Bill Cosby Faces Rape Allegations For Second Time

By
Jennifer Benson
-

Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby is under public scrutiny for rape allegations again after a decade.

A male comedian Hannibal Buress called Bill Cosby a rapist in a comedy act back in October and since then, the video has gone viral. With that came a new wave of criticism from the public, most notably Twitter.

In a publicity stunt surely meant to elicit harmless saying such as “I love pudding” or “what a wacky sweater”, Cosby recently placed a picture of himself on the social media platform and asked the public to “meme” him. But with the refreshed rape allegations, Twitter users shot back to Cosby pictures with sayings like this:

Cosby refuses to comment on the allegations, to the point of sitting in complete silence on Scott Simon’s NPR show Weekend Edition after being asked if he had a comment.

Barbara Bowman wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post published Nov. 13 about how Cosby repeatedly assaulted and raped her almost 30 years ago. Back in 1985, Bowman was 17-years-old and an aspiring actress. Cosby seemingly took her under his wing to move her career forward.

In the piece, Bowman says “I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal.”

In 2004, another victim, Andrea Constand, filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual assault. Bowman states that she had been asked to testify at the trial but she never got the chance because Cosby settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount of money.

Cosby’s lawyer released a statement regarding the recent public scrutiny on Bill Cosby’s website Sunday, stating:

“Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment. He would like to thank all his fans for the outpouring of support and assure them that, at age 77, he is doing his best work. There will be no further statement from Mr. Cosby or any of his representatives.”