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Weinstein: What Took So Long?

As the floodgates opened for a tidal wave of sexual assault allegations against former movie magnate Harvey Weinstein this week, quite a few in the entertainment industry have some explaining to do.

It appears that Weinstein’s sexual predation was an open secret among many in Hollywood and other entertainment industry centers. The very volume of women, including several top stars, coming forward now suggests that.

Why was nothing done about Weinstein until now?

It appears some of his victims, women who had not yet made names for themselves, were afraid to go to the police. Some who dared to complain to others about him alleged Weinstein retaliated against them.

“I know he has crushed a lot of people before,” an Italian actress and filmmaker told the reporter who broke the story about Weinstein. “That’s why this story — in my case, it’s 20 years old, some of them are older — has never come out.”

But the very number of his victims, again, some of them prominent women, makes it virtually inconceivable that others in the entertainment industry were ignorant of Weinstein’s behavior.

Why did no one go to the police? Or, if they did, why was Weinstein not arrested?

Now that the predator has been exposed, many seem eager to talk about him. The question is why no one did anything to stop him years ago.

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