Jesse Lacey Releases a Statement • Page 6

This only happens if he's sued for sexual harassment and loses. I don't think it's clear if this girl wants to press charges, and I'm not sure about the statute of limitations.

Steve Klein wasn't the frontman, lead vocals, etc. of the band though. And NFG parted ways with him immediately after giving him the opportunity to get his statement out from what I recall. It was a very clean break. It's hard to imagine Brand New without Jesse.

This is a ridiculously wishy-washy way of saying that sexual abuse of minors is bad. Regardless of what the law states, I think most rational, normal human beings believe that being 26 and preying on a 15-year-old is wrong. I don't care if you live in a society where there are no statutory rape laws—that shit is disgusting.

From personal experience, I was 22 and dated an 18-year-old, and I literally ended the relationship with her after a couple months (not serious) because I felt like a creep. And that's exactly what I told her when I broke it off (by far the weirdest break-up conversation I've ever had). You can get nitpicky with ages, but when Jesse could have had his Masters degree and she would have been a freshman or sophomore in high school, that's pretty clear-cut wrong.

 

Holy fuck the Facebook comments are bad.

What terrifies me is that these people will be picked for jury duty some day. I've got to stop reading this shit, or I will lose my mind.

 

Is that guy's name really Samson Simpson

 

Could be a dummy account. That being said, feel free to click on any of those people's names to pull up their Facebook pages. They posted on a public forum. They don't get privacy.

 

The subreddit for BN has basically turned into r/incels

 

Goddamn it I am so fucking tired of Skypegate.

It’s so scary that these are just regular people that might otherwise be okay to hang out with. Just like you might not know that someone is a predator from knowing them casually there’s plenty of people that you might not know are fucking idiots. I’ve had to distance myself from good friends because of stuff like this and it’s so frustrating. I just want to talk to all of them and try to help them understand

 

"Sorry I got caught" - Jesse

 

Pretentious prick. It has nothing to do with cheating... it’s about using his status to coerce underage girls. If he really has had years of therapy then you think he would have learned to take ownership somewhat

 

If he’s charged with it and convicted in a court of law, then yes he would do.

There wasn’t one bit of that statement where he addressed and owned up to soliciting a minor for explicit photos / coercing her in to watching sexual activity. Both extremely illegal, unlike cheating. I think we can all agree they are very different. It’s almost Kevin Spacey like in its ignorance.

 

I don't at all understand people still giving the excuse of him skirting around the issue at hand by saying "his lawyer probably told him what to say". That's a snake eating it's own tale situation. Why wouldn't his lawyer tell him to put himself in a position of innocence if he believed he had grounds to do so? The same people going "innocent until proven guilty" as if social media is a court of law don't seem to be applying that to this very statement. It's not against the law or legally obstructive for someone to claim innocence when accused of something. In fact it seems like an almost necessary standard in most similar cases, so what the fuck are these people talking about when they say his lawyer told him to evade implicating himself if he's innocent or at least wants to be perceived that way?

 

I’m still in shock that I now put Brand New in the sexual predator pile. Their popularity and influence on so many people in this scene made Jesse feel more than human, at least to me. What a tragic, disgusting and unfortunately not unfamiliar way for the band to go.

 

It’s the internet, I’m afraid. People without a modicum of intellect like to believe they are legal and ethical experts.

Quite true - I was devastated when I heard that; my favourite band. BUT (and we know the individual members of the band aren’t perfect human beings - they’ll tell you that themselves) when something like that came to light they removed him from the band immediately which showed their decency. People weren’t happy with the statement but they handled it as well as they could, I feel. However as you say - and maybe this is some warped logic, or because I was a singer not a musician, it does feel somewhat different when it’s the frontman as that’s the voice of the band and you can’t ignore it. Strange, maybe... Hypocrisy, definitely (I’m sure).

 

Genuine question as I want to know. Where in that statement does Jesse Lacey address or state he has addressed engaging in sexual activity (online) with minors? To me it’s excactly the same as Spacey’s awful attempt at an excuse. “I did this but I’m coming out as gay” and - “I did this because I’m addicted to sex.” Neither of which address what they actually did.

 

Isn’t the majority of Take this to your grave about Wentz’s break up with an underage girl?

 

I promised myself that I'd never post here again almost one decade ago. And yet... here I am. Why I don't even know. But... are you sure telling me that someone that did shit like this should be not hold accountable by people that were led to believe in his cult of poor-depressed-tortured-soul-that-hates-himself that was enabled by people that went silent throughout all these 15 years just now to say "believe in women"?

Are you truly saying that the guy who did this below which hasn't even been brought to attention to most people should get away with?



EDIT: It's on their Facebook replies, with the name of the victim. I couldn't properly link it, but maybe it's for the best. The quote is damning enough.

I believed in women back then. People believed women back then. I was younger, but it's not like this wasn't an open secret shrugged it off by people with power to make it go shrugged it off. I believed the rumors back then. The cult didn't believe it. But who nurtured and feeded said cult again?

Yes, seeing the pictures and names of the people he devastated hurts more than when it was on livejournals, tumblrs and blogs out there. The question though is that it was known. People just literally shrugged it off. Now reflect on who enabled this. Who made that possible. Brand New played their part to make their cult a reality. But they certainly didn't do it alone. They got a lot of help. To those people, I just have this to say: I remember. And I'm sure that I'm not alone.

Was I a fan of them up until today? Was I trying to do the whole "love the art, kill your idols" schtick to get away with enjoying their music eventually when finally we got confirmation of the several rumors that runned back then? Yeah. I was. After what I've seen on their feed though? Fuck no. I don't need that. I don't need their music. Not even by making sure that they didn't get one cent, after this, I can't in good conscience listen to ANYTHING they've released anymore. Saying that his bandmates couldn't possibly know, when several cases keep popping up - AND POPPED UP BEFORE BUT WENT IGNORED, MIND YOU - when we got feeded with that narrative that they were reclusive depressed guys and the good boys of the scene that ascended to being godlike? Brand New's "history" was build with fan fiction mythology, but while fans did the hard work, the whole environment back then was the thing enabling them to do that. Yeah. Fuck that. The narrative wasn't build just by them or their fans, and anyone old enough knows that. Some owning up is definitely required. But I sincerely doubt that we will ever see it ever happening. The ruined adolescence of these kids is also their enablers fault. And they know it.

 

I'm really not surprised that this fanbase is the reason I'm made aware there's a term "ephebophile" like no Jesse isn't THAT bad, he just likes them 15-19 years young. Not SUPER young give him a break, how dare anybody calls him a pedo, right? Ugh fuck off

 

It basically already was.

 

I mean, pedophile is a different thing. It's not a matter of opinion...

What he did is disgusting, his apology is terrible and he should face legal consequences for it but it's not pedophilia. Not that it makes this better but it's a different disorder.

Put him in jail regardless for exploiting minors.

 

It troubles me to watch how many people have no concept of what predatory behavior towards minors is.

Like, I work for a church's youth group and a non-profit after-school program and am also on the board of a summer church camp. All in Pennsylvania, which has extra strict laws about background checks and mandated reporting due to that whole Sandusky situation. This is the kind of thing that, if I heard about it from one of my kids and didn't immediately report it, I could face legal repercussions myself. And rightfully so.

 

Jesse Lacey has built a career on writing songs about how women wronged him. I don’t see how anyone could still be on board with the art, knowing any of those songs could actually be about a child he harmed. We, as a community, used to choose these toxic men over everything else. I am guilty of it myself! I have, unfortunately, often said dumb things against Sherri Dupree, based on the music of bands I don’t even like. That’s just one example. To continue to let these men get away with making everything about themselves, to continue to accept apologies that shift blame and change narratives...it’s not only wrong, it’s negligent. We are losing bright and beautiful potential in people every day. How many women have been discarded by this scene before even getting a chance because they mattered less than a man’s reputation? It has to stop. I am so tired. I am tired of trying to teach things to people who don’t want to listen, who prefer to take the path of least resistance and for what? To keep listening to music made by predators. To keep stifling victims for their own enjoyment. Out of sight, out of mind, out of conscience.

It’s been getting better. I’m so happy to see so many of you taking this for what it is. But I hope it’s just the tip of the iceberg and that we can truly improve and thrive as a community without abusers.

 

How reliable is brand new reddit?
Rumors that band is done

 

When I was in high school I dated a girl who was 15 (I was 17, she was my first love and all of that) and she LOVED Brand New and Jess Lacey and man, he could've easily done this to her and abused her and everything described here. It's messing me up how easily he could do this to all the teens who loved him and worshiped him.

It's so fucked up.

 

I never was a fan of BN, liked some songs but never was a part of this huge BN fanbase. I feel very sorry for the victim/victims of Jesse's actions. I feel sorry for the fans, because this band meant so much for so many people and now it's all over. I remember being kind of a fan of lostprophets, and, well, it was terrible. I kinda got through all this Watkins-related things and now I can listen to them from time to time, because I decided that one man can not ruin things created by six people (i mean other lp members). But it's not even close to being comfortable.

Those gross facebook comments... Well denial is a part of the way to acceptance

What happens right now is kinda great. I mean it's terrible all this well known people/idols turned out to be scums and abusers. But the way the society view their actions today is very promising. No matter how famous or powerful you are you will be condemned for terrible actions like this. It's a small step to the perfect world where no one can harrass or abuse someone not because he's afraid of consequences, but because respect of other person's privacy, body and life is in his DNA. Like with racism and lgbt-thing (maybe it's inappropriate comparison, sorry) when new generations just can't understand how can you treat the person worse just because of skin color and sexual orientation.

I also would like to thank chorus.fm for being this great community of nice and kind people. Bands are important but every person's life matters so much more

Sorry if this text is terribly written. It's not my native language

 

Having reflected on this all last night, I woke up this morning and read his apology statement again. The only difference I see between his and Kevin Spacey's is that Jesse is a better writer. The maneuvering is exactly the same and they both throw other issues in there as a complete smokescreen and distraction, which is a bullshit maneuver.

I get that it is also 100% human nature and the guy admits he's a narcissist, but it doesn't excuse anything.

I know none of this is about me or any of the others fans who have nothing to do with these situations. My heart and support goes out to the people whose lives he has ruined with his awfulness.