Yesterday, the United States Navy revoked an honorary title it had given comedian Bill Cosby.
In 2011, the Navy awarded Cosby honorary chief petty officer. Cosby served in the Navy from 1956 to 1960, when he was honorably discharged as a Petty Officer 3rd Class.
The reason: the recent “allegations of sexual abuse against the comedian are serious and conflict with the Navy’s core values,” according to an Associated Press article titled, “Navy revokes honorary title given to Cosby.” The article also says that NBC stopped working on a comedy starring Cosby because of the allegations.
This Editorial Board does not wish to determine the guilt or innocence of Cosby, and we do not wish to undermine the pain the victims are going through, assuming their accusations are true. Determining Cosby’s guilt is not our place; it is a duty of the legal system and only the legal system. Yet the Navy and NBC have taken this duty upon themselves. At this point, there are only allegations of sexual abuse. Cosby has not even gone to court to defend himself in our legal system. Yet by cancelling his show and stripping him of his honorary title, the Navy and NBC act as if he’s already been handed a guilty verdict.
The Navy and NBC have robbed Cosby of his Fifth Amendment rights to be indicted by a grand jury and to have due process of the law. They have violated his right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, to confront witnesses against him, to have witnesses in his favor and to have a lawyer. His punishment was based on only what NBC and the Navy perceive to be true.
The Navy and NBC should have waited to make a judgment on Cosby’s guilt until after these allegations went to trial. Cosby could decide to waive the statute of limitations and to prove his innocence in court. If this happens and Cosby in found innocent, the Navy and NBC will have enacted punishment on an innocent man.