Alcohol lowers people’s inhibitions, so basically they are more likely to do things they want to do but their internal “supervisor” doesn’t let them do normallly.
In other words, it lets out people’s true selves.
This is why often “nice people” turn out out violent when drunk.
All this to say that deep down you’re almost certainly not the kind of person this guy is.
That’s a misunderstanding of how alcohol affects the mind. Alcohol does lower inhibitions, but that’s not the same as revealing your “true self.” The part of your mind that inhibits your baser instincts is very much a part of your “self.” It’s therefore incorrect to say that subtraction of this element of your personality reveals your “true self.” All of us would likely do despicable things if left to our baser instincts. The part of our mind that regulates those instincts is very much a critical part of us. I’m not defending what the guy did, but if he did it under the influence of alcohol, that simply serves to explain his actions, not reveal some secret truth about his essential character. The man has issues, clearly, and needs to address them, but that’s no reason to label him an inherent degenerate. Such labeling only reveals your own tendency to oversimplify people and dismiss the complexity of the human mind.
Yeah, you’re right.
I was being judgy and far from scientific when I wrote “true self”, probably because one of my grandfathers was a violent drunk so I do need to make an effort to be objective on this, and I didn’t.
Not expecting consequences.
If it was just him and her in relative privacy, I could easily see that being a contributing factor, but he was talking to her amidst a group of other people. You couldn’t get away with that shit in the 1600’s; either her husband or simply a man defending the lady’s honor would have challenged you to a duel and murdered your ass. Look, we’re post-#metoo, I get that sexual harassment/assault is commonplace, but still.
I’m more persuaded by SheeEttin’s point that alcohol was involved. It’s still a bit mind-boggling to me, but I can see it.
He’s a casual sexual abuser and the alcohol let him drop his inhibitions and he just went for it
That’s a very simplistic way of viewing the situation. I admit I’m confused about his actions, but I’m not so prejudiced that I would reduce him to a stereotype. People are complicated. If your explanation for their actions is simple, that’s a pretty good sign they’re inaccurate.
The call of the void was extra loud that day
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Correct, I imagine a bunch of people are gonna pop up with credible claims against him while in the job.
It’s bizarre, for sure. Unless he has a substance abuse issue, I would think there is some mental condition going on. Anxiety, depression or even schizophrenia could be in play. His actions are absolutely disgusting, but they are too weird to ignore.
Anxiety, depression or even schizophrenia
Anxiety and depression—no. Schizophrenia or mania—possibly. But he doesn’t suffer from either of those conditions as far as we know. Truly bizarre.
Drunk, old, white dude in Georgia. yeah, I’m going to go there. This was an entitlement/power thing over a black woman. Some kind of weird ma’ssah fantasy bullshit that he felt entitled to pull.
You’ve got to be bold to sexually assault a TV judge. (You’d have to be nuts to do that to Judge Judy in particular. I think she’d tear off your nuts and wear them around her lace-covered neck as a trophy.)
Ok, I’m really confused; I posted this story a few hours ago and it shows up on my profile page and has a handful of likes, but it isn’t showing up on the community page when I look. Can one of y’all check and see if you can see it? Kbin has been having some issues and I need to know if I need to get another bug report made.
It shows up as the 5th link for me on !news@kbin.social (using active sorting).
Thanks! Oddly enough, I didn’t get a notification for your comment, so I think something weird is happening with federation. That might be why my post wasn’t showing up for me at first.
I love kbin, but yeesh, is it still janky.
