If one were being fully unbiased and un p.c. then one should have no trouble seeing that people with disabilities can have bad faults. Un-hireable faults. Unfriendable faults. All kinds of horrible faults - just like anyone else. They can be terrible people.
They can lie, demean, cheat, steal, abuse, mess-up and have the human ability to be bad humans.
I've experienced it first hand in my life.
Seinfeld, ever fearless, gave us the "Bubble Boy" to prove this point.
7
It may actually lead to a stiffer sentence for he seems to be playing the role as the new Mobster this time not in a bathrobe.
4
I’ve had 3 spinal fusions and I was never in a walker. These procedures were all done in my seventies. He is such a fraud as well as being a a serial rapist. Put him and his walker behind bars forever.
13
No decent physical therapist would allow one of their patients who requires a walker to wear slippers!! I hope someone calls this creepy predator on his ridiculous & unbelievable charade!
9
Fortunately for Mr Weinstein, the people commenting here so unempathetically are not on his jury. A poor actor must pick his audience carefully.
1
All Hollywood.
3
I’m shocked that he’s not using one of those canes with a mirror attached to the bottom.
7
I wonder if the walker interferes with his sex life?
3
Nice prop, Harvey! Why not try walking tall like a man and face the jury with some dignity? Oh....you probably can't relate to that.
3
I’m a nurse. Walkers are not meant for people to lean forward into...except if you’re Harvey Weinstein and acting for a jury.....oh, the poor decrepit man, who could not possibly chase women around and sexually abuse them!
The walker can be adjusted upward to assist and stabilize his stance. What a fake, phony, liar. He wants to stagger forward. Note his slipper shoes, too.
15
Hopefully jurors can see through Weinstein's act.
Read "Catch and Kill" by Ronan Farrow and learn how Weinstein and his enablers are the worst of the worst.
1
if it works I bet r Kelly will be using a walker too
2
Weinstein has cooked his own goose with that pathetic walker and his pathetic “I’m so weak!” performance.
I’m a trial lawyer. Jurors do not like being taken for fools. Weinstein’s antics are as obvious as his guilt.
3
In his case I hope someone kicks it out from underneath him
3
people with disabilities, the true victims of Harvey Weinstein
1
This is about someone accused of serious crimes who is trying to elicit sympathy or belief from a jury. Why does the NYT drag in "reinforce harmful stereotypes about disabilities".
That has nothing to do with it. The headline writer is promoting his pet cause, or grievance.
What stereotype? That men hobbling with walkers are rapists? Unlikely.
1
This guy needs a walker like I need a space suit.
3
He is a moral cripple....his physical condition is a reflection of his mental and physical state....
NO ONE IS FOOLED......
2
Fake, phony, fraud. Notice how clean the tennis ball covered feet look. They don't look like this device gets full time usage.
Now here's a recent piece from The Post which shows Weinstein shopping at Target without the walker.
https://pagesix.com/2019/12/12/harvey-weinstein-spotted-sans-walker-sparking-speculation/
Fake?
2
Did he pick up that stunt from fellow-felon, Paul Manafort?
3
First he sexually abuses scores of women, then he offends thousands of people who are truly disabled and struggling to maintain their dignity in the face of stereotyping and prejudice. All in a day's work for the truly repulsive Mr. Weinstein.
5
Maybe I should get a walker for my incredibly strained eyeroll.
3
It's a cynical ploy with one clear message: how could poor, decrepit Harvey Weinstein possibly be guilty of sexual assault?
1
Millions of Americans [liberal and conservative] abuse the "disabled driver" placard so they can take advantage of choice parking spaces .. Millions of Americans fake "emotional disabilities" so they can fly with their dogs on an airplane.
2
Mr. Show business.
Pathetic male bully who doesn't want to pay the price for his crimes. He brings to mind another who didn't want to see a prison jumpsuit, Mr. Bill Cosby. Walker or no walker, Weinstein didn't rape these women using a walker which is obvious to the jury.
1
The invalid routine didn't work very well for "America's Dad" a/k/a Bill Cosby. Maybe good ol' Harvey will fare better.
2
Pure theater. Given Weinstein's profession that's something he's extremely familiar with. Remember bumbling, stumbling Bill Cosby? Same MO. It sadly reminds me of all the Nazi, Ustashe, and other war criminals who limped and coughed to avoid and/or delay their date with the hangman. Pathetic.
My sympathies are with the countless victims of these monsters. Shame on the legal eagles (more appropriately, vultures) such as Rotunno and Dershowitz that make their careers out of gumming up the wheels of justice on behalf of the rich in the pursuit of a buck.
I fully expect to see, at some point in the near future, our hale and hearty president being trundled to court in a wheelchair after he loses re-election and finds himself in straits similar to his former stooges, Manafort and Cohen.
2
Wow, this author has no respect for jurist, and or is upset they feel some sympathy when they see him use the walker.
What a bigoted argument this opinion piece proffers.
He’s a liar and deserves no sympathy.
Obviously just another con. Media smart Weinstein knows that the jury will take pity on him. They might even think that a man in that condition is incapable of rape. If he really is disabled, he should arrive in a wheelchair.
The walker makes him look more troll-like, if that's even possible.
2
Wheel him off to Prison!
Did going blind help Bill Cosby? Nope.
It reminds me of Vincent Gigante and his bathrobe and slippers as he feigned mental illness.
Vincent died in federal prison, may Weinstein do the same.
2
Oh lordy me....'THE TRUTH!!' screams the headline. Using a walker 'reinforces sterotypes' about disabilities......does WP really believe this drivel is worthy of column inches?
And since when is an opinion, worthy of attention or (like here) a statement of fake outrage, truth?
Not to mention the fact that it’s ridiculous for a wealthy man to use the lowest cost walker out there with tennis balls instead of wheels. Just google “walker”. They have wheels, seats and all kinds of bells and whistles if you can afford them. This is the clearest sign for me that, even if he does need a walker, it is more about performance and influence on the jury than comfort.
5
What, no sympathy for the rapist cripple?
So, what if one of the victims in this case uses a walker as she walks up to the witness stand? Should we use the same concerns about her use of the walker as the author raises? Should we cancel out any "sympathy" for her use of the walker? And for the rabid Weinstein-hating commentors here, will you post the same criticisms and ridicule to such a victim-witness for her use of the walker? Or, is your sarcasm and ridicule only reserved for defendants, who are protected under our Constitution in a criminal trial?
Please feel free to show your bias and hate some more.
His minions could wheel Harvey in on a horizontal gurney with IV's and oxygen in tow and I would still hope the jury convicts him for every count of his of heinous, predatory behavior!
1
This reminds me of when the sought after “Golden State” killer was finally captured, he appeared in court in a wheelchair. Give me a break! They should have dragged him in on his own two feet and if he couldn’t stand up on his own... let him fall! Same goes for this loser. He’s a fool if he thinks anyone feels sorry for him. What he needs is a bag over his head, not a walker. What a jerk!
Poor Denny Hastert comes to mind.
Or 'ol Cosby!
1
Love the tennis balls touch. Check to see if he bullied an old lady at an assisted living facility.
I like those tennis balls on the rear legs of the walker to prevent picking up speed and risk sending the wrong message to his fan base.
2
Weinstein can come to court in a gurney but he is still guilty of rape and sexual abuse. Harvey has been in show business for all his life and know how to put on a tear jerking performance. Not buying it.
Weinstein started off with a standard-issue Medicare walker with 2 tennis balls on the feet that is given free to all Medicare recipients who require one.
He is now using a 4-wheeled $200 walker with a built-in seat that he probably had at his home during the time he was doing his "poor me"act with the tennis ball thing.
Sleazebag.
Well there is nothing funny about Harvey Weinstein and his odious depredations. But the comments are very amusing. Who knew that readers had such an eye for what constitutes a " cheap " walker as opposed to a "decent " walker. It's a window into the age of the readers for sure. The tennis balls are coming in for particular scorn. Most of the walkers I see do have them-but you have to have your outdoor and your indoor ones as they get very dirty in no time. I'm also in the group that has had a very bad herniated disk and knee surgery and have not needed a walker. One needs a walker more often if one falls-either from muscular weakness or confusion/dementia. Generally one needs a walker closer to late 80's to 90's onward. Of course he is faking.
1
Weinstein is pictured bending over and behind a walker that is too low to encourage good posture, or even walking stability, not to mention an aid to healing in one who has recently had back surgery. There are higher walkers that are much more stable and keep a person's back straight while walking. This walker looks like someone picked it up at Goodwill or off the street, and looks like a theatrical prop.
171
When I saw Weinstein's walker, I remembered Hosni Mubarak being carried into the court room in a stretcher. Mubarak is now living at home in Cairo rather in prison.
There's also the bias, not talked about here, that all people with disabilities are inherently therefore saints.
"Bubble Boy" on Seinfeld anyone? - Disabled people can have all the bad flaws of anybody else.
In my life one of the meanest, self centered, and outright nasty people I know is disabled in both motorskills and speech after suffering a stroke. This person was this way prior as well.
'Disability,' when legitimate is more likely to be acute and temporary as opposed to being permanent and chronic. Was it simply coincidental that Teddy Kennedy wore a neck brace after Chappaquiddick or was it eye candy? We all know the answer to that. Ironically, we've all seen this rodeo too many times before not to be fooled and insulted by its arrogance. This has nothing to do with anti-discrimination and everything to do with attempted misrepresentation.
Please. If he is acquitted he will hustle out of the courtroom sans walker.
2
@Stefan Ackerman
An Oral Roberts moment? (you have to be old to understand that)
All the world may really be a stage as it appears we have a plethora of public actors who are, unfortunately, mostly bad.
I was on a jury and it was a similar deal. Plaintiff had a walker and then her mother showed up too. So we had two old ladies plodding their way into the courtroom.
They settled out of court and the plaintiff explained to us jurors on the way out of courthouse that we seemed too pro defendant. In other words, the ploy did not work and the knew it based on our reactions.
Sad state of our system that either side should try this nonsense.
Have a pretty young actress walk in front of him and see how quickly and miraculously he's cured.
4
Will Harvey experience a religious conversion and have a "Walk Again" miracle after he manages to avoid prison?
2
Someone should follow him when he is not going to court - like insurance investigators do. Let's see how he is walking then!
2
Okaaaay, but it still matters whether he needs it. I suspect he doesn't, but if he does, he should not be deprived of it because of our fears about "harmful stereotypes". Are there really stereotypes about disabled people being rapists btw? I have never encountered that one (if it exists). My suspicion (perhaps unfounded, perhaps unjust) is that Harvey whatisface is using the walker in order to DISTANCE himself from the rapist stereotypes. He would not be the first. In the 1980s, British cabinet minister Willie Whitelaw deflected a criticism from a feminist ('I hold you personally responsible for every rape in England in 1983") with the response "Alas, madam, too old!"
Weinsteins's bit with the walker looks like a bad SNL skit - Really! His lawyers thought it would get him sympathy? Lock him up and throw away the key!
yes, a Crim D in a wheelchair might attract more sympathy than another D. so what? in oj's trial, Cochran redecorated an entire house with persuasion in mind. attorneys take every opportunity to effect a good outcome. in this case, the D actually had back surgery and can plausibly use a walker. end of story. why not publish articles of substance?
1
Weinstein should be careful. His cheap sympathy ploy could easily backfire with a smart Manhattan jury that may resent having their intelligence insulted and convict accordingly.
1
For a man with means why the heck is he using such a cheap walker?? As the article indicated, it’s a “prop” used to gain sympathy from the jurors.
1
I can't help what my unconscious brings up - and what it brings up is the image of Ted Kennedy wearing a cervical collar at Mary Jane Kopechne's funeral. To my limited knowledge he never wore it before or again.
Do we all remember the other poor soul that only needed a wheelchair to get into court, but walked perfectly when in prison?
Manafort
2
I'm disabled. I walk with a cane. I am a falling risk and I have severe chronic pain and fatigue. On good days, I am more limber, able to do most normal things within the limit of fatigue.
On bad days, I barely get out of bed. You wouldn't believe I'm the same woman! That ginger, tottering walk, the visible pain, the mincing steps can be the result many things, but they are VERY real. On bad days, I have pain in places, on good days I don't know I have. I have more bad days than good.
I have had the evil ex say IN COURT that I "wasn't really disabled." I didn't "need" the assistive technologies I needed. I had confirmations from my doctor, he had only his evil perjury.
That is NOT the ex's place to decide. It's mine. It is vile to think someone who is disabled, even temporarily, doesn't require a tech they need... and none of your business WHAT they use. That's their choice. Not yours.
People, what you do IS EVIL and it amplifies evil people like the ex.
---
I don't know if Weinstein is "faking" or if he is for real. He's shown himself to be a top notch manipulator and a very good liar. I wouldn't put it past him. That's based on his demonstrated character and the preponderance of testimony from multiple people whom I believe.
Making fun of the type of walker he uses? To say he doesn't need it? How do YOU know? YOU don't. MYOB.
---
I can't believe I just defended Harvey Weinstein. I think he's guilty and belongs in jail.
Ablism is like racism. It's disgusting.
2
Weinstein's use of a walker is the same pathetic tactic used by Bill Cosby and many others It is no surprise that someone highly connected to motion pictures would use such theatrics. Someone should take videos of him in his familiar surroundings and post them online.
1
This attempt to generate pathos (Weinstein's walker accoutrement) parallels former VP Cheney's "sudden" need for a wheelchair at the Obama swearing-in ceremony. How the mighty suffer!
1
The old fraud should be ashamed of himself...oh, yes, that's what the trial is about isn't it? He needs some quality time in the pokey.
Did you mean "differential"?, or were you intending to say "deferential"? I looked up the first, but find it hard to apply.
Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.
1
I thought he was a “stand up” guy. Oh my!
1
Prisons have doctors, physical therapy, pain medication, Tylenol, ice packs, heat packs Tens units, BenGay, exercise equipment, Tiger Balm, extra pillows, transportation to a hospital.
Weinstein may indeed need a walker but that should not negate the fact that, if found guilty, he should be sentenced to jail time.
Bill Cosby is blind. He is in prison.
Weinstein is doing a rich, entitled person's imitation of the crime boss in his bathrobe in Greenwich Village.
The woman defending him makes an extremely good living defending men like him. A pair of her shoes would cost you at least a month's salary. BTW, look at his.
Weinstein took the disability acting class a bit too far.
1
This monster and his walker are grotesque and a potent reminder that the leopard does NOT change his spots.
My late business & personal attorney "The Anti-Christ" (He loved his noncore) Had a trunk full of walkers, canes and crutches. whenever I would have a court date I would meet him the courthouse and pick out my walking aid. I love the American justice system. If justice was truly blind Weinstein would not need a walker.
The wheelchair, walker and sickly look are used quite frequently by lowlife to help them look pathetic. So, if the jurors fall for it, he will get off and live a life of an outcast like OJ did. Doesn't matter how much money he has, no one of significance in his life is going to go near him. Epstein knew that he would never be living that fake/fraud life again.
I would love to see him in jail - but if not, he will live the short life that he deserves. Wondering where everyone is....other than the parasites around him. It kills these guys.
I feel like someone has a good "The English Patient" joke waiting in the wings, please share...
Harvey Weinstein, always the manipulator.
Ha, he thinks a rapist bully can win sympathy from his "look I can't even walk on my own, how could I possibly get it up?" defense. Who knows, with a male dominated jury in a nation that elected a rapist bully, this might just work. In the end, we get the government and the Justice system we deserve! America remains truly exceptional!
2
If acquitted, he'll next be seen dancing down the street, clicking his heels.
OK- the main thrust of the article is that photographs of Weinstein using a walker may prejudice the Disabled.
We simply have to stop thinking like this.
We have reached the point where we have to consider whether anything and everything might conceivably have a prejudicial impact on anybody-not objectively- but subjectively in the minds of anybody at all. Like the author of this op-ed.
Yet another article about someone who is trying to ensure that everyone is properly woke about whatever issue they are preaching about. I for one have never been insensitive to someone using any type of device for their assistance. Both my mother-in-law and father-in-law had to use them for years. A waste of editorial space in this paper.
1
Next thing, he'll find Jesus. All will be forgiven!
Why doesn't Mr. Weinstein get a walker that appropriately fits his height if he truly needs one? There is no reason for him to hunch over like he does other than it is an act to garner sympathy. No physical therapist in the world would even sign on for him to use such an ill fitting device . Another craven manipulation by Harvey
Whether he needs the walker or not, whether he's fit or not, all you have to do is look at him to understand that few young women would willingly have sex with the man. He is repulsive in every way.
Hello! The way in which Weinstein is using his walker is wrong! He's playing at being "disabled"...like a bad actor! A good actor - like Brad Pitt - would visit a Physical Therapist and learn how to use one. And its not by having the thing out in front of you, at half an arms length. Great way to actually fall on a smooth floor, like all the floors in the Manhattan court buildings...
Bad audition Weinstein. Time for your behind the bars show, where we'll see how quickly you learn to move...at least to escape the way more predatory inmates. Have fun!
Lock him up!
2
It's an old play. Remember Teddy Kennedy's neck brace?
Harvey Weinstein and his hack attorney are shameful.
The desperation must be palpable. He should just walk tall and face his accusers like a man! Oh, wait. Real men don't have to force themselves on women and definitely do not require props like a name plate to attract them.
I am a 68 year old women and the Weinsteins' of the world are pathetic, insecure cowards who hide behind?walkers
1
This clown is a poster child for the many things that plague our society, in particular New York City. He is, at the very least, a fake. This probably makes him a liar. It at least makes him a fraud. It's like those fake war vets on any random corner in Manhattan, begging for money with signs written on cardboard with black marker.
I was waiting for someone finally comment on this little"act"
Obvious faker. This routine was pioneered and/or perfected by several mafia big shots who play-acted being
demented during their trials, and by more recent phonies such as Cosby and Manafort. The prosecutors should point this out the jury, lest they feel any sympathy toward Weinstein.
1
Presumably Weistein may keep his walker in prison.
The people I’ve known who use walkers actually get along better and faster with them than without. That’s the point of such devices. If he’s still having such a hard time while using a walker, he can afford a motorized chair. That he hobbles in to court using a generic hospital walker tells me that he’s doing it for show, whether he’s in pain or not.
2
Walkers and wheelchairs can be very useful. Yet even if Weinstein genuinely needs to use a walker, for now, he does not deserve extra sympathy for it. People with disabilities--including those who use assistive devices like walkers, regularly--would prefer you treat them as you would anyone else. That Weinstein's making a show of it indicates that he knows exactly what he's trying to get away with. As ever.
1
Weinstein's just doing a "Crosby". Bill Crosby tired to get the jury's sympathy, too - being led by his attorney, arm in arm.
If Weinsten received a "not guilty verdict" today, he'd kick his walker in the air and skip happily out of the courthouse all the way home to work out in his state of the art gym.
Weinstein needs to hire a new acting coach, because his disabled act isn't cutting the mustard. Pathetic attempt for sympathy, by a man who deserves none.
98
I have no idea what Harvey Weinstein's true condition is. But I can unequivocally say this.
A year ago, I was suddenly confronted with severe back pain. As it happened, we had a few walkers in the house, and I found one similar to the one that Mr. Weinstein is using to be most comfortable for me (except with 4 wheels).
As I has physical therapy over the weeks and months, I went to a caine and then walking unassisted. But I don't know that the walker is unreasonable.
1
One would think that the life of Stephen Hawking would have ended the trope that people with a physical disability must also be
cognitively impaired. OTOH, the number of formerly hale and hearty people who suddenly require walkers, wheelchairs, etc. when confronted with high profile court cases makes me think this has less to do with Weinstein and more with his lawyers.
1
I believe staging litigants to appear disabled is, sadly, increasingly common. I have even wondered if law school classes about trial work might now include such theatrical considerations to influence outcomes.
I attended a trial related to the construction permits for a high rise in my suburb. The guy being sued, who had appeareed at dozenss of public hearings walking like most people and hearing like most folks but he showed up at trial in a wheelchair and elaborate equipment to allow him to hear the proceedings. Such chicanery is not good legal skill and it is, imo, kinda sad.
4
Walkers are adjustable, so he doesn't need to lean so far forward...there are sleek, beautiful ones available, made of anodized aluminum, which sell for under $100, so he doesn't need that clunky, "hospital-looking" generic one...
7
Over a year ago, I broke my neck. I had spinal fusion surgery at Yale New Haven hospital. I stayed at a no frills Yale physical rehab center where I was loaned a walker. It had a seat and a basket under the seat. It is the standard cheap model these days. I was encouraged to stop using it for walking as soon as I could, but replaced it after the loan because I was still using it for a while to put things on the seat that were heavy for me to carry and I could sit on it to reach low cabinets. It cost about $50. The one Weinstein is using costs about $25. If he actually needed a walker, he could afford the upgrade.
7
Weinstein's walker (probably a theatrical prop) doesn't suggest to me a normal victim of disability. It's more a reflection of his former persona as the Beast with the power to confer Beauty on any young woman who caught his eye. (A twist on the old fairytale "Beauty and the Beast"). It's one of the oldest stories in Hollywood.
4
I've had six back surgeries and have a 3-level plate in my neck. Never have a needed a walker. I am now 67 and if I need another back surgery I seriously doubt I would need one at this stage.
1
It makes me angry to see our judicial system turned into really bad theatre. But how can we expect better from a NY trial judge when the chief justice and 100 Senators are the model.
9
I have brought up similar concerns in another article about Weinstein's trial and my comment was not allowed . So I
am pleased to read this article exploring the psychology of
the use of the walker in question.
I used a walker after disc surgery and a hip replacement. But
I never hobbled with such a poor posture like Weinstein. I
also used a modern style walker with wheels and all the bells
and whistles. Paid for by insurance. But then again I was not
looking for leniency from jurors or being set free from prosecuted crimes.
This show for the galleries is despicable to watch. And I do not
think it should be allowed. If I lived in New York I'd take my walker out of storage and transport it downtown and force it
upon the accused.
8
There's a scene in the movie, LA Story, where Steve Martin has suddenly broken up with his girlfriend, Marilu Henner: he's depressed and at the top of the stairs is hobbling down, but once he reaches the bottom he yells, "I'm free." I think of this scene when I see Harvey Weinstein now. Once he's acquitted, I could see him throwing out the walker and yelling the same.
8
It is clear watching HW using the walker that it is a prop.
If it was given to him after back surgery, then the physical therapist who showed him how to use it should be fired.
Look at the picture in the article. No one with a walker tries to use it, assisted or not, going up and down stairs when there is a wheel chair ramp available, which is the law today in all public buildings. The risk of falling on the stairs is too great to give up the walker, assuming its need is legitimate.
Watch HW when he uses the walker. It is adjusted too low or he was not taught how to use it. He is too hunched over when he uses it, especially if he had back surgery, increasing his chances for a fall.
And there are far better devices to place of the back legs of the walker than tennis balls, like hard plastic skis, that allow the walker to glide more freely on rough surfaces. Tennis balls, typically, are used in the home where you do not want to mar your floors but they wear out quickly outdoors.
If I were a juror I'd say HW's use of the walker works against any claim of innocence he makes based on how he is using it.
14
Prison is handicapped accessible.
I don't see why it should matter if Weinstein needs a walker or not. He still is accused of multiple counts of sexual assault and harassment, if found guilty, he'll have his own cell and all the benefits money can buy the incarcerated.
6
A law system nurishing professional expectations that such openly pity-craving showpieces could be favorable for the judgement of the accused is suffering from severe problems. The walker has absolutely nothing to do what he did and how this has to be assesed legally. This is completely irrelevant in any way. So why this show reminding of a Hollywood B movie took place?
Don't say this show was coincidential. There are the best payed Top lawyers at work and If they did not expect any advantages in this trial Mr Weinstein would definitely not use this strange gear openly telling "I'm nothing but a poor poor suffering guy (don't play hardball with me)" to people who are esteemed to get impressed by such performances.
Good advice: Never do this in an European court room. No good idea. Professional judges might feel kiddied.
3
Interesting to see a law professor impugn the basic intelligence and critical insight of jurors. I have the same cynical doubts about the jury system (and attorneys) myself. However, my guess is that most of the jurors saw the walker and thought to themselves "gimme a break. Really?"
No one will take pity on poor, sad, put-upon Harvey Weinstein whether he actually needs a walker or not.
5
The key phrase is “perceive as having a disability.” I am sure jurors can be bamboozled. However, jurors are often very adept at smelling out a ruse. If they perceive Weinstein is putting on an act, I am certain it will come back to hurt him more in the long run.
8
The judicial system is manipulated because it is so manipulable. From judge shopping to professional jury selection "advisors" to grotesque disparity in the competency of representation, which extends to blatantly unfair disparities in sentencing.
2
Isn’t jury tampering a crime? Maybe it should be added to the list of disgusting acts this man is being charged with.
5
I'm absolutely certain there are dozens of women who would have preferred to see two different balls on the legs of that walker.
18
You'd think with all the actors and actresses he knows, along with some coaches, he could learn how to fake the walker convincingly. No one is fooled.
10
As a life long wheelchair user I think it stinks to see this guy playing on old stereotypes. You can always bet the fraudsters come out in force and make those of us that want no part of their actions pay the price.
8
Actually, I was always under the impression that we were supposed to be sympathetic to people in wheel chairs. I would hate to see people who read this article turn their backs on the less fortunate.
1
@Moses Pava
Do not be conned by this man. Weinstein suddenly had a need for the cheapest, most rickety walker he could find in the Props department of his studio. He has enough money to buy the very best and would have done so if he really needed help walking.
Not only that, he didn't even bother with the acting lessons that would have taught him how to use the thing properly, as a physical therapist would have instructed.
And as for the cheap suit -- well, that, too must have been from the Props department, because Mr. Weinstein can afford any suit he wants.
2
Oh those sexual predators and rapists. Suddenly feeble and unable to walk. It's a good show, but not convincing. Cosby aged terribly in 24 hrs as well. The message is how could those helpless old men do anything they are being accused of. I'm not buying it.
8
I saw him in court. he looked pathetic and weak. The judge is no fool. I don't think he would have allowed tricks. But my point really is, assuming he is as bad off as he seems, how is he to get around. My father needed a walker for years. He could not walk without it. Would having him wheeled in be preferable or should the room be completely cleared before he enters or leaves?
1
Weinstein is a creep, on that we can all agree. But this article makes a seriously flawed argument. Using a walker is now somehow to be criticized because...it makes you look like you need a walker? Now, if Weinstein doesn't NEED it (which I agree, he probably doesn't), that is for sure worth criticizing -- he is falsely using it to create sympathy and that is sneaky and dishonest and downright tacky.
But the article claims that *that doesn't matter* - it alleges that "whether he needs it or not" is beside the point. No, it isn't. By that logic, every single elderly person who uses a walker would be guilty of "conveying an image of physical weakness" and "reinforcing harmful prejudices."
1
HW’s behavior has left a trail of upended careers and traumatized lives in its wake. His life serves as an object lesson in the fact that power, fame and fortune often lead one to believe they are above rules of moral decency and can do as they wish oblivious to consequences. History is full of such individuals. HW and his walker is indeed a pathetic sight. Perhaps use of a wheelchair with an attendant would have been a little more convincing. I feel tremendous compassion for all his victims, but also have set aside some sympathy for the man himself. Guilty (most likely) or not guilty, after all, he is human.
Since neither I nor Ms. Harris knows whether this guy needs the walker, I find it very strange that she seems to be calling for it to be taken away. Previously, two Harvard professors were relieved of their duties for signing up to defend Mr. Weinstein.
I find this very strange, that there is a sudden question whether someone is entitled to use a walker, and whether someone is entitled to counsel as a defendant in a trial.
The president has introduced the notion of "alternative facts". Please make sure the #MeToo movement isn't introducing the notion of "alternative justice". That would be equally reprehensible, and injure our justice system just as surely as Alan Dershowitz's version of the "public interest".
1
In his case, if this is just part of the show I think the walker will backfire on him. It makes him look look weak, pathetic and desperate.
Maybe I’m a jerk, but this does make me have any sympathy for him
If the walker is not needed he should be ashamed of himself (assuming he has the ability to feel shame)
2
"reinforce harmful stereotypes of people with disabilities."
Personally I think Weinstein is a fraud and his use of a walker is a cynical ploy, and completely fake.
That said, claiming this has anything to do with people with actual disabilities or "harmful stereotypes" is nonsense, just the usual identity politics games the left is obsessed with playing. No, Weinstein does not have anything to do with people's general view of disabilities or so-called "harmful stereotypes".
Proof that Oscar-winning producers make the worst actors.
4
This act reminded me of the stunt that monster pulled: the one who went outside in a robe and slippers. Used a walker. Pretending to be deluded. No different here.
2
I have had both back and neck surgery following a rear end car accident. I had a double fusion in my neck and a single fusion in my back I was up and about the next day. I never needed a walker. Later I had to have a double laminectomy in my back. Now I have a neurotransmitor for pain control. Weinstein had a laminectomy and it is a lot less invasive than any fusion. The recovery is a few days to a week. A woman can do light housekeeping in a week. My 80 year old mother had a laminectomy and was up and about the next day. Neither of us ever used a walker. Bending over like he does cannot be pleasing his surgeons. This is all show. If a woman can clean a house in a week, this predator is preying on the disabled to get attention. It would be a crime for his phony acting to get him off from the punishment he deserves.
4
his walker looks pretty much like the one my wife used after two back surgeries. i had to laugh when i saw video of him on the news. it was such a blatant attempt to curry sympathy.
2
Felicia Sonmez would agree with this cynical view of men.
Harvey is not yet dead but like Kobe Bryant he's tagged for something extraneous.
Presumably, when he is dead, Ms Harris will remind us of his walker which he used to escape her judgement.
Please tell me we’re not considering that he actually needs a walker. He needs life behind bars. The crippled act is pathetic and reprehensible.
3
Standard hospital issue walker. I have one in my garage left over from a 2004 knee reconstruction at the Hospital for Special Surgery. I'd have lent it to him after picking off the cobwebs, of course.
He needs this walker like we all need a third nostril.
5
Weinstein does a grave disservice to those who suffer real disabilities. Personally, I hope he really throws his back out leaning over that rickety walker.
3
While this pieces raises important questions, we must not over-think what's going on.
Let's remember the St. Paul's School accused rapist Owen Labrie's transformation from handsome lacrosse bro (in his mug shot) to bespectacled nerd with a bad haircut (at the trial). In that case and this, the defense wants the jury to think that "anyone who looks like that couldn't possibly have committed such a crime. I am sad to say that this juvenile and bogus ploy will probably work.
Both cases remind me of Steve Martin, in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," turning up in a wheelchair. The title of that movie speaks volumes.
2
Didn't a mobster guy pull the same stunt a few years ago? I don't think he got away with it.
2
Given that men are given sentences that are on average 63% longer than those women receive for the same crimes, perhaps Mr. Weinstein should also consider wearing a dress and heels to court.
2
Somebody should tell Weinstein or his aides that the walker is adjustable and he doesn't need to be hunched over it. But that might be less visually 'interesting' to the jury.
3
Seriously? This is the oldest trick in the book. Begging for sympathy from the jury. No sympathy for him from me. And that walker...ridiculous - you can get a better one than that at Walgreens.
2
It seems everyone wants individual freedom for themselves, but not for their neighbor. If Weinstein wants to use a cheap, obsolete walker then let him. How is this any different than putting on makeup or getting your shoes shined. Everyone wants the world to see them in a certain way, so they equip themselves with accouterments of the image they wish to portray.
Oh dear - the Weinstein walker is supposed to say 'Harvey the Hapless'.
But it's so cheapjack, and so poorly used, that what does come across is a mix of 'incompetent' and 'pitiful' - ie fake.
Big communication fail.
3
Fake Walker or not, he's going to jail and Trump sadly isn't.
3
As unfair as it is for the people who have actual disabilities, there are far too many people who happily abuse a system that cannot be questioned. It makes sense to make doctors sign off on this kind of thing in a verifiable way. I find myself similarly suspicious of rural counties sporting massive disability rates. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/business/economy/harlan-county-republican-welfare.html
This person should be ashamed of this behavior, but I'm sure he is far past feeling any shame at all.
1
My siblings and I are involved in a case against the executor of our mother's estate. He is a complete con-artist who convinced her to change her will 2 weeks before she died, ripped off the estate, etc.
At his deposition, he appeared wearing the Franciscan Tau cross, and we fully expect him to do the same at future judicial hearings. Unfortunately the Judge is quite religious. Wonder how this will influence so-called justice.
What’s your point? Of course it matters whether Mr Weinstein is ‘faking’ his injuries or not. If he’s faking it just for the compassion of the jury then that’s terrible.
2
At least Ms. Rotunno knows better than to let Weinstein hold her shoulder while going down the steps. Maybe the walker is a prop but it is a great way to ensure he keeps his hands to himself around her and other women.
3
Were I jurior watching, I would note he uses it badly, and I would wonder, is that for affect. I have disabilities, and anytime I break the rules of gravity, muscle strength, and mechanic, oye.
1
This is what can happen when you try someone for a crime that is 15 to 30 years old (although for one of 6 the witnesses, only seven years old).
And that is also true for the alleged victims.
I watched Romeo is Bleeding last night, which was made in 1994, about the time Anabella Sciorra was allegedly raped. I know it’s unfair, but it’s a lot easier to believe her claim the way she looked 25 years ago.
Weinstein's walker? Jury swayed?
Was he using a walker during the alleged rape of dozens of women?
If you have a juror swayed by this they need to be removed from the jury.
2
You do realize that it’s a pity ploy, right?
He’s not implying that he’s used a walker his whole life. He’s making the jury feel bad about delivering a verdict that would result in a seemingly feeble/old man going to jail for what would presumably be the rest of his life.
We should all hope the jurors they picked aren't unforgivably gullible. This walker stunt was obvious the first time I was a photo of him standing behind it. What a joke Harvey. What a coward.
1
I wonder if Weinstein or members of his legal team will read our comments so he will show up in court next with a new top of the line walker and not use the stairs but a ramp?
1
I never saw a photo of Bill Cosby with a cane until he was hauled into court. Even then, the cane was so incredibly thin that a child using it probably would have broken it by leaning on it with any force.
It was obviously a prop.
3
I just wanted to say that I have no idea whether or not Weinstein needs a walker.
1
Here’s an idea. Just before Weinstein walks into the courtroom, the prosecutor should drop a $100 bill on the floor in front of the defense table. If Weinstein stoops to pick it up, everyone will know he’s faking it.
3
Hold on. Either the truth matters or it doesn't and apparently it doesn't when it comes to Harvey Weinstein, Ms. Harris and the NYT. Nowhere in Ms. Harris' article was it mentioned that Mr. Weinstein was involved in an automobile accident last August resulting his having to have back surgery in December. Instead, Ms. Harris pounces on Mr. Weinstein's use of a walker as disability aesthetics concocted to make him appear frail and below the threshold of societal expectations, setting him up as a sympathetic defendant. How about letting the facts speak for themselves and let the gossip rags focus on speculation?
1
Perhaps he's going for an Oscar with his pathetic, transparent act. The arrogance of the ego, believing that the public and any juror can't see through him. Over 80 women have accused him of sexual assault and he thinks the public and jurors are going to feel sorry for him?? Wow! Delusional.
1
Reinforce stereotypes? The only disability involved is a congenital lack of conscience.
1
The moment I saw him with this walker and his stooped stance I knew he was lying and trying to garner sympathy. What else is he lying about?
2
I use a walker and it costed me $300 and yet Harvey Weinstein worth millions is using a $10 thrift store one which suggests it's for show NOT because he is legitimately disabled in some way.
Bet a smart news person with a good camera could catch him at home not using a walker. Sorry you cannot fool a jury with a $10 thrift store walker.
2
The truth about Harvey Weinstein's walker? It's an untruth. And a window into the nature of his character.
There's no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has a disability, but it's not one that would require a walker.
2
Since at least the days of Tracey & Hepburn's "Pat & Mike" attorneys have been dressing up (or down) their clients to suit a narrative. Weinstein's walker is no different than a gang member in a 3-piece suit or a prostitute in a peter pan collar and mary jane's. It's a prop.
Gaming the system has been going on since forever.
3
What an actor!
1
Very interesting and honest take on people with disabilities and perceptions on what a 'victim' is or isn't. In other words, let's view people as people and stop judging them based on visuals. I hope the next time the NY Times or a columnist here decides to go back to calling someone a victim simply because they are Black, Muslim, Jewish, a woman, gay, whatever, and not evaluating the case on the merits, they will think of this article.
Tragic that people can't see inside Weinstein's brain instead of seeing his his walker... what they would see would leave them convinced he needs to be permanently removed from society.
2
The tennis ball feet are overkill.
2
Not wonder he has a walker. He's a thoroughly broken man.
1
Just like the fake cast and crutches used by dingbat actors facing juries in the old comedies on TV! Weinstein fits the part perfectly, taking his cues from lawyers who are as morally bankrupt as he is. What's next? A wheelchair? Someone should yell, "FIRE!" in the courtroom and we'll see just how infirm he is. Don't be fooled, jurists!
3
Did he have the walker when he got heckled at the underground (basement) club on Ave B last October? Must've been tough navigating those old stairs in that tenement.
This disgusting ploy should win him no sympathy in the courtroom. It should, in fact, confirm that he is a lying cheat who would do anything to get what he wants.
1
If the author, Prof. Harris, had had occasion in the four years she's had a law license to actually try any jury cases — and from her CV, not such opportunities appear to have been undertaken — then she might have learned that jurors, as a class, are not pathologically stupid.
To the contrary, my personal experience as a jury trial lawyer in Houston for the last 39 years is that there is NOTHING that a jury is better at than detecting the kind of fraud that she's imputing to Mr. Weinstein. Especially when the most raw and human subjects are at issue — including "Is this person really hurt, or is he/she kinda sorta faking a little?" — those twelve sets of eyes, darting all over the courtroom throughout a long jury trial, don't miss very much. Put them together in the jury room, where their collective observations are tested and refined, and they rarely miss anything important.
2
Any physical therapist will teach you to walk inside the walker. Weinstein is shuffling 2 feet behind his walker. This is dangerous as the walker may just slip forward and Weinstein will end up falling and having real back and leg issues.
2
It's quite apparent Mr. Weinstein was a sexual predator and abused many women. He looks like a broken man who's lost everything - and he has. If he's convicted, he will go to prison - where he belongs. Much like Bill Cosby, who eerily used a cane (supposedly due to his diminished eyesight) when he was going to court.
However, canes, walkers, crutches, whatever, I was dismayed to see an article accusing the defendant of using the walker as a charade for sympathy. It was a waste of newsprint. Whether it is, or not (I believe it's not), it's a ridiculous offshoot of the media driven coverage of the event.
Mr. Weinstein looks like a caricature of his former self. He looks half his size - bent over like he's been broken - and he has. He needs his walker - all the way to prison.
Well, the hunched posture does provide better opportunity for a good swift kick in the rear, so there's that.
2
Obviously he has a walker. The man has no spine.
2
I don't think that anyone is actually falling for his act!
2
Let's face it, Harvey Weinstein is an unethical monster. He shows no sign of regret, shame, or guilt. Shelly Silver was watching the trial and commented how in awe he was of him.
Weinstein is showing very bad form. All bent over, weak and struggling in his expensive suit and slippers. Look at him. So strong but yet so weak. You might even think it is a charade made for the sympathy vote.
1
A sympathy Walker. Much like a Defendant bringing his long abused Wife and Kids to Court, to sit behind him. Or a newly found “ Pastor “ to praise his “ Faith “.
SAD. And extremely insulting.
3
If that creep needed a walker so badly he'd wear sensible shoes so he could steady himself, not expensive suede loafers. Not sure they'll go with an orange jumpsuit.
2
Your points are well-taken, but not in the context of Weinstein. Please choose someone (anyone?) worthier of the argument you present.
Weinstein's usage of a 'Walker' does not pass the 'smell test'.
Cummon... no older person with a decent income uses this type of walker. Especially NOT a walker that isn’t even the appropriate height!
This type of walker is definitely there simply to try and garner attention. Especially as it is the wrong height for him to hold! It makes him have to bend over to walk. Making him appear far more frail than is possible. (A ploy, from a known “player” - he’s using a similar tactic to the one he used to get women to be alone with him. He’s trying to manipulate the jury like he manipulated his victims.
I hope the jury is smart enough not to be conned by this sociopathic predator.
2
It's one thing to say that the walker might create sympathy for Weinstein. But to think that because Weinstein had a walker that other people with walkers will be assumed to be sexual predators... Well, that theory has such contempt for the average person sitting on a jury that I can't believe you had the chutzpah to publish it. Really, now I think that Granma could be a predator because she uses a walker just like the one Weinstein had? Sorry, but your last few paragraphs are out of control.
I suspect the only disability Mr. Weinstein has is a moral one.
2
The jury is no doubt just as impressed with Weinstein’s “disability” as are the many commenters on this article.
2
He went so far as to put tennis balls on the bottom. This guy is not only trying to make you think he is injured, but that he can't afford a fancy walker. I don't believe him and neither should you.
1
Get Weinstein seated in courtroom prior to jury enters/exits so jury does not see his antics.
The court should have Harvey Weinstein examined by an independent doctor to determine if he indeeds needs the walker, or is just "faking" his disability.
Like someone faking whiplash in a car accident civil suit.
I’m so glad that this article was written and published. I have been of the opinion that these rascals are using disability as a crutch, no pun intended, with the jury. I first noticed this with Bill Cosby. Playing the sympathy card after what they are accused of is sickening.
1
I noticed in an earlier color photo of his walker that the tennis balls looked brand new. Hmmm.
1
As an expert in developmental disabilities, I would like to address one of the points raised in the article. Our legal system has done a very poor job from the bench in instructing juries on the measurement of intent and the impact that has in determining a verdict. Our jails are full of people who have been wrongly convicted of a "crime." 'Disability" is more apt to result in an unfair judgement than to elicit sympathy in a courtroom.
I'm sorry, but I don't see how the walker is relevant if he got it after the crimes he is accused of were committed. It in no way reflects his physical condition at the time. Even if he did have it, it would in no way hamper his ability to use a phone and run someone's career.
Just make sure his cell has a ramp.
Mr Weinstein's health is a personal matter. Like any other citizen of the US he is entitled to privacy with respect to his medical health records. Ms. Harris has only illuminated her own prejudice by this approach.
Mr. Weinstein can try to produce a Hollywood narrative about his life. The reality is his lack of moral judgement is not a result of any physical disability. He can act as if he could not physically intimidate actors, but the truth is that his power in Hollywood was what really held his victims at a disadvantage.
3
I believe Weinstein's use of a walker is a gimmick is to evoke sympathy with the jury, but as the author maintains it does diminish the plight of the disabled and elderly. At any rate though, I support Weinstein and hope that his attorney gets him off and then turns her attention to Bill Cosby who should free as well. Thank you.
1
@Southern Boy
Because setting sexual predators free is such a fine thing to do.
1
I would hope jurors will not be influenced by his walker, given this man's decades of terrible behavior. But, I used to be optimistic about juries until the OJ and Casey Anthony fiascoes. Now, I don't have much faith in their level of critical thinking, and objectivity. I'm beginning to think a panel of 3 judges should be the norm for trials such as this.
6
My instincts tell me that the walker pictured in this story was a prop used on some movie set. If you noticed the two balls on the ends don't match so right there, the movement of gliding and sliding will be uneven. It almost looks as if their addition were a last minute afterthought.
Also, appearing before a jury with a cane or in a wheel chair does NOT have the same effect as "struggling" with a walker.
Most people I know who use any of these aids go for as long as possible before finally succumbing to their necessity. They feel either embarrassed or like an invalid. They still have a strong inner spirit of independence and feel as if a walker diminishes that trait or spirit within.
Weinstein just continues to portray the real loser that he is. And he's a really bad actor on top of that.
27
@Marge Keller
Many people have different walkers that suit them best for their back injuries. If you have been temporarily disabled, you know that it's not one side fits all, and what looks "wrong" might be what just suits them best.
Weinstein's use of the walker looks fake because he was photographed at Target without a walker, and standing freely, the day after his court appearance.
It strains credulity that the short distance from his car to the courthouse is more strenuous than ambling through a Target with his family.
6
Totally agree, and there's no way he should be walking at a 45 degree angle like that. It's to make him look small and weak.
1
Targét. It must have been a good day :-)
Weinstein's walker looks as if he got it from a pawnshop deep in the Bronx. Affluent people who need a walker, as I have after leg surgeries, can get a four-wheeled one with a padded seat, or a three-wheeled one for those who want something compact. If Weinstein really needs the walker, one would think he would have one of decent quality.
467
@ Bearded One- I thought the exact same thing! I work in an affluent area, and you would never see a walker like. Instantly reminded me of OJ.
52
@Bearded One - Are those tennis ball feet included in the pawnshop version or did Weinstein hire a movie props guy to add those?
37
@Bearded One I am 91 years old with a bad back, and use a walker just like his, because it is light, and can be easily folded up to put in a car. I don't like Weinstein, but his choice of a walker is not a factor.
19
In a rather high profile case like this, the judge should request an independent medical evaluation to either confirm or refute whether such a device is a necessity or a prop. If it is a prop, he should be censured by the court.
4
If anything his "walking" will just make the jurors convinced he did it and his "give me sympathy" will backfire.
2
Can I just ask, why isn’t he taking the ramp found directly to the right of those stairs? I think the answer simply put is that it’s not good theater. I think it’s a miscalculation on his part that images of him practically crawling up the steps would somehow add sympathy. It doesn’t make sense, and for someone who’s already distrusted by the majority of the population; his attorneys should encourage him to spend a little less time making ”movie magic” and instead walk straight into the reality ahead of him.
9
Reminds me of the passenger who was on my Delta flight several years ago. He walked with great effort and apparent discomfort using crutches at the gate and so got in with the first plane entry group. The Delta flight evidently worked a miracle! When we landed and it was time for coach passengers to exit, he folded his crutches, looked around furtively, and sped out of the plane! I had to laugh at his chutzpah even as I was annoyed at his pettiness. "Petty" does not begin to describe Harvey Weinstein, though.
10
Thank you, Professor Harris, for writing this op-ed. I didn't know that there are people who use wheelchairs as a tool to make an impression that leads the convicted to a lenient order.
1
I’m glad so many people have picked up on the cheesy, cheap walker. I think the jury will also recognize that a man of his wealth and means is unlikely to use such a bargain-basement piece of equipment.
9
After 46 years as a trial lawyer, I have great confidence that a jury can sort these sorts of things out.
16
I have had lumbar degenerative disc disease for over ten years with some therapy but no surgery. I have walked with a cane off an on for much of the time. The pain and my mobility change from day to day. (My peers think it is a hilarious theatrical prop and are always anxious to perform with it behind my back.) I find some people have a hard time believing someone under 75 might need such assistance. This is why I am willing to give Mr. Weinstein the benefit of the doubt. He might just not know how to use a walker properly and may be too cheap to but a more upscale Rollator.
5
If he needs assistance for his disabilities, he should get a walker designed to give him maximum benefit.The walker in the picture definitely does not fit that purpose.
4
Would a motorized wheelchair with oxygen bottle be more convincing? or would that be excessive?
6
Reminded me of those mafia trials where the defendants developed heart conditions just as the trial began.
6
Right
Or death row inmates getting Jesus!
I assume the prosecution has a private investigator working to take incriminating photos and prove what we all assume - the wealthy Mr. Weinstein's cheap walker and incorrect posturer are a pose.
How can you wrestle with ripple effects?
Slightly off-topic, but this walker.... Is this still standard in the US? Looks like a thing from the sixties.
If this is standard, this can be taken as a perfect metaphor for the US health care system.
5
Oh, and by the way, I doubt that a Hollywood mogul would deign to use such a cheap walker either.
7
Remember when Rupert Murdoch pretended to be easily confused at his parliamentary hearing in 2011?
"There was Rupert Murdoch, looking every bit his age, appearing at times to lose his concentration and sometimes taking so long to answer questions that he seemed not to have heard them at all."
1
If you are under the care of a competent Physical Medicine specialist or a good PT, the first thing they do is teach you how to use the aides properly. Stand upright, engage the "core" with your hip, pelvis and shoulders in-line and walk with the "walker" not behind it Mr. Weinstein is not doing any of this. The only people who would use one the way he is are those who just go buy a cheap one from a medical supply company and are trying to look feeble.
16
Cmon. I agree he's guilty but he had back surgery for crying out loud. That IS how someone walks after back surgery. Wow. These comments are so juvenile.
He didn't seem to need a walker until he got in trouble. I wonder why?
6
Who is the physician or physical therapist who fitted him for this straight leg front wheel walker? Was it his lawyer?
4
This article reminds me of Attorney Joseph Welch's comment many years ago. "Have you no decency?"
I understand that you want him convicted. He may or may not be convicted but he is entitled to a fair trial. I don't know whether or not he needs a walker but if he does how dare you question it.
Let the facts come out at the rtrial and let the jury deliver a just verdict.
3
@Garry Sklar It's relevant because this isn't a trial it's a newspaper. These objective critical opinions very similar to what jurors will offer.
1
My first thought as a physical therapist is that someone should have told him the tennis balls on the back legs are to keep the walker from scratching floors inside! Used outside in sidewalks, they wear down to the rubber or even to the metal and make it very difficult to push the walker! There are plastic glides to use which help but also wear down and scratch floors after going outside. Rollators are generally used for people with endurance issues, not balance and strength issues, as they are not as controllable. They would not be used immediately post surgery.
6
If I may digress -- walkers can be a great help for many folks suffering a wide range of aches or disabilities, short or long term; that's what they are for; duh. Me: During my only experience with one (for underlying reasons long forgotten) I had to rent one of the things in order to attend an opera performance. As I recall, everybody ignored me, the ushers were very helpful and useful -- and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance! I was also one of the last to leave the theater.
1
Number one, any misdeeds a person has done prior to the illness that one is experiencing in the present cannot be an excuse to justify or excuse from accountability those actions. Number two, I personally have had multiple lumbar spine surgeries with the last resulting in a fusion. Undeniably, I was in pain for quite awhile. Never once did I need a walker, though I did use a cane for a short bit. I am the same age as Mr Weinstein and I’m not buying the pity defense. Any movie or story that used this obvious ploy wouldn’t make much money. It would be canned and labeled a dud.
2
So what else is new? I’ve heard of people developing debilitating bone spurs shortly after being drafted.
51
I’ve heard those very same people make debilitatingly “perfect phonecall[s]”.
1
Well, let's hope that any of the alleged victims testifying in this case don't use a walker. That would be double sympathy working its way to the jury. Just saying.
@JP
Just in the moment a sketch in a German satirical TV Show - one of the most popular in public broadcasting. The stand-up comedian showed a picture with Mr Weinstein and his walker.
The punchline was: Now he might try to show how his victims look when they were coming out of his room.
Big laughter.
Hey top defenders: Do you still think this was a good idea? I can tell you just among us professionals: Doesn't work here. There months more perhaps...
1
@JP
Just in the moment a sketch in a German satirical TV Show - one of the most popular in public broadcasting. The stand-up comedian showed a picture with Mr Weinstein and his walker.
The punchline was: Now he might try to show how his victims look when they were coming out of his room.
Big laughter.
Hey top defenders: Do you still think this was a good idea? I can tell you just among us professionals: Doesn't work here. There months more perhaps...
As I recall Cosby said he was blind...didn’t help him either.
4
Over the years I've had many patients who required his form of lumbar spine surgery. NONE of them required prolonged use of a walker post op. This guy is an out and out fraud.
27
My opinion as well having done many of these surgeries over 40 years. The term camptocormia has been used and was described in WW1 among those afraid to go into battle....for good reason.
1
Many years ago, I was a juror on a civil trial where the plaintiff sued a delivery company for injuries sustained in an accident, above and beyond the original medical bills and auto expenses. Every day for a week, the plaintiff arrived in and departed the courtroom looking pained and walking with great difficulty, on the arm of his sainted mother.
But, one day while I was on a break, about a block away from the courthouse, there was the plaintiff walking with ease, without assistance, no sign of distress, smiling and joking with family. I went to the judge, told him I could no longer be unbiased based on what I had seen, knowing the plaintiff was putting on an act. I was let off the jury — and I never found out if the trial reached any verdict.
Anyone happen to see Harvey out at Cipriani's after court?
4
With everything else he's obviously lied about for years, I don't trust for a minute that he needs the walker. It's all a ploy for juror sympathy, and hopefully the jurors will see past it.
3
Weinstein uses the walker coming in and out of court but then the next day he's seen moving around freely in a restaurant or on the street.
I certainly hope the prosecution points this out.
2
So what is someone who needs a walker supposed to do? Start sprinting because of the the “aesthetics of disability”?
If your point is that he is unlikely to need it — of need this pitiful-looking kind, and that the choice was a prop — say so! That is a good point, as many commenters here have said.
1
Bill Cosby tried the same tactic when he went to court. He shuffled along, holding onto his lawyer, wearing an ill-fitting suit. When that wasn't pathetic enough, he carried a cane which he didn't actually use. All this did not prevent a conviction.
Mr. Weinstein also came in an ill-fitting suit with the cheapest kind of walker he could find. I wonder if both men went to Goodwill to buy a cheap suit like none they have in their closets. Hopefully, the jurors will see beyond the sham physical handicap. Evidently, it wasn't too much to carry two cell phones which he used in the courtroom after being told by the judge it was not allowed.
5
I’ve had a bit of experience with people’s reactions when I’ve used a cane and when I haven’t. When I’m using a cane, people are very solicitous: stop in the crosswalk, etc. When I’m not using a cane, forget it. So, yes, the “disability” factor IS a factor in people’s minds. And, so is age. When I was about 20, I was physically (not sexually, thank goodness) assaulted by my elderly landlord. I took him to court. He arrived, shuffling, frail, white-haired, in his navy blue, go to meeting suit and the judge couldn’t believe the man could have done what he had. Case dismissed. (Not a good introduction to justice, by the way.)
2
Any kind of disability mental or physical evokes kindness and should be. Mr. Weinstein has money and could have a top surgeon to help to mend his hurt.
No one as myself have any idea if is a ploy or serious handicap for him to lean on a walker, only time will tell.
But again, Weinstein had everyting going for him, beautiful wife, children , yet he choose monstrosity.
2
The charges against him are so horrific that the walker will have little effect.
Cosby played the old blind man routine, and it didn't help him one bit.
2
Whenever I see a person using a wheelchair or just a wheelchair itself, I think of Stephen Hawking. What a beautiful, brilliant. and most important, compassionate brain was inside his head. A true gift to humanity.
3
The gift of humanity
I am so delighted you wrote this article as my thoughts have been in lock step with your article. He completely looks the part of a small, feeble, and harmless looking fella all while masking his predatory behavior towards women. Hopefully the jury will take the facts based on witness accounts and not the slumped over appearance of a wounded man.
2
"In this sense, both age and disability status neutralize or offset juror and public perceptions of danger and risk."
Well, if the jury is unable to imagine what Weinstein was like as a younger, fit man, ie, capable of the violence he's accused of, then it's a problem.
But in the sentencing phase, it's perfectly okay to tell the judge that Weinstein isn't a danger to society...anymore...due to his disability and age.
1
I can't wait for those intriguing social power artifact: His letters of reference
Weinstein knows one thing and one thing only: show business. That is not lost on anyone watching this drama unfold. I'm surprised he hasn't show up in rags, wearing leper makeup, and greatly exaggerating his effort to use the walker. I believe his need for a walker as much as I believe his innocence. In other words, not at all.
3
He can afford a better one. It's all for show.
2
You would think he with his money he would have a modern rollator. Then again it wouldn't have the same effect.
1
Remember who he is and what it is he accused of as we consider his current demeanor and appearance.
He's Mr. Show Biz-made his fortune from artifice and sleight of hand. And if you were accused of molesting and attacking beautiful women half your age of less, would you strut into court in your tailored $8000 suit and all the accoutrements? No, and for the same reasons.
I just hope the prosecutors find a way of entering some photos of the 'real' Harvey into evidence.
1
The handicapped parking placard is nothing more than "I got something for free that you don't!" and constantly misused and abused; the system on the placard is badly broken.
Typically a cane would be used for a while before transition to a walker. Are there images of Harvey with a cane?
It seems obvious one with means would add a squeeze horn or handlebar bell to their walker. Weinstein's is suspiciously stock.
1
Weinstein was supposed to hire actors, not be one.
I am currently suffering severe pain that makes it hard to move. Yet I manage while other use their affectations for their own benefit in court, subway, and train.
In my physical therapy career, I have seen many patients come out of back surgery worse than when they went in. We will never know if this is an affectation for sympathy or a real response to a physical condition.
3
As an attorney, my one reaction to this article is: So?
What does the author think should be done about it? Have the prosecutors force defense to prove he needs the walker?
Not let criminal accuseds with disabilities appear in court?
The problems raised have some validity, but there are no solutions which are not worse.
2
@Jerseytime If I were the prosecution I would request some kind of accommodation that isn't visible to the jurors. Let him hobble in on his fake walker, take his seat, and stow it out of sight before bringing the jury in. Don't even bother fighting about whether he needs it or not. Just keep him from using it as a cheap ploy to garner jurors' sympathy.
@Jerseytime
Who is surprised an attorney advocates cheating and falsehoods. No wonder Trump has no problem getting lawyers.
A crafty psychological ploy to garner sympathy. If he is in such separate medical condition, how come he is not in a comfortable scooter?
My own reaction is mental and physical decrepitude may have have caught up with as a result of being caught and charged. If indeed he is guilty -the jury determines that- he will continue to suffer, as the burden of moral turpitude fragments what was once a creative mind. The combination of creativity with wickedness is one of bizarre and strange functions of being human.
I was a rehab RN for many years. If he truly received a back surgery and needed support for it, he would need a lumbar-sacral orthosis (LSO).
When I first witnessed him walking with a walker, I immediately thought he was pulling out the "sympathy" card.
13
@Goahead: Today's walker; the 21st Century neck brace.
1
Don’t judge a book by its cover. People’s disabilities may or may not be visible - it’s not for us to judge. People can also become disabled very quickly. A month ago, I was doing well enough. A week later, 1 week in hospital and 2 in rehab. Did very well ther and morning to go home crashed and burned. I’m still in “crash” mode. When one is ill or over 70, things can go south very quickly.
11
@India
"When one is ill or over 70, things can go south very quickly."
Yes, especially when one is accused of multiple sexual assaults.
2
I saw this set up in an old episode of Law and Order. It's the face that matters more. He has to wear it in the Courtroom because the Jury didn't see the walker and they don't read the press. But the fact that everyone here doubts him because they hate him reinforces a major stereotype against the Me Too movement.
1
My mom at age 96 uses a walker, matter of fact she has 2, one for the car she still drives and one for her apartment at her senior residence. Almost 500 people live at her building complex and I have never seen any of the residents using such an old style walker. Everyone uses a lightweight model with bright colors 4 rolling wheels with hand brakes. These modern walkers allow for easy walking and moving. I think Harvey is milking any bit of sympathy he can with his old style walker and I bet my mom and every senior in her building would agree.
22
I work as health care provider in a county jail. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that some inmates deliberately feign disabilities, "not being able to walk" being in the top ten. A large part of my day is determining if inmates are truly ill or disabled or just acting to get attention, leniency, special housing, special food...the list goes on.
4
If he needs a walker, he should use a walker.
It seems odd that this would be a subject of conversation or debate.
10
The walker is a prop, in my opinion. He is using it incorrectly according instruction our pysical therapist has given us. In addition this walker is the type commonly available from Lions Club medical loan closets for working and middle class folk. For a person of vast wealth and vast show business experience, the accused is playing a part.
13
Weinstein may be exaggerating his inability walk unaided, but I'm shocked that a professor of disability law would suggest that we doubt someone's else's disability. It's hard enough for those with disabilities to get the aid and services they need -- or even a seat on the bus or the subway -- without someone with Ms. Harris's credentials suggesting that we question people's right to their disability status.
It may be a clever legal strategy, but it undermines the credibility all people with disabilities.
7
@KB in NYC
"It's hard enough for those with disabilities to get the aid and services they need -- or even a seat on the bus or the subway -- without someone with Ms. Harris's credentials suggesting that we question people's right to their disability status."
Weinstein has enough money to get any kind of care he needs, and I'll bet he never needs to use public transit, either.
1
@LauraF You misread my comment. But your point might be applied to those who say the walker is fake because it looks bargain basement cheap. He could afford a shiny new one. Whether or not he needs it, why wouldn't he get one that's real?
@KB in NYC
People do fake disabilities for a number of reasons. I’m not saying that anyone claiming a disability should be immediately doubted, but we have a right to suspect someone who is trying to gain something by claiming to be disabled
1
What harmful stereotypes about walkers? I do not know any.
People with walkers need help walking. My more debonair relatives eschewed them, preferring canes, but others relied on them.
Walkers fold easily and fit into the trunks of cars, and many's the country drive I've taken elderly friends and relatives on.
Shrug.
8
If he really had a problem and was really given that walker by a medical professional, he would not be walking hunched over like that. I have severe back issues - and use crutches - to keep me upright. Leaning over like makes it worse.
10
The walker is obviously a prop. It was probably used in one of his movies - I'm sure someone can find it on Netflix.
7
Until medicine establishes an objective way of quantifying physical pain (a long way away, if ever) an article like this is offensive and pointless. Conjecturing about the extent and gravity of a disability, and its dramaturgical impact is beside the point.
Weinstein's misdeeds shine with darkness visible, whether he is slouching toward Bethlehem or not.
10
After a recent back surgery, I too briefly used a walker. While I quickly 'graduated' to a cane, I still must use it everywhere I go, at home or in the community. And I am slowly admitting to myself that my ability to walk without a physical aide is the result of profound deterioration of my back and that I may NEVER return to my premorbid condition. In spite of a brief period of feeling humiliated by my daily failures, now mercifully and mostly in the past, it continues to be a daily, no correct that, an hourly, if not by the minute, lesson in humility. I would hope that many of the respondents here could learn a little bit of humility themselves. When I see Weinstein, I too see a creep but also someone who must visit the doctor too often, takes too many pills, has to sit in the bathtub for fear of falling in the shower again, and who never has a day go by without thinking what the level of pain is for the day, rated on a scale of 1 to 10, to share with the physical therapist at the next visit. Looking at Weinstein trying to negotiate the stairs, as he is doing in a photo accompanying the story, suggests to me more shame and terror than any that he will experience in the court. Please stop shaming and please stop blaming. And please stop taking my parking space while you run into the bank for a second.
12
He’s a “showman”, I’m not buying into the act.
4
@walter Thank you for this comment +1
I was involved in a court case and predicted that the woman on the other side would show up on crutches to make her seem more victim-like. And she did! I hope the jury sees right through the walker.
6
I'm so glad this has been addressed publically. As a physician, when I saw the first photo of Mr. Weinstein using a walker I thought -- they are playing the sympathy game. He's not even using using the walker as a doctor or physical therapist would teach him to do. And that walker is one you could find at Goodwill. And you shouldn't wear slippers with a walker, but sturdy shoes. And I hope a photographer catches him striding along upright without a walker when he's not in public view.
34
I knew an elderly lawyer who used his walker for the purpose of gaining sympathy from the judge, the jury and therefore his client. He did need the walker, but he also knew the effect his walker would have on his case.
6
@Jackie - Yes. Both things can be true, and very well might be in this case also.
2
Mr. Weinstein's physical appearance reflects his emotional state. He is in denial of the charges against him. Yet, he feels powerless against what he sees as an unfair situation. Self care has gone out the window. He is angry, confused, unhappy, and in both physical and emotional pain.
This feeds directly into his pretense at being a victim. It will not fool the jury or the judge, but it is completely understandable in terms of his unwillingness to face his guilt.
6
Disability aesthetics? Love that phrase. The ADA lost control of their brand a long time ago when just about anyone could get a disabled parking permit or bring any and all manner of "service" animals onto planes. I can't remember how many times I have seen perfectly mobile people jump out of their cars in handicap parking spots.
12
@Mark Stone There are hidden disabilities. My dad was frequently harassed by people like you, including days after he was released from a month long hospital stay.
I hope this column doesn’t result in further suspicion toward disabled persons needing accommodation.
Btw, I briefly needed a walker following a severe illness and no one gave me “instructions “ about how to use it. I borrowed one from a non-profit and returned it when I no longer needed it.
The question in court is whether Weinstein raped and harassed women in the past, before his surgery. If he is convicted, he may be entitled to accommodations while serving a prison sentence. That’s how civilized countries are supposed to treat the incarcerated. Sometimes that means rapists receive appropriate treatment. The rest of us are supposed to be better than the criminals in our society.
11
I wouldn’t judge too harshly on the people with handicapped plates who don’t seem to need them; some disabilities, such as heart conditions, are hidden. I’m grateful that I can park at a distance and walk the extra yardage without assistance. I also knew somebody a few jobs back who faked a back problem to get disability, and then actually got one. Sometimes, what goes around comes around.
10
Remember there are people with invisible disabilities. I have MS and some days I have a limited amount of energy. So I can leap out of my car looking fit, do a grocery shop in a big box store and come out walking crookedly.
3
The aesthetics of assistive aids -in relation to age and probably gender- is something with which I've had recent experience. An accident last fall messed up my knee and spent some weeks on crutches. These things happened various times in my teens, 20s, 30s: friends and coworkers generally expressed sympathy/empathy for what seemed a routine part of life. But this time I'm in my 50s: there seemed no end to coworkers' comments on how "we" are so much more fragile, weak, slow-to-heal as we age! (A surprise to me, given that those earlier injuries took much longer to heal -- I had no medical insurance back then, so no PT, etc.)
As a result, my recovery became shaped by its aesthetics. As I progressed past crutches, the doctor recommended a cane or walker. No way I was going to show up at work with a walker. I struggled to find a cane that was comfortable to walk with for long distances yet minimally coded as an "old lady" cane. (Those "old lady" canes that loop around at the top are da bomb, it turns out. I briefly considered trying to wrap one in indie band stickers.)
The flip side of whether or not Harvey Weinstein is using an assistive device to appear less capable than he is: the rest of us have to choose between using the assistive devices we may need and looking less capable than we are. That this equating of assistive devices with generalized incapacity in older adults is largely unquestioned seems to me a much bigger problem than Weinstein's court appearance.
7
The story he is trying to create is that he's infirm and has severe mobility issues. My initial thought having had some recent experience with this is that were under a doctor's care, he would not be pushing the walker ahead of him, thus leading me to the conclusion that he is either:
1. not under the care of competent physician
2. lacks access to competent physical therapy
3. is not credible
It appears he has decided to chase the Cosby defense and look how well that turned out.
17
@Lostin24 Yes. Having lived for a couple of years with a person who truly needed his walker, I can't understand how Weinstein doesn't faceplant all the time with his walker way out ahead of him like that. You stay as much as possible inside the framework. That's the whole point of it.
1
The funniest thing about the walker is how the British press reacted to his two tennis balls on the walker legs..Everyone in the US does that, we see the tennis balls crammed on to canes, walkers, etc., everywhere..But to the British press, it was like seeing a mcdonalds hamburger appear out of thin air - mystifying, intriguing, and fascinating..So funny..
9
It's obvious that no one taught him to use a walker properly so I doubt he was given it by a professional. It is really sad that he is exploiting this image of an elderly disabled person who relies on a cheap walker. The tennis balls on the back legs signal that he is using the walker on the street, but I doubt he uses it at all when the photographers are not around.
14
Has anyone commented on the quality of the walker? With tennis balls as a brake? Really? There are walkers which permit the user to walk in an erect posture,most likely recommended by his surgeon and the rehab staff who work with him. This type of walker has front and back wheels with hand brakes and a seat if the walker is fatigued. If the lawyers think that the cheap, found on a curb, device will elicit sympathy, they are being overpaid. Probably true, anyhow.
13
One should not judge harshly potentially devastating disabilities, but the tennis balls on Mr. Weinstein's rickety walker are genuine as Presidential bone spurs. The prosecutors should not comment. The jurors will not be fooled.
6
The tennis balls! His art director has a terrific eye for detail.
6
The walker, the shabby suits, and the conspicuously disheveled necktie I've seen on at least one occasion all seem to be nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at affectation. A comical one, if you ask me.
My mother on fixed income has a better walker that that. If it is a sham he can be accused of seriously underestimating intelligence of the American public.
15
Harvey should win the Oscar for best performance in impersonating a disabled person in order to sway a jury. Let's hope the jurors are smart enough to see through this act.
8
You can get a walker like that at Goodwill for 2 or 3 bucks. Or a little more at any good stage props company.
8
He surely did not need any device to assist him to inflict so much suffering onto his victims. If he was capable to engage in so many predatory relationships, he should be capable of taking a stand at the trial. All the puns are fully intended.
7
I see how he uses it and my own back hurts at the thought of doing that.
IMO it is totally fake. You can't lean out that far in front of yourself and lift a walker if your back is weak and in pain. In fact just leaning forward that much would show anyone how much effort of the lower back that takes. If he is actually leaning his weight on his arms he still has to use his back when he shifts the walker.
If he was legit hurt he'd be more upright and not grabbing at things out to his sides with his arms which also puts a lot of strain on the back.
13
That’s a pretty basic walker he’s using. You’d think with his money he could get something fancier, with features like a basket or cupholder. Even so, I suppose it’s not my place to scrutinize his disability status. That’s not the “high road.”
4
HW puts me to mind of Mubarak who appeared in court flat on his back on a hospital bed he was so sick
remember that?
I wonder if he's still incapacitated now that he out of jail
3
Prison floors are flat and a first level cell would ensure no stairs. He'll be able to take his stage prop along with him. The photos do provide comic relief in this otherwise sordid affair.
5
As a disabled woman, I find his use of a walker in an attempt to dissuade jurors from convicting him, both an affront to all people who actually need a walker and disdainful.
He's an alleged sexual predator. He's been using and abusing the system for decades and now he's afraid to face the reality of his crimes, or to land in prison, where inmates will give him his just desserts.
Are we to believe the drama behind the walker and the ill-fitting suits, or do we remind ourselves of his misdeeds, misogyny and contempt for justice?
I think the women who testify to his predatory nature and rapes override his attempted manipulation of the public and jurors.
9
For a man who is not upright it shouldn’t surprise that he is leaning so heavily on his prop walker.
5
The type of walker he is using is suspect in and of itself. It is the cheapest, flimsiest model on the market. It's the kind hospitals send you home with when they know you're only going to need one for a short time. Is he trying to convince the jury that he's now poverty-stricken in addition to being so pathetically frail that he is worthy of their sympathy?
6
Of course it is fake. Same trick was pulled by Manafort who came to Court in a Wheelchair. Same thing is done in every Court. If the use of a walking stick, walker, wheelchair could help then it will be used by the Defense just as they dress a young perpetrator up to look like Harry Potter in Court. Juries are not fooled by such tricks.
5
Hollywood - acting, not at its best ...
4
A complete act. Thank you for calling him out.
7
It’s such an obvious ploy for sympathy. If I were a juror, it would backfire.
6
Even if Weinstein needs a walker, why is he using a very old style? Surely he has enough money for one of the newer, more manageable walkers.
6
The bigger issue is American erceptions as was addressed tih the article. We don't like minorities, we don't want our white children goings school with them, we don't like the elderly, we dont think minorities should be CEO's we don't like the handicapped, the lists of people who make average Americans uncomfortable is endless.
I find it interesting with all of the constant social ;l discrimination here in NY that the Weinstein case gets so much attention. Man had back surgery, why cant they beam him in from his home, why brother to come in, that way no one will see him stumble. He has already been displayed as a monster and hes going to jail so what more does the public want.
The jury is not made up of ignorant people they can think.
Maybe we should look in the mirror and think how we are hurting fellow American's with our constant discriminations for people who did nothing wrong but be born looking different than white America and getting old.
2
He is in the movie business, the walker is a prop.
2
Two questions: If Weinstein is convicted, sentenced and incarcerated, will he look the same or worse than he does today? If he is acquitted, will he toss away his walker and bound down the courthouse steps? Oh, ye of little faith, Harvey may be a miracle waiting to happen!
3
can anyone imagine the casting of the actual walker, with dozens of models brought by prop assistants up and down the scale of pitifulness, with lawyers, PR spinners, art directors, stylists and W trying them all on - filmed on video by a sworn crew, and then the review, the choice of this one against the dozens other. Can you? I can.
324
@Kate, I’m still laughing!
14
@Kate
Did they put the walker on the “casting couch”?
11
@Kate
I certainly can also.
This style of walker, tennis balls included, are still used in hospital for when one gets up from surgery. And they work well as they don't roll away from oneself. But to
take to court?
4
He didn't need it when he was chasing young starlets around his hotel/office/apartment and I certainly don't believe he needs it now. As a veteran Hollywood producer, he should know bad acting. Apparently he doesn't recognize it in himself. I predict that if he's convicted and sentenced, they will wheel him into prison on a gurney. Really, does anyone fall for that act?
6
The day I saw Harvey do his perp walk, I leaned over to my friend on the next chair and said, Watch! The next time we see this guy, he'll be in a wheelchair. I called it "the mob defense". Goes to show my age.
The obvious aim is to try to minimize the perceptions of the facts of the case and dredge up some kind of sympathy or at least minimize the power and physical abilities of the accused. We should know better, and indeed I'm sure most of us do.
The article opens my eyes to the absolute lack of integrity of some in the law profession who will feast on the fees and yet again reinforce stereotypes and beliefs I truly believe many people of good faith and conscience are trying to overcome in ourselves.
3
@Jeff An attorney’s duty is zealous defense of the client. That is as true for the highly paid celebrity attorney (looking at you, Alan Dershowitz) as it is of the public defender. The problem in this country is not lack of integrity of well-paid defense attorneys, its lack of access to competent attorneys for the poor caught up in the justice system. This is particularly true in rural areas.
If you are ever involved in a legal dispute you will be lucky if you can afford a qualified lawyer who will work zealously in your interests.
2
I have no particular interest in the Weinstein trial and in the issue of his walker - this is for the jury to decide. But this article purports to make a larger point, which I find hard to understand. Is the author saying that some people fake disability to get preferential treatment? I am sure it happens. Is she saying that we should not pay attention to visible signs of disability at all? Sorry, asking people to turn off their brains is not going to work. We all make judgments about strangers based on visual cues. If I see an older person in a wheelchair, I will feel compassion - that is, until I learn they are accused of being the Golden State Killer, in which case their current state of health becomes a cause for Schadenfreude. If I am dating, I probably won’t go out with a disabled person because I don’t find them attractive. In any case, disability always factors into our decision-making about other people, along with other things, such as age, appearance, race, gender and socio-economic status. Structural discrimination against the disabled is wrong. Personal preferences should be left alone.
2
What a great example of how people today: 1.)miss the point, and 2.)become concerned or even outraged at an imaginary "other" point.
The attempt to portray one's client as frail or even incapable of committing the acts for which they have been accused is a very traditional criminal defense tactic (which there can be a range of opinions about).
Do we really think defense counsel, bound by oath to zealously represent their client, does or even should care about what this image may portray about disabled persons?
Please tell me we have better things to think about.
2
@Michael
We do. Why have we let the media train people into accepting lack of thought as normal even to be expected?
1
I am amazed this article didn't address the eye-rolling effect that Mr Weinstein's new accessory probably evokes in most people. And in that way, it is totally counter-productive to the defense's theoretical ploys to build sympathy and create doubt that their client is capable of physical predation.
2
@marywho
Are you kidding? He has no shame. What he hopes is that jurors will imagine he does and thus has to do this because he really is old and in bad shape.
I don't see how Weinstein's present state of apparent disability would help (or hurt) him in the court room. He's not being judged on whether he is capable of harming someone _now_. He's being judged one whether he did harm people back when he was healthy. His current state of health is irrelevant.
6
Prosecutors should tell jurors to think of the walker as a symbol of the crippling, lasting emotional pain Weinstein has inflicted on his victims. They may not be using walkers or crutches or wheelchairs but their psyches have been hobbled by him, in some cases forever.
13
@Maria
That's an interesting concept. I will remember that when white people go out of their way to abuse minorities . that the walker is an symbol of every lasting emotional pain inflicted by white people om minorities day in and day out
@Maria That’s inadmissible.
People have seen him in the last year when he wasn't in court and noticed he was severely mobility impaired to had a walker.
1
I’ve quit counting the number of back surgeries I have had, and the walker he is ‘using’ is the type all of the PTs recommended, and that I have used. He may or may not actually need it. However the fact that he is not using the walker with correct posture certainly makes it suspicious. Sloppy production on his part!
13
@Beth
So sever back surgery is the same. I do know that the intensive pain and the lost of feeling in your legs all of a sudden is something I wouldnt wish on anyone.
Lets stop with all of this smugness and hate. I get it dont like the man but lets stop being haters all the time
Aren't defendants in the US innocent until proven guilty and not the other way around though, regardless of their disability? I'm not for Weinstein or anyone. I'm just saying.
2
@Petunia In the media people are usually guilty until proven innocent.
As someone who has had multiple surgeries and procedures on my spine, lower and upper, I remember the surgeons telling me to start walking normally as soon as possible to strengthen the muscles surrounding the area. When I first saw Weinstein with the walker, I knew it was a transparent attempt to elicit sympathy--same with Cosby. My guess is that nobody's buying it.
18
@Al Whitaker From the consensus in this column, your guess seems to be correct.
1
As other commenters have already noted, defendants facing legal actions, particularly where felonies have been committed, suddenly develop debilitating conditions which, at worst, will elicit reaction of fakery, as in the Weinstein case. But I would speculate that very few. if any, innocent defendants are convicted because they faked a disability, whereas there are probably at least some guilty defendants who have either not been convicted, or received a lesser punishment for their offenses because of their "disability".
6
Even if he requires the use of a walker now (of which I remain highly suspicious of), it has no effect on what he did before he needed one. His earlier actions will be what are judged, and if the charges are shown by evidence to be correct, then his current condition is of no interest. Just the facts, just the facts.
8
Your use of the term "aesthetics of disability" to describe the visual markers of disability--and how people react to them--does not touch on the history of previous work in this area, which ranges from Goffman's "Stigma" to Tobin Sieber's work on "Disability Aesthetics"--. Your arguments would be more convincing is your scholarship reflected some knowledge of this history, and gave credit to it too.
2
At 68 and having used a walker myself in the past I can agree with others who have commented that Weinstein does not use it properly and I strongly suspect dishonesty on his part in an attempt to gain sympathy. Remember that he was a movie producer who understands theatrics and audiences, and that this stage prop he has appeared with is to be considered amidst that. What else can we expect in the age of Trump?
26
@Jim
Harvey is a movie guy. It is sure that he has watched Goodfellas and seen all the capos show up in court in wheel chairs and with walkers, oxygen bottles and crutches. And don't forget Vinnie the Chin Gigante who walked around his neighborhood in his bathrobe, pretending to be crazy.
Hard to believe someone using a walker would take the stairs when ramps and elevators exist.
55
The most amazing to me as a european is the cheapness of the walker. Here the favorite walker is on four wheels with handbrakes and a posibility to sit and rest on it. It is collapsable so as to take it easily along in the car. Some look like Porsche designs, made with carbon fibre. The Weinstein walker is miserably clunky in design, unpractical to transport, clumsy to walk with. So yes, to me it leaves the impression that this excuse of a walker is used by design. Of course, I would not be surprised if it is used througout the US. Just as I could not believe the design of the yellow schoolbus.
21
@Hans Wilschut: I’m afraid that your knowledge about European walkers vs. American walkers is flawed. I’m a physicaslly disabled American who last year had an extended stay in the 11-ième of Paris. To avoid having to search for a mobility device in Paris, I brought my own from the US.
My device is the Drive “Nitro” (“Euro-style”) rollator, which has four wheels, brakes, a seat, and is collapsible. It’s sturdy, sleek, and is painted bright blue. As I walked around various neighborhoods of Paris with this device, I had a number of old women stop and ask me where I’d found it. They were generally surprised when I told them (in fluent French) that I’d bought it in the USA; they said they’d never seen such a nice rollator in France.
I’m hardly the type of American who says everything is better here. In fact I’d say that, in general, life is much better in Western Europe. However, I’d like to give credit where credit is due: you can get a high-quality mobility device in the US. Unfortunately, as with everything here, it depends on whether you can afford it.
5
Maybe he’s too cheap to get a nice one
2
Hasn’t anyone ever heard of the ‘property department’?
It’s Harvey Weinstein. There is little reason to think that his court appearances couldn’t have been attended to by making use of a cane, if any medical concerns are more than simple fabrications.
I can’t tell if it’s a shame or not that more people don’t seem to have any recognition that interpersonal manipulation is effective to the degree that it is often deployed.
6
Get evidence and inform the jury of his mobility at the time of the alleged crimes.
9
I suspect his disability will clear up after the trial.
25
I've also had two spinal surgeries, plus one operation on each knee, and fractures of each tibia and major surgery on one of them. Lots of rehab. Immediately after the knee and leg operations I used crutches. But after the back surgeries I walked out of the hospital.
I never used a wheelchair or walker.
Weinstein is a liar and a phony, just like always.
21
Weinstein's walker (and his attorney's possible suggestion that he use it), the WH's defense teams constant repetition of lies in the Senate trial, the GOP's continued defense of the their corrupt and deceitful leaders, "alternative facts" purposefully presented and disseminated as reality, flat-earthers, antivaxxers, Fox News - no wonder mental illness is growing around the world. We not only live in a vortex of constant noise and marketing, we are now living in a vortex of constant falsehoods.
4
I guess I’m just a mean and jaded person, because my first thought when I see these suddenly disabled defendants is that they are playing to the jury. They should be glad I’m not in the jury box. I have a real problem when I think I’m being manipulated.
13
Someone needs to sleuth around and watch this guy outside the courtroom going about daily business, and post pictures of him walking without a cane or walker; case settled.
6
“Fake!”
- The Fortune Cookie (1966 film)
9
poor Garvey. he has the cheapest Walker and must have not been able to afford Physical Therapy.
9
Funny how he was perfectly spry until this looked like it was going to trial, and now all of a sudden he acts like he's at death's door.
Only a very stupid juror would buy that nonsense.
18
Aside from the author's very real insights on the harmful stereotypes of people with disabilities, there's the added manipulation of Weinstein using an inexpensive walker...with tennis balls on the rear legs. If this isn't the icing on the manipulation cake I don't know what is.
15
It is nothing but a stunt.. to try to influence jury and court sympathy.. particularly when it comes time to do sentencing.
Bill Cosby played the same stunt.. pretending to be blind and needing a body handler to escort him to and from.
It's disgusting, and it is disrespectful to those who are actually disabled.
19
Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, Harvey's model. Harv is using the walker incorrectly, a walker that looks like something picked up from Goodwill. Nobody should be fooled by the fake.
12
I am elderly and had two knee replacements and I never needed a walker, or even crutches. I would bet the farm if Weinstein had a power meeting to get financing for a production that walker would be gone with the wind.
486
@Milliband I'd be happy to see him crawl in on his elbows. I think this article has an excellent point, and I wish we were finished with guilty-as-anything predators whining in with walkers and canes.
36
@Milliband
Many people, most often men, refuse to use a walker. At some point, they will fall. Sometimes that fall will be serious and possibly lead to death within weeks.
4
"Whether Mr. Weinstein needs a walker... is beyond the point."
Actually, that is the point. Yes, appearances do count. if Mr. Weinstein looked like George Clooney perhaps there would be no trial at all, but that isn't the point either. A good deal of commentators are suddenly medical experts deciding what kind of device is needed. Or that Mr. Weinstein is using it simply as a prop. . Or since he has (or had) so much money he could use a more expensive device (when this one seems to serve it well enough). Some don't even like the color of his suitT. Nor is that the point. I guess one point is all the commentators' presumption of guilt (and theatrics). I hope the jury is a bit more impartial. Perhaps, to that point, the more important point they (and the author) are really making is their distrust of the intelligent decision making ability of juries. That is always the point. And that Mr. Weinstein still is allowed the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise. He has a lot of accusers. So? I can recall a case in France when more than a thousand ignorant men and woman accused a woman of witchcraft. So they burned her at the stake. I don't think she had a walker though.
7
@Mark Shyres "if Mr. Weinstein looked like George Clooney perhaps there would be no trial at all"
Women, Mr. Shyres, do not appreciate being assaulted, regardless of how their attacker looks.
1
Reminds me of Ernest Saunders, one of Britain's most celebrated businessmen, who was convicted of massive fraud in 1990 then served only 10 months of a 5 year prison sentence on the grounds that he was suffering from Alzheimer's. He went on to make a (miraculous) full recovery and is still alive today at the age of 84. This phenomenon existed long before the Trump era: it's called privilege.
8
Thanks to the success of Donald Trump, we live in an age of shamelessness. The concept of honor has been purged from public consciousness. There is no penalty for lying, deceiving or undeservedly seeking pity. These men - Trump, Manafort, Weinstein - they embody few or none of what humankind have viewed as virtues for thousands of years. They are men who have achieved great wealth and power by exhibiting and exploiting vices.
19
'Disability' cons don't really seem to help defendants, do they? And this one is so transparent that I'd imagine it won't fool anyone even for one second!
7
Scientists are assuring us that in the not too distant future Artificial Intelligence will be able to determine a person's guilt or innocence with a far greater degree of precision than we immutably biased human beings.
Thank God.
Or maybe not....
4
Weinstein is shooting himself in the foot with this walker. I don't think there's a person in America or anywhere else that believes he needs this prop during his trial. As one comment said - it makes him look creepier.
12
The impeachment trial is going to affect all trials. Jurors are going to do crossword puzzles, read books, play with fidgets, and go for walks while testimony is given. They won’t even notice a walker.
6
Not really, real-life judges won't stand for it. The Senate is a ridiculous sham, but that doesn't mean every court in the country is suddenly a sham too.
8
Weinstein aside, this article makes an enormous number of unsupported claims about how people view the handicapped, and even about the members of the jury themselves:
"unlike race, gender, socioeconomic status or sexuality, people believe disability is fundamentally different and warrants differential treatment"
"But [the jury's] common base of knowledge and experience about disability is at best incomplete or inaccurate, and so, by default, jurors will rely on a flawed set of beliefs"
The makings of a useful, interesting article are here, but what we have instead is an insulting barrage of accusations, with nothing at all to back them up.
I expect better from the Times.
5
Oh, stop it. If the man needs a walker, he needs a walker. "Whether he needs assistance or not . . . "?? This article does more to reinforce harmful stereotypes than a defendant using a walker.
4
What a put on. We live in the age of make-believe. Reality does not matter but what can be made up for the gullible public to believe. Television is a show in which public figures act a role to deceive and manipulate. Weinstein follows the script of the performer in the White House, who is truly a product of the entertainment culture nurtured in New York. HIs thousands of lies do not even count to convince his mesmerized followers in the wider public and in the revered United States Senate that the man lacks even a basic knowledge about being president of a nation, let alone the most powerful nation in the world.
4
Bill Cosby arrived at Court with a body guard who led him by the arm to and from the courtroom because he is visually impaired.
Cosby was convicted and is currently in prison, serving his sentence.
While I take your point of the non-subtle visuals Weinstein is projecting, I'm betting on the jurors to see through this Hollywood predators theatrics and send him to prison.
7
He's had back surgery. Of course! After all his back took a lot of stress while he kept assaulting women who fought him.
13
He's an actor, eliciting sympathy. It's very unfair to the people with real disabilities that actually need walkers. He's a fraud on so many levels.
4
My husband uses a walker. It's adjusted for his height so that he doesn't have to be bent over, the one that Weinstein is using is set too low.
St. Louis, Missouri
5
I'm no fan of Weinstein. But if he recently had back surgery, it is likely he really did need a walker. And as someone of similar age who has had use a walker and a cane at times, I am appalled at the number of people claiming it's all a fraud.
3
@Gerry Power
He ought to have enough money to make sure it's fitted for him properly. The fact it is not makes it pretty likely it's all a stunt.
5
A cheap walker augmented by stubble on his beard and jackets at least two sizes too big, all meant to make him look pathetic and vulnerable. I cannot imagine a jury would not see straight through this.
34
This stunt inadvertently reveals who Weinstein *really* is when his power and status are stripped away: a weak and craven old man. Now that he no longer has the authority to threaten people into obeying him, he's angling for their pity. It reminds me of that interview where R. Kelly burst out crying to make people feel bad for him. I hope the jury will have the good sense to see this for the transparently desperate and calculated ploy that it is.
12
This is nothing more than a George Costanza move. Remember when George rode the mobile transport and lifted it up in front of his boss and lost his job? Yup, this is all Costanza.
5
Playing decrepit didn't do much for Mr. Cosby.
6
Having sprained an ankle 5 times over the years, I walk with a cane to prevent any further injury. I don't consider myself disabled yet others do. I don't mind people opening doors for me or giving up a seat in a crowded room but I do mind the side glances and "sympathetic words" that come when people are uncomfortable around those who "don't stand on their own 2 feet."
Watch the movie "The Fortune Cookie" and then tell me if Weinstein's lawyers haven't seen it. If it isn't standard curriculum in law school, it should be.
5
My very elderly father took a fall and ended up in rehab. The physical therapists worked with him to learn how to use his temporary walker. They watched him walk and kept telling him to walk inside the walker, not walk with the walker in front of him.
Weinstein is putting on a show. Nobody has instructed him as to how to properly use his cheap, basic walker, so I doubt he has had any physical therapy.
Interesting how Cosby suddenly looked weak and demented at trial. Manafort developed debilitating gout in jail. Something about being confronted with their criminal behavior is causing these guys to get desperately ill! The medical community should take note!
839
@Kathryn
And that walker has not been adjusted by a physical therapist for his height--he probably found a used one in a thrift shop!
87
@Kathryn I noticed the same thing. It is has not been adjusted for his height so he has to bend over excessively to use it. Given his character, you could be right.
99
@Kathryn Any nurse, any physical therapist, anyone who has been through PT to help them use a walker safely & correctly can see this for what it is: pure theatrics in an attempt to gain sympathy and manipulate jurors. It is shameful, but why would we expect anything else from this man?
105
It's quite annoying and totally frustrating when the able-bodied use disability for their own advancement, whether it's using a now-deceased grandmother's accessible parking placard ("I'll be just a minute!" they say, as they run into the store), or using a wheelchair, cane or walker to gain sympathy from a jury.
People who have actual need for mandated accommodations so often do not receive them at all, and the 70-something% unemployment rate among people with disabilities is just one example.
I know these things from very personal experience.
5
The walker is Harvey Weinstein's appeal for sympathy and nothing more than that. He's doing a Keyser Soze and walks upright and without pain the minute he's away from cameras and the public.
Considering the charges brought against him by multiple women, Harvey doesn't deserve compassion or pity. This may be early judging, but the man didn't consider the very real trauma or consequences his victims would suffer.
4
Can we get him a handicap accessible jail cell?
9
It kept Vincent (The Chin) Gigante out of prison for many years. All Weinstein needs is to convince 1 juror to sympathize with him.
6
Let us not forget that Harvey Weinstein is Hollywood. This is fiction and he does the truly disabled a disservice. He needs to answer for what he has done when he was chasing women around a sofa.
5
All a theatrical production, they even included the neon tennis balls on the walker legs!
9
@Heidi Good point. 100% theater. Weinstein can afford a better walker, one that wouldn't necessitate the tennis ball kluge.
I think there's another reason for the ploy, beyond eliciting the greater sympathy jurors feel toward someone physically challenged: the defense could try claiming that W's supposed limitations preclude some of the behaviors described by the plaintiffs.
Maybe that's farfetched—but then winning cases with farfetched arguments if often what top tier defense lawyers do . . .
Any physical therapist would look at the picture of him descending the stairs and say he needs a more vertical walker. Look at more vertical alignment of his spine while descending the stairs: this is the posture he feels more comfortable in. Then see the pronounced hunching he does on the hoi paloi model walker he uses -- complete with tennis balls on the legs!
Of course, the more vertical models are more expensive and allow their users to project a more powerful, confident posture. Too bad Mr. Weinstein can't afford one!
Or it could just be that Mr. Weinstein has learned how hard it is to be a convincing actor.
13
@Reasonable Guy. Very good observation of Mr Weinstein’s posture with and without the walker. The walker he is using is ‘standard’ assistive device in terms of insurance coverage. This style of off the shelf walker can be adjusted to a proper height for anyone - from an under 5 foot tall person to one over 6’ 6”. In addition to a licensed medical provider, a medical equipment employee can easily fit a correct size walker. As other responses have noted he is incorrectly using the walker as his feet should be inside the device. His back surgeon should sue him for defamation. The surgeon would never allow a post-op patient to walk in public like that- extremely bad for business.
2
With his walker and tennis ball wheels, Harvey still looks like a predator to me...
12
Why are people so vengeful? Weinstein did his awful deeds out of a lack of compassion for others. He hurt countless women because he did not consider them fully human beings.
But can't we do better ourselves? Can't the author show some compassion? Can't the commentators here?
Why put more salt in the wounds of others. Unless the goal of life is to be cruel.
4
@paul
It's called justice.
3
A man of his means and proclivities would be carried in and out in a sedan chair hoisted on the shoulders of six nubile "job applicants" if he could get away with it. Sorry Harvey, not buying this act.
14
I noticed right away that he was faking the walker. He is using it incorrectly. Any legitimate physiotherapist can confirm this. Any thinking person who has ever had a backache can see that his surgery must have been successful or he would not be able to hold that ridiculous posture hunched over the walker.
17
Fear not. Jurors know who Harvey Weinstein and they know the large number of cases he is not being charged with. Jurors are not stupid, they like most people immediately recognized the walker for what it is, a con. Relax, this story will have a happy ending... but not for the sexual predator who's been charged.
3
I put Harvey’s walker right up there with Bill Cosby’s sudden “blindness” and OJ’s gloves that no longer fit. If he truly needed a walker, a real tell-tale sign is that someone would’ve shown him how to use it which means you do NOT bend over it like Quasimodo. And you would need to wrap those handles to prevent your wrists from hurting. I think the jurors are too smart to believe anything in this article. They will look at the facts of the case, not the props around the room.
6
One can't help but be reminded of the final scene in "The Usual Suspects."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5k73jx2mIc
2
An image of Weinstein as a diminished frail man doesn't cut it for me. He has shown nothing but scorn and derision for his countless victims. No sympathy from me. I will be happy to see him vanish from the face of the earth. How about talking about the lives he destroyed? As far as I am concerned I will never again read anything about him. let him rot in jail.
5
He got a good deal on Cosby's slightly used prop.
3
He's trying to persuade the jury that he's a frail old man incapable of sexual intercourse, much less rape.
Is he faking it? We don't know. Perhaps his doctor does.
1
A show requires a good story, well rehearsed actors and well chosen props and costumes.
No retained lawyer would let a dope fiend defendant appear in court looking skeezy. There's nothing as acquittal inspiring as a good haircut and a well fitting respectable suit.
Harvey needs a counterweight to the decades-silent accusers who've piled on. It's a cheap prop for an expensive show. The best defense money can buy.
2
The cheap walker he’s using is so obviously a defense team prop that it’s a joke. He wears $1000 shoes but uses a second hand rehab walker? Please give us a break-tho the tennis ball cushions are a nice touch....
12
Weinstein is troubling in every way possible. Let's just ban him....
I’m so glad to see this issue explicitly expressed. Yes, a trial is a PERFORMANCE, and Weinstein is nothing if not a seasoned movie-maker. You can bet his defense has at least a director, a costumer, and a make-up artist on staff. The judge, the jury, the public, and the press are seeing exactly what Weinstein wants them to see and nothing more.
6
I admit a bias and perhaps being warped from spending part of my youth in the company of judges and attorneys in a courthouse in KY but when my wife mentioned seeing Weinstein using a walker I said it is a prop to garner sympathy from the jury.
4
I heard Weinstein is asking his trial be moved to the United States Senate where he will be exonerated and praised for combating sexual harassment in the Film industry.
29
I thought the tennis balls were a master stroke of cynicism
1
The reasons I think it is being used a prop are this. The man spent his whole life fabricating reality in the movie business. He is a multi millionaire but has the cheapest $29 walker from Walgreens. Woe is me...
When my dad needed assistance walking there was someone at the store to make sure his cane and his walker were set up the right way to fit his body and the way he walked.
No physical therapist worth a dime would fit a walker so the patient is hunched over and fighting it with every step. But a good show...
14
Let him walker his way straight to prison.
14
In the annals of props deployed in an attempt to gain sympathy, one of the classic examples (as we were recently reminded in the great film Chappaquiddick) was the phony neck brace Ted Kennedy decided to wear (against advice) to the Kopechne funeral. Of course, this ruse ended up fooling few (aside from Massachusetts voters) and Kennedy was rightly mocked for it.
4
Weinstein has been spotted out without his walker on several occasions, as recently as October and December, without his *prop.*
There is plenty photo evidence, like here:
https://pagesix.com/2019/12/12/harvey-weinstein-spotted-sans-walker-sparking-speculation/
and here: https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/10/harvey-weinstein-resurface-nyc-bar-confrontation/
He gets a Razzy for worst performance in the court of public opinion.
7
Add his slightly disheveled appearance and there you get the whole concept. Poor old guy! They assume the judge and jury are ignorant of these ploys?
4
The walker in the image appears to have front wheels but none in the back. Based on watching my 93-year old mother and others, I can report that someone who relies on a walker to get around uses a four wheel walker. One with a break up on the handle. Front wheeled walkers just slow everyone down to a snail’s pace and are basically useless outside one’s home.
9
It’s not uncommon for patients with physical injuries pursuing law suits or workman comp cases to suffer unrelenting pain and other physical symptoms. Often they rapidly resolve once cases have been settled. I know so as a physician. I wouldn’t be surprised if consciously or subconsciously malingering is factor in Weinstein case.
3
Another give away is that after "back surgery" a patient must stand in a position in which the spine is aligned ie straight. Pain and deterioration would increase in the position he is holding himself. Also, no professional medical person--physical therapist, registered nurse or physician would adjust the walker the way he has. Yes, the predator is playing pathetic.
22
I am reading the comments from those who have disabilities and those who advocate for their fair and respectful treatment, and I hear you. Therefore it would be wrong of me to not take Mr. Weinstein's assertion that he is now disabled at anything but face value. So, I do. Full stop.
However, the fact that this multimillionaire mogul is suddenly cloaking himself in ill-fitting suits and slippers, using to aid in his condition an institutional-grade, outmoded walker that's of lower quality than the one the indigent woman who feeds all the stray cats on my block uses to get around... no. No. This is a man who had the sidewalk outside his West Village townhouse heated so snow wouldn't melt there. I'll check my doubt where I ought to, but don't insult my intelligence.
742
@Lella This is similar to the way Bill Cosby was seen holding on constantly to the arm of his lawyer. I remember seeing him shortly before he was charged and do not recall him needing any assistance but maybe I missed it.
16
@Lella Very well conveyed. As the mother of young men with a disability, I find this show of such repugnant.
10
Funny I've had two spinal surgeries and was up and walking in the hospital without a walker the next day. All through my recoveries which ranged from 9 weeks to 3 weeks per surgery I never needed a walker. I hope the jurors aren't fooled by this poor piece of theater.
311
@hazel18
2 questions for hazel18:
1. Is everyone's spine, everyone's injury, and everyone's surgical procedure always exactly the same?
2. If everything went so fabulously, why did you have to have 2 surgeries?
7
@Peter Zenger
A laminectomy, which is what Weinstein had, has a minimal recovery time of a few days to a couple of weeks. It is neither debilitating nor particularly painful. It can be done outpatient. Both my mother (in her 80s at the time) and I have had them. In addition I have had three spinal fusions. One in my back and two in my neck. That is a whole different ball game. Never did I use a walker. The next day, after the back fusion, I was walking with the PT in the halls holding the railing on the wall and being told to stand up straight. Weinstein is poorly playing this for the jury's benefit. I hope they see through him and allow him to recover in prison. I'll give odds that he loses the walker as soon as the trial is over.
9
I think you're selling the jurors and the prosecutor short. They're not sheep, they know when someone in the entertainment field is putting on a show. And they know to ask "why?"
7
@vandalfan
I’m a physician and I haven’t seen a single case of such debilitating complication following a simple spine surgeries. Advance myelopathy is a different story.
3
I think the walker is probably helping Weinstein's case, making him look frail and incapable of assault, which is of course ridiculous because he wasn't using a walker back when he was committing these assaults.
But I don't think it's enough to get him acquitted. I think what will get him acquitted is the unfortunate fact that his accusers generally waited a long time to make any accusations, and after the assaults they all sent him friendly texts or emails. The jury is going to see no evidence at all of actual assaults, no video, emails, or physical evidence, just testimony. Then they'll see written evidence of the accusers saying nice things to Weinstein after the assaults.
So I believe that justice will not be done, and Weinstein will be acquitted. But not because of the walker, rather due to the evidence that came out. I wish it were otherwise, but in most cases where the defendant is very wealthy, they wind up escaping justice.
5
In my conversations with others, we regular folks know the walker is a prop and the photo confirms that. I am not worried about him not getting convicted because of it. Bill Cosby did the same thing with his supposed blindness and he was still sent to jail. It took us awhile to get him there but it finally succeeded regardless of his sympathy prop of choice. What grates my nerves is how Harvey responds to reporters questions after leaving the courthouse....he has no remorse and feels he has done nothing wrong.
11
My Father always said that law is the only profession where seeking truth is not the objective. For further evidence see Mr Dershowitz argument for President Trump.
BTW, I was a juror in Federal court in the 80’s impaneled for the trial of Ilario MA Zannino, a senior member of the Anguilo crime family in Boston. Mr Zannino used a similar ploy in the trial, wheel chair and oxygen tank, to portray a week and no longer threatening posture. No one bought the optics. No prejudice against differently abled because regardless of his current state of being at that time, he was fully capable of committing the crimes charged. We found Mr. Zannino guilty, I am sure the jurors in the trial of Mr. Weinstein will similarly not be distracted.
39
@Paul Lawyers are advocates and story tellers. We persuade. We don't seek truth. We use whatever evidence is admitted to convince jurors or judge that our story is the correct one. Giuliani's assertion that he's "investigating" as Trump's attorney is ridiculous.
4
@vandalfan
I take you at your word and do not suggest that you operate outside of the cannon of league ethics, however you prove my point, which is exactly the problem. Imagine an engineer, advocating for their solution, even when they know that it is not the truth, people die, see Boeing.
This exception proves the rule that scientists, while imperfect, seek to gain truthful understanding. Legal advocates, whether on the prosecutorial side or the defense, are about winning. Many wrongly accused have spent decades punished for crimes they did not commit and the prosecutors knew it. Many criminals have gone free, not by reasonable doubt but via lies and disassembling.
Officers of the court should, or ought to, be seeking justice. Advocacy is one thing, creating false narratives is something else entirely
4
If he needed that walker, then why do his lawyers make him climb up the courthouse stairs without it? A reasonable person would be in a wheelchair and wheeled up the ramp, which this courthouse absolutely has.
It's a transparent ploy by his lawyers to garner sympathy. A laughable one at that. And no one is buying it.
71
@PubliusMaximus,
Also, it's one of the saddest old-school models, tennis balls and all. Choosing this one was part of their strategy, too, no doubt.
4
Reminds me of some old TV show or movie — can’t remember which — when a skeptical opposing counsel picked up a stack of books and dropped it on the floor right behind the defendant/plaintiff whom he believed was pretending to be disabled. The loud bang startled this person, who leaped to his feet and turned around, miraculously recovered!
Case closed.
30
@Big D
That was an episode of the Brady Bunch (originally from 1972) called 'The Fender Benders'.
I thought of the exact same thing when I saw Weinstein's walker. Makes me wish I could be in the courtroom to drop a briefcase as Mike Brady did...
4
All the Court has to do is make sure that neither the judge or jury sees a device that isn’t necessary to the defendant at the time. A walker can be moved out of the way before the judge or jury are seated. Any devices necessary like casts or some braces would have to stay and I don’t see a way around that. I imagine the plaintiffs also use this trick in civil suits a lot.
11
Mr. Weinstein's position is troubling at best, as his abuse of power (sexual predatory practice) 'a la Trump' has shown of what we humans are able to do when no one is watching. Insofar his public appearance using a walker, although it may be a 'tool' to gain sympathy, it might possibly be required as well. 'Trust but verify' is applicable here, and expert medical evaluation may become invaluable in solving our suspicion.
2
@manfred marcus I would think simply moving the walker out of sight and seating the judge and jury after the defendant walks in would suffice. Adding costs for evaluation of something not relevant to the trial doesn’t make sense.
4
@John I disagree. Incidentally, the costs of the evaluation would be absorbed by Weinstein of course. Any objection to that?
1
@manfred marcus
Yes - he is innocent until proven guilty. So his current physical maladies are not relevant to his previous alleged behavior in this case. So no need for any evaluation. As far as I can tell, his attorneys have not requested any special accommodations for his physical ailments.
Let the testimony speak for itself and let the jurors do what they are tasked to do.
2
When I first saw Weinstein with the walker the fist thing that came to mind were the other elderly villans who developed very visable health problems soon after being taken to court. Mugabe, Demjanjuk, Mubarak. Instead of sympathy, it elicits a mild contempt in me.
63
@Geoffrey
You've seen too many movies. How many patients have you preformed back surgery on? Or treated afterwards?
1
Absolutely true about the bias concerns. Those of us who have had broken bones (ankle, foot, etc.) and have used only a cane know of the extra assistance and sympathy we have gotten from strangers. Any supportive personal medical equipment draws sympathy, with the expected accompanying bias.
It's tough on the prosecutors who have to argue against the underlying and often unknown biases and prejudices that jurors may bring with them. Prosecutors should be talking to med mal defense attorneys for some ideas.
3
The tipoff for me that Weinstein is not as decrepit as he tries to look is the walker itself. It's a 1960's model with tennis balls for feet, available on Craigslist for about five bucks. Surely Harvey, who is paying hundreds of times as much per day for his legal team, can afford a better set of wheels. The junkyard model is clearly just a prop.
354
@Bunkyboy7 Woa! Good catch! I didn't even notice or think of that. I just thought "what a pathetic monster." I hope the lawyers bring your point up in court. Why wouldn't he have a state of the art walker if he just had state of the art back surgery? Lying, manipulative bully to the end.
8
@Bunkyboy7 Yes. And if it was required by a physical therapist he would not be hunched over and twisted like pretzel when he is using it. The PT would have fitted it to him. I smell a rat.
15
@Bunkyboy7 Thanks for your comment. I wouldn't have known that his walker was not just a walker, but would have suspected Weinstein of faking anything to get a better outcome for his despicable actions.
5
If he really needed a walker, a man of his means would get a high-end model with a seat and some kind of carrying shelf or basket, which would be helpful as he moved around in daily life. Instead he has the cheapo, with tennis balls on the back legs. Poor me!
116
This is not to fat shame Mr. Weinstein but you would have thought that his doctors would have put him on a diet to reduce the load on his back and knees. On the contrary, the photos suggest he has put on even more weight. Perhaps when out of sight of the cameras, and when the walker is put in the closet, out comes the excess he is now infamous for. If I were him I would get a different doctor and maybe put the fork down and hit the gym.
11
Harvey Weinstien is a wealthy man. When I purchased a walker for my elderly mother, I bought a brand with a seat and brakes, approximate cost $200. The walker that HW is using is the least expensive type of walker, one provided by Medicaid, etc. I especially like the tennis balls on the rear supports. If HW was using a walker like the "Drive Nitro", it might be somewhat believable. This one screams "PROP".
158
@NH He learned it in his years in the movie business!
@NH: While the walkers with a seat *are* good for stability, the aluminium frame ones do have the advantage that you can walk inside them to also relieve pressure on the back (which Weinstien isn't doing).
So walkers of this type *are* medically legitimate, and not just an obsolete low-end option.
4
@NH
And Sam Walton drove a old pickup. What does that prove?
2
Speaking just for myself, I can’t imagine ever voluntarily having sex with Mr. Weinstein in exchange for a part in his remake of “Gone With The Wind” or the lead role in his next blockbuster movie, except by force or by gunpoint.
43
@A. Stanton I asked a friend who used be a minor actress if she would have sex with him for a part. At first she said "depends on the part" then said, no she wouldn't and during her short career the topic did come up with other bigwigs but she declined. Maybe whtat's why her career was so brief. That's Hollywood for ya!
4
And that's why you didn't have a big Hollywood career. Sad to say, the casting couch was a real thing for many decades.
4
You can tell it’s not real because a man of his wealth would have at least purchased a fancier walker with paint and brakes. The tennis balls really work but man, technology has evolved for those who really use them!
38
He picked the most common, inexpensive walker and slapped some tennis balls on it. Come on... It's a prop.
71
I know nothing about back surgery or how one would recover from it. But there's one small detail in his walker that speaks volumes: he's got tennis balls stuck under the back legs of the walker. He's deceitfully trying to get the public and, more importantly, the jurors to see him as one of our own humble parents or grandparents, bravely forging ahead as best he can with an inexpensive solution. Surely a man of his means would be able to afford a more expensive and medically sound way of remaining ambulatory during recovery. The arrogant and imperious Harvey Weinstein is not your aging and frugal father in a retirement community in Boca Raton.
73
That's a very shiny walker with very, very clean tennis balls. Interesting optics indeed.
23
TENNIS balls? They look kinda new. Anyone who has used this least-expensive-of-all walkers knows the tennis balls wear out, get dirty, need replacing often. Anyone who needs a walker for longer than a couple of weeks will upgrade (if they can afford it) a Rollator - four wheels, a seat, and handbrakes.
35
@Liam Ryan
But of course he's so rich, he can afford to change those tennis balls ten or twenty times a day. That's why they look brand new.
4
@Nancy Robertson So true. !!
I assume such a majestic building would have an elevator system and therefore Mr. Weinstein could be pushed in a wheelchair instead of hobbling day at night under excruciating back pain suffered by so many Americans. In any case, he was Oscar material the moment he put those tennis balls on the legs of his walker.
55
It's a cheap, shoddy act. He is after all, a movie maker, playing the part of a doddering old man flagrantly sucking up pity. He has been a dangerous rapist all his movie making life, playing the part of the mogul who can make or break naive young women. Well, he's broken a lot of them, permanently.
59
@Michael Understand and agree with your point. Yet I am one of those judging on the basis of the walker and with good reason, Weinstein's push style walker with the tennis balls to help it slide is a cynical piece of theater from a master dissembler. He is a millionaire many times over. The fact that he does not have a rolling walker that I am sure his excellent health insurance would cover is repugnant and pure showmanship to play on the sympathy of his jurors.
47
The tennis balls on the bottom of his walker are a nice touch.
13
The way to critique this is via theatrics. The man is from the world of artifice, and he is trying to play the role of a disabled person. We should observe HOW WELL he is playing the role.
IMO he is overselling it, for example the old tennis balls on the walker are over the top. He looks like Peter Sellers camping it up.
His demeaning attitude towards actors is observable in this absurd attempt at gaining sympathy via a prop. Actors generate roles by embodying characters. This hack expects the walker to do the trick.
18
@Smokepainter*
It would be interesting to hear from the property directors on some of the films Mr. Weinstein has been involved in, about his attitude in choosing objects for a scene. Maybe we'd learn that the tennis balls are consistent with a heavy-handed approach that got softened by prop professionals in Hollywood but which the lawyers in New York are unable to contain.
2
If I recall, Bill Cosby was suddenly blind during his trial, and had to be led to the courtroom on someone's arm. These days, he's back to 20/20.
78
@Tintin These days, he's in prison. He does have an eye disease, but he absolutely tried to play the infirm old man card.
1
I just read that the Weinstein jury is not sequestered, meaning there's a good chance they have walked past newstands in NYC which show large cover photos and headlines about his perfectly fine mobility outside of court. Perhaps even read the articles though against the rules. I assume a few of the jurors are chuckling as he comes "walkering" into court, hunched over.
7
What a scammer! If he actually had said surgery, someone should tell him that leaning forward on a walker is the worst possible thing he could be doing for that condition. In fact such incorrect posture is usually the reason and need for corrective surgery. If anything after surgery a doctor would have Weinstein wearing a elastic back brace forcing him to stand more upright.
34
@Stephen I’ve read similar comments on social media and they may not be correct.
If suffering from spinal stenosis (which Weinstein’s lawyers said is one of his problems) then walking hunched or bent over like that is exactly how one would use a walker. That posture opens up the space between discs and relieves pressure on the sciatic nerves.
(That said, I hope he rots in jail for the rest of his pain-filled life.)
16
Somebody needs to pull a Mike Brady (Brady Bunch) move in the courtroom!
4
Are walkers allowed in prison?
8
It's backfired for Harvey. It's all a PR sympathy show. His lawyers were dopey enough to try it. The very fact that this op-ed was penned proves it.
15
I don’t really have an opinion about Weinstein’s guilt, one way or another.
But that walker never fails to get a giggle out of me! It is so beyond ridiculous. He might as well cut off a toe (or any other appendage) to gain sympathy.
10
Ms Rotunno is one canny operator. 'Nuff said.
1
I'm just surprised he hasn't been wearing pj's and a robe like the Mafia head in NYC used to do.
I'm hoping that the walker doesn't give Weinstein a sympathy vote from jurors, and they're able to see that he will do anything to avoid a prison sentence.
18
We know this walker is a prop because it is an old-fashioned aluminum walker, the kind you see all over nursing homes, with tennis balls on two feet to stop the squeaking sound. People with money, like Weinstein, use much nicer, sleeker walkers in vibrant colors. Hard to believe this is the type of walker he would choose in real life, but it works to make him look frail and old, and that is clearly the point.
29
This is part of the "Bill Cosby" defense. Fortunately, it did not work for Cosby.
25
Of course the walker is a ploy. Just look at it - a decrepit piece of hardware they likely dragged out of a prop room at the movie studio. Today's walkers are much more attractive, some with 4 decent wheels, also handles and breaks. No one would choose the type Weinstein uses except to look the part. Being bent over while pushing it is similarly a ploy; he would be much more upright with a normal walker, available at drug stores anywhere. It's a wonder he isn't in pajamas.
34
It's a tactic. A sad tactic. Ask Bill Cosby if it works.
13
Please don't forget that this gentleman was the number 1 fundraiser for the Clintons. Also do not forget that Bill was the number 1 passenger on the Epstein's Lolita Express. That makes the Clintons the creepiest people in politics. Can't make this up!
And what happened to Epstein; conveniently dead!
6
The logic leaps of this comment--on an article about Harvey Weinstein's walker--are truly dumbfounding.
6
@Bill Virginia
Also have it on good authority that Bill assassinated President Lincoln. Can’t make this up.
5
His pitiful performance in a cheap walker will not help him. He is so obviously playing the part his lawyers have instructed him to play. Hopefully any juror will be able to see through this sham. Shame on Weinstein.
9
Weinstein's walker is fake -
Weinstein is playing a part of a weak, disabled man to win over the public and jury.
6
The clunky walker is a ploy to suggest to the judge and/or jury that Harvey is a broken old man who could no longer harm anyone.
Too bad the fact that he was obese & grotesquely out of shape for decades didn’t prevent him from being physically able to rape & molest so many women.
23
@Reg Nurse I agree.
And the point is?
So, will we someday be required to have sex with an obnoxious person less we otherwise discriminate?
Cosby did the same thing. Soon trump will try it.
33
@Howard Clark
.
Bone spurs on the brain. That might work.
His current medical status acknowledged as a concern, it is hard to feel much, if any, compassion for this serial sexual predator who used his status and power to ruin the lives of many women.
8
Weinstein should be convicted and put in Epstein’s old cell where the cameras do not work and supervision is minimal when on suicide watch.
11
@Dave Barr can arrange that.
Judge him on his actions, not his walker, jury.
The degree of evilness, cowardice, shamelessness, immorality, wickedness, irresponsibility, mental deficiency, and dogged incivility of Weinstein holds no bounds.
Get it done, jury.
13
The man is Shameless.
8
He gives a bad name to real disabled people!
8
They do allow walkers in prison!
3
Typical defense manoeuvring. The old Mafia bosses used the same tactics. Wheelchairs and oxygen tanks. Disgusting.
8
See Vincent 'the chin' Gigante's infamous Bathrobe Defense photo's!
13
Weinstein's walker, hypocrisy personified. The man has behaved like a monster. Lock him up.
6
A cane, two canes, a walker, a wheelchair - so long as Weinstein doesn't appear in court dressed only dressed in his bathrobe.
14
“…To the judge, jurors, lawyers, reporters and onlookers the walker conveys an image, accurate or not, of physical weakness and dependence…
So – let me get this straight…
You’ve just now awakened to the notion that Harvey Weinstein may have culturally misappropriated human hurt and misery – and exploited the same via theatrical imagery and cinematic illusion – for his personal gain…
Even with the difference in our coastal time zones, likely you’re quite aware that Trump and Nadler are in a steel-cage death match…
Over whether Riverside South is ever going to grace the Hudson – though you’re probably not yet aware of the outcome…
I won’t spoil it for you – but will prophesize a sequel, a volume 2…
(OK, a little spoilage…Jerry brings in someone from your coast to do the job, second time around)
In the meantime, since you’re preponderously certain Harv’s faking – get an injunction prohibiting him from using accessible curb-cuts in NYC sidewalks…
Or using the sidewalks, at all…
Make him roll in the bus lanes near the curb – where all the open-grid storm-drain grates and dirty snow residue are…
PS
NYT, if you’d only used the photo of H going down the bannister skateboard-like, using his little-wheeled little friend (oops, wrong producer) – once he thought the cameras were off – it’d have probably helped your closing argument…
Frankly this ploy reminded me of mafia don Vincent Gigante and his "dementia" act. To the uninformed, Weinstein's "disability" will elicit sympathy...which is the intention, in my view.
2
So now Weinstein should be deprived of the walker. Would you have him crawl into court? Or do you prefer that we dispense with the trial, and lynch him now?
4
@Rhporter Odd response. Your assumption is that he needs the walker.
How about a Special Academy Award for Most Egregious Use of a Prop. We could call it the Harvey.
41
Weinstein is trying to make himself look like a defenseless, harmless person rather than the pathological predator who he has long been. The ruse is itself part of his harmful way of operating. He doesn’t care if he is enforcing stereotypes of the disabled any more than he cared about the women on whom he preyed.
8
I wish the author would have considered the trial and conviction of Bill Cosby and explained that sometimes these theories of culpability don't apply in certain situations.
1
The author does not mention that Weinstein is also using the wrong type of walker. A person who has even limited cognitive and physical ability would use a rollator, a much heavier type of walker with four (larger) wheels, hand brakes, and a seat. Available on Amazon for about $60. The type he is using is used only by people for whom the greater rolling ability of a rollator would be dangerous because they lack the cognitive or physical ability to control it. If he can walk down stairs, as shown in the photo, he can use a rollator. Here on the Upper West Side, rollators are almost as ubiquitous as strollers. Not an obscure phenomenon. And the slippers? Supportive? Please!
15
Weinstein’s is debilitated now in 2020 NOT when he committed the crimes.
Watch Neil Simon's Fortune Cookie for a classic lesson on to create sympathy for a client.
1
Human beings are all emotionally, mentally and physically naturally differently abled.
Explicitly and implicitly implying that they are thereby crippled is a legal and moral dilemma.
Pity and sympathy can comfortably and condescendingly and paternalistically separate us from any humble humane empathy for our fellow men, women and children based upon meaningless differences.
Accommodating and equalizing those differences is a qualitative at best solution to an endless diversity of abilities that have no ability performance meaningful impact.
1
Maybe I know too much about the accusations made against him and my preconceptions about him are too hardened for me to be a juror, but when I see him with the walker, I see only infirmity caused by a decadent and depraved life.
5
"But their common base of knowledge and experience about disability is at best incomplete or inaccurate, and so, by default, jurors will rely on a flawed set of beliefs when they see victims and defendants who appear in someway disabled."
While this statement may be truthful, it is presented as a fact - which is an unfortunate conclusion to make and exposes the author's bias. Nevertheless, I am reminded of the classic Brady Bunch court case where Mike Brady tosses his briefcase, causing the car accident plaintiff to quickly turn his head - revealing that his neck brace was in fact a prop to gain sympathy from the jury. Perhaps the state should employ an attractive woman to see if she can surreptitiously cause Mr. Weinstein to leap up from his chair and chase her out of the room!
1
When a formerly powerful Hollywood mogul is facing life in prison if convicted on sexually predatory behaviour charges he will do anything to avoid that fate. Using a walker as a prop to gain sympathy from the jurors would not surprise. At the end of the case what will count is the compelling testimony of the sexual victims. The walker will not help Weinstein walk.
7
He can afford an army of footmen to carry him everywhere on a throne. The walker is the cheapest looking aluminum stereotype they could find. How many hours did he practice looking hunched over and exhausted? The image of this only enhances his dishonesty.
9
It's true – we don't know, if Mr. Weinstein is really in need of the walker.
What we do know though is that more than 90 women have accused Mr. Weinstein of sexual misconduct including rape, unwanted touching and harassment. We also know he ran a system of private investigator to cover up his actions and pressure alleged victims, spanning decades.
Do we expect honesty from such a man — when this trial could be his last chance to influence the rest of his miserable life, by manipulating his perception by the jury? I don’t think so. It’s yet another shady opera.
8
He also has been wearing gray suits which make his skin look gray and old
I think that is part of the scheme to make him look infirm
4
People with disabilities using walkers are basically people, no matter the stereotypes of the aged and infirm in our sick American society. Don't forget that those living after retirement may have 30 more years of life left if the Coronavirus doesn't get them first. Lawyers are ham actors (cf Dershowitz in President Trump's Senate Impeachment Trial). Looking forward to seeing Trump and posse in walkers.
6
Your supposition rings true - the Walker is too short - you are b not supposed to lean over it. Theatrics? Would not put it past him.
5
Bill Cosby during the trial was led by various members of his entourage because he was reported to be losing his sight, remember that?
Didn't help him with the jury, in the end.
5
I bet if you put a beautiful actress in front of him, the walker would disappear fast.
4
I suspect he is acting and overacting at that. Thirty years ago my partners and I were in the business of financing motion picture production. We dealt with the Weinsteins, Harvey and his brother Bob. Even then pretty much everyone in the biz knew Harvey was a sexual predictor. It has taken far, far too long for him to be brought to an accounting. If he gets acquitted he would probably dance down the courthouse steps like a character in a Singing in the Rain, except he also faces charges in California. By then he will have upped his act and be brought in in a hospital bed.
7
As a former criminal defense attorney, I can say that you do anything and everything you can to make your client, the defendant, seem more in need of sympathy or respect.
As a public defender, we provided suits to those who had none. Our training and ethics demand that we do whatever we can to aid our clients’ defense.
Whether or not Harvey Weinstein needs a walker was, no doubt, encouraged by his counsel, just as Paul Manafort was. Remember when Mr. Manafort came bounding into court with that stupid half smile? It’s all choreographed.
7
If societal bias makes the use of a disability (Manafort wheelchair, Cosby blindness, Weinstein walker, etc) as an advantage, how come only males use it? To those men I say, stand up and take your justice like a woman.
22
Fine assertions.
What do you suggest should be done about them?
He needs a physical therapist to adjust that walker for him. No professional would allow him to walk in such a position. In that light, one can assume it is all for show. Not to mention those slippers!!!
13
My hope is that Harvey gets to spend some time with Bill Cosby. They could swap stories and try to one up each other. From what I've read about both of them, they could argue for years!
1
The first time I saw him using the walker, I thought he was playing to the jury. But, I'm a cynic!
2
Weinstein’s walker is equivalent to the emotional support dogs we see on airplanes. Really, when I see him, I hope it’s real. His disability protects women from his predatory behavior.
3
walker height totally misadjusted. Who prescribed it?
5
@AW - His lawyer.
2
As this is one of a common ploy's the lawyers tell their defendants to do when going to court. As all of a sudden their client will be admitted to the hospital, see their doctors to address their new found ,past illnesses. And in hoping to sway the jury, the general public, media, etc.. Another ploy is to start donated their money to various charities , to show how much they really care about people and not themselves. PS just ask his victims...
4
All the women appearing in court to testify against him should also use walkers.
13
Weinstein is on trial for what he did as a robust male of considerable heft and vitality. Weinstein used his position and physical strength to sexually abuse and allegedly rape women. His acts range from consensual where the women might have gone along to further their careers to physical abuse including rape. It was then, not now. Now, he will have to pay for it or use his hand.
4
Wasn't Mr Weinstein in the acting business?
4
I recommend jurors read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Strangers.” It will make you rethink our ability to judge a person’s intentions based upon observation of their demeanor.
2
I just want to know (but have yet to hear): Did Weinstein EVER use a walker - or cane, etc - BEFORE he became a disgraced person and defendant??
I suspect not and that it's 110% about trying to get some sympathy, when his personal behavior itself is beyond shameful.
4
Check out the latest rollator walker from Denmark, at 10lbs made of the same carbon fiber used in top of the line bicycles;
www.ByAcre.com
As the US rep, I contemplated sending one to Harvey's lawyer's office but decided nah.
6
@nick Thompson good he doesn't deserve a walker!
And the Oscar goes to...Harvey Weinstein!
4
Just before Cosby's trial he went blind...needing a body man to help guide through the labyrinthian halls of justice. Old dog, old tricks. But won't hunt.
5
Straight out of a Hollywood mob movie, when the elder mobsters come to court with pronounced disabilities. Didn’t Harvey work in Hollywood?
4
The gist of these comments would seem to challenge the idea that the walker elicits sympathy.
4
Disability aesthetics didn't help Bill Cosby. Weinstein definitely needs a wheelchair.
1
Very perceptive. The appearance of disability does make people seem less threatening, more vulnerable. In the same way, seeing the defendant in shackles and an orange jumpsuit creates the opposite impression which is why (in most jurisdictions at least) the accused is permitted a change of clothes before appearing in court.
Criminal trials always have an element of theatre and Weinstein's walker is just another player in the unfolding drama.
5
We already know that Weinstein is cynical, manipulative and narcissistic.
And it has been widely reported that his lead attorney is keenly aware that her clothing choices affect juror perception of her competence.
The jury will decide if Weinstein is criminally guilty. But the rest of us can judge whether he and his team are using the walker to mislead and confuse the court of public opinion. On that front his defense is DOA.
2
"Or the truth might be that he, like many others before him, will hope the benefit of disability aesthetics will help him in the courtroom."
There is no question that Weinstein is taking full advantage of "disability aesthetics.' As the writer notes, Paul Manafort, Robert Gregory Bowers, and Joseph James DeAngelo have used "disability aesthetics" to their advantage. As did Bill Cosby.
I can only hope that the jury will not be unduly influenced by Weinstein's walker and dole out fair justice.
2
Take the walker away. Let the fellow crawl to the courtrooms. A person who inflicts pain on his victims should not have our compassion.
4
Weinstein? A walker? C'mon! Smoke and mirrors. To create the appearance of weakness--a sympathetic figure. And from where old Harvey comes from, appearance is everything.
3
I have been struck with debilitating neuropathy over the last year and now rely on a walker to support me on the short walk from the local hospital parking lot to the front desk. I find it humiliating (not advantageous) to clunk along with that rickety thing.
But of course I’m not publically on trial for repeated sexual assaults.
And yet I understand viscerally why and how “walkers” and wheelchairs and canes and walking sticks are useful. Not emblematic.
And so this editorial puzzles me.
First, can we assume that Weinstein doesn’t need the support? Has any independent source determined whether he did undergo a spinal operation and is now hobbled?
If he did undergo spinal surgery, and he doesn’t want to hang onto his lawyers’ arms to drag him into the courtroom, let him use the walker.
Forget the delicate political arguments.
Yes, he’s probably faking. He is a proven fake, attacker, and villain. But I do trust a sensible jury, and active lawyers, can ignore the silver walker and choose this (evil) man’s just dessert.
3
Considering that Mr. Weinstein probably has the Gold Standard in Health care I, as a Jury member, would question the veracity of his disability.
I have many friends who have had back surgery and physical therapy and after six weeks have no more use of a walker.
Considering the fact that Weinstein was a Movie Industry mogul it is not too far fetched to think that his walker is nothing but a prop.
5
"unlike race, gender, socioeconomic status or sexuality, people believe disability is fundamentally different and warrants differential treatment"
This statement is absolutely incorrect. It is a well known fact that black defendants receive harsher sentences. It is just as well known that women female gender is associated with lesser sentences.
1
While I agree that various types of disability may help a defendant, in this case, not so much. If anything, it makes Weinstein look creepier---an impression that will not help him with the kinds of offenses he is charged with.
200
@Amanda Jones I hope you're right but wouldn't be surprised if he gets off OJ-style.
10
I think that there's a failure here to think through the larger issue. I have the impression that street criminals who never wore a tie and suit are routinely outfitted in dress clothing at trial. I assume that this is meant to sway a jury. Is there an argument that this is objectionable? Or is the idea that people who wear dress clothes are not a protected class and therefore that their 'look' can be freely appropriated to give the jury the false impression - often unconscious - that the defendant is something other than he or she is. If there were a uniform dress code for defendants - that would be one thing. But if it's a matter of choice, attorneys will do what they do. It is what it is.
Surely there was a conversation at some point, between Mr. Weinstein and one or more of his lawyers, about the implications and ramifications of his using a walker in this way, in the context of the trial. Perhaps without just saying, "we think you should use it" in such-and-such a fashion, the attorneys did carefully express all that they knew about the research mentioned in this op-ed. And I'm sure they know a lot about that research, if they're worth their salt. Their desire to "zealously defend" played an important role, of course. Their ethical fiber surely was present too, although maybe somewhat frail. In any case, I assume all details were carefully considered. And I'd go further, to say it's likely that Mr. Weinstein, in particular, is consciously mining the manipulative value of some choices in regard to his appearance. Some might respond, "what defendant WOULDN'T do so?" But I don't think such a mindset is universal.
1
As a neurosurgeon-
Nobody needs a walker after his operation (laminectomy).
Unless he waited way too long to have the procedure or something went very wrong. Almost certainly, neither is true. (There would be markers & signs either way.)
Plus I agree with commenters who use walkers: there’s no way he couldn’t afford a better one.
It’s a disgusting ruse and an insult to people who actually need walkers. Too bad they can’t use this clear attempt at jury manipulation as further character evidence.
124
@Dr. K
You know some people actually do not survive a laminectomy, or any surgery. So, i suppose those do not need a walker as you suggest.
2
@Dr. K I bet he doesn't even have a doctor's prescription for the walker.
2
At the time he was an aggressor, which seems to have been a long time, he never showed disability. Many of us have disabilities which we don't show in public but which affect the quality of our lives. I hope the jury is not befuddled by Weinstein's court room theatrics.
12
Many assume the egregious alleged behavior of the defendant here negates any possibility of genuine disability or pain.
That notion, much like the authors argument regarding sympathy, is likely false and is unfortunately more a symptom of our collective selfishness: we believe what we want to believe.
3
As someone with a disability, it's insulting to see people take advantage of others' possible sympathy by faking or exaggerating a disability. Disability with benefits for them.
15
Well, Ms Harris, I always think that crying victims on the witness stand elicit visceral responses from jurors as well. Maybe we can call it a draw for both sides as far as the sympathy issue.
2
Good grief.
Equating crying when recalling a traumatic experience is wholly different from using a walker (or cane, Mr. Cosby), to elicit sympathy.
25
@JP Are you referring to actual courtrooms, or to Law and Order reruns?
3
The analysis of more serious concerns with attitudes towards disability is insightful.
As for Weinstein- - look at the picture-- the former most powerful man in Hollywood, who still spends more than an average workers annual wage in a week or so, using the cheapest generic grade walker? And using it badly? Wearing loafers that no PT would tolerate? Not convincing. With a lot of us. it does trigger the opposite reaction, which could be a negative ripple for those who need accommodation.
His power was that he could control the perception of an individual's talent, aside from literally vetoing or approving hiring. It isn't surprising that he is willing to appropriate cues signaling disability to benefit himself, no matter how this might harm others. Like Trump, there seems to be zero capacity for empathy, and the arrogance has given way to self pity. Let's assume that he is too repulsive a person to become someone's image of age or disability.
65
Good points! How humiliating for someone who wants so badly to be seen as strong and capable. His well deserved punishment has already begun.
3
Woodie Guthrie, songwriter and poet, the first famous person in the USA to be diagnosed with Huntingtons Disease, was regarded for many years as an alcoholic, due to his jerky, falling, sometimes incoherent public appearances. Even today, the chorea, tics, psychotic episodes, and speech stammering associated with Huntingtons are not well known to the general public. This article emphasises how easily we fall into a judgemental trap when interfacing and interacting with persons who are experiencing the effects of physical and/or mental disabilities. Today, it is my experience that, for the most part, people with disabilities are not looking for pity. The thought that Weinstein may be simulating weakness, supported by a walker as he moves, in order to garner pity, is a sickening one, and an insult to all disabled persons who bear their struggles with dignity and pride.
49
Whether he needs the walker or not, I am certain that he is deliberately exaggerating his posture, slow pace, and frailty. But, as a criminal defense lawyer for almost 40 years, I also think the act has little potential to affect the jury -- unless some of them choose to ignore the judge's repeated admonitions to avoid all media coverage.
I say this because jurors almost never see the defendant walking at all. The jury is always the last in and the first out of the courtroom. When the jury enters, the defendant and all the lawyers are already seated in at their tables. The moment a recess is called, the jury is led out, while the defendant and all lawyers remain at their tables. It is possible that jurors might glimpse Weinstein on the street before or after court, but there is never going to be a time that they watch him dodder into the courtroom.
54
@cds333
That is a worthy rebuttal to the arguments we've read among these Reader Picks.
Thank you.
Thank you Jasmine for raising this.
An Oscar performance by one who thoroughly knows the game.
20
@LM Yes, gives him 30 years and an Oscar. Gavel down.
4
Good article and mention of research backing influences on juries. But one correction from psychological research: these reactions are not based on "beliefs", which indicate a rational basis. Instead such reactions are based on automatic, evolutionarily derived reactions. They occur without thinking, like other prejudices, and without insight into their causes. Rational argumentation does not easily overcome them.
21
I’m so glad to see this issue discussed. As a young person with a disability who uses mobility devices (usually a cane) to get around, I was appalled by the way in which earlier Times coverage— and many reader comments— seemed to be judging or moralizing about Weinstein on the basis of his walker. The consensus (even in one of the Times’s own captions) seemed to be that either Weinstein was a faker, or, if the walker was real, his impairment was a kind of cosmic retribution for bad behavior.
This kind of coverage reinforces the false notion that a person’s outside mirrors their inside— i.e., that people with visible disabilities are damaged or unsavory in some essential way. Personally, I don’t think Weinstein’s use of a walker is going to sway any judges in his favor. But he is innocent until proven guilty, and his mobility device should not be an occasion for harmful stereotyping.
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@Michael Very well argued Michael. The walker is irrelevant.
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@Michael. I appreciate your sentiments regarding judging someone based upon disabilities. But I think the comments are about his apparent use of a device to elicit sympathy for his supposed disability. That should enrage anyone with a true disability, whether he is guilty or not of the allegations. As a disclaimer, I am a retired nurse who has had back surgery and have doubted his need for a walker from the beginning. I believe he is disrespecting all those who have true disabilities and would love not to have to use a walker for mobility.
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@Michael You are right - and it is about judging anyone by outside appearances, period. The physically beautiful get a pass; any visible disabilities or degrees of unattractiveness have to work much harder. It goes so far back in our human roots - look at fairy tales and myths.
I'd also give respect to what @Michael from MI says: this isn't a rational issue, BUT awareness and thought can be a first step to change. Legal protections are another.
Yet changing individual reactions and behavior requires experience with people with different abilities, and it comes more slowly.
Weinstein, or without the walker, is an amoral exploiter of other people. As such it would not be below him to use a prop to generate sympathy - - and he is more aware than most of what "works" in fictional accounts.
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If you only the punishment of other people made everyone else as happy as they seem to think it will.
How many thousands of years of vindictive jursiprudence, and what do these legal systems actually accomplish? Ending crime?
So what to do with this monster? No idea. But all this slavering satisfaction at the prospect of lifelong imprisonment, and making it an occasion for an essay on the "aesthetics of disability"?
Surely the law abiding can find healthier satisfactions?
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Weinstein will not get an Academy Award for this production.
Manipulation of disability signals (equipment, parking tags, assistance in airports) is a slap in the face to those who need them, casting suspicion on the disabled. Fortunately I find there is more good will than bad actors, and my wife and I grateful for that.
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I recently had major heart surgery, but honestly, it didn’t affect my ability to walk.
I had to make a flight connection at Detroit, and rather than run or miss the flight, I requested a wheelchair and attendant.
I can’t begin to describe how ridiculous I felt about the whole thing, although I noticed other people hop off their wheelchairs and bound for the remaining overhead racks!
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If jurors are so easily swayed by appearances why do we still have a jury system? Is it time for academic lawyers to start working on an alternative such as an Artificial Intelligence system of judgement and arbitration? I have a feeling that won't fly with the lawyers. Why? They love the jury system because they think they can manipulate the jurors with extraneous factors such as appearance. After all the whole personal injury system is built on promoting the appearance of misery in the plaintiff. What juror would want to compensate a plaintiff who appeared robust and cheerful? Is it any wonder Mr. Weinstein and his team borrow from the personal injury approach?
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