Massachusetts Remains 1 Of 2 States Where Revenge Porn Is Legal After Senator Jamie Eldridge Blocks Common Sense Bill Because He’s Worried People Will Go To Jail

 

Massachusetts is just one of 2 states in the country that doesn’t have a revenge porn law on the books. In all other 48 states their state legislatures have unanimously passed laws banning the posting of intimate pictures by scorned lovers after bad breakups. It’s the only issue that is completely bipartisan and really doesn’t require much debate. The fact of the matter is that people in relationships send each other intimate pictures in the digital era, and posting them without consent because one party is butthurt is a way for abusers to continue to victimize the people who dumped them.

The Massachusetts State Legislature had a revenge porn bill written before COVID, which got delayed and forgotten about until May when it passed 160-0 in the House. Charlie Baker said he would sign the bill, and it was a done deal as soon as it got through the State Senate. Then this chode came along:

Jamie Eldridge is a State Senator from Acton, who credits himself with being one of the most progressive members of the State Legislature. He champions himself an advocate for women and  supported the #MeToo movement. In 2019 he introduced legislation to “mandate domestic violence and sexual assault awareness education for aestheticians, barbers, cosmetologists, electrologists, hairdressers, manicurists, and massage therapists.”

But he is now singlehandedly making sure that Massachusetts is the only state in the country where revenge porn remains legal.

Despite 48 states outlawing it and the House voting unanimously to do the same, the Senate adjourned its final formal session this week without taking a vote on a measure that would make the sharing of nonconsensual pornography illegal in Massachusetts. The inaction stunned the bill’s supporters and frustrated Governor Charlie Baker, who made passing language criminalizing it a centerpiece of his final year’s legislative agenda. Advocates for sexual assault victims lamented that the flurry of activity on other criminal justice items — such as expanding when a court could hold someone alleged to have committed a dangerous crime — likely crowded out a measure they say was a priority for survivors.

Revenge porn is a form of abuse advocates say can follow survivors for years amid the ubiquity of social media and the Internet, yet for years carried none of the same penalties as other crimes. Over the last decade, dozens of states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam have passed laws making it illegal for ex-partners and others to disseminate sexually explicit images of another person without their consent. Now, just two outliers remain: South Carolina and Massachusetts.

A key Senate leader said he was both uncomfortable with attaching possible jail time to a first offense and questioned whether revenge porn was “a particularly severe problem” despite the attention it’s received from media and law enforcement.

“I did not hear from many colleagues that this was something that was happening in their district,” said Senator Jamie Eldridge, an Acton Democrat and the Senate’s judiciary chairman. He said Senate leaders also did not discuss the bill in closed-door caucuses. “It was absolutely a bill that could have been taken up. It just was a victim of the focus [being] on other quote-unquote more important bills.”

“I just don’t get it,” said Sandy, a survivor who asked to be identified only by her first name. Her ex-boyfriend posted lewd photos of her online without her knowledge, along with her name, hometown, and Facebook photo. “We’re just asking to give us a voice so when it happens to other women, they’re protected.”

“To argue this isn’t an important bill is infuriating,” said S.K., a survivor who has testified before lawmakers and asked not to be identified by name.

As a high school freshman 15 years ago, she was persuaded by an upperclassman to send him naked pictures of herself, only for him to distribute them around her school. She ultimately enrolled elsewhere but battled years of depression and harassment, forcing her family to cut ties within their town.

“Do I have to show them how severe of an issue it is to have impacted my life?” she said.

The legislation that emerged from the House would make it a misdemeanor crime to knowingly distribute sexually explicit materials of someone, either with the intent to harass, intimidate, or cause emotional distress, or doing so with “reckless disregard” of the person’s expectation that they would remain private.

Those convicted would face up to 2½ years in jail, a $10,000 fine, or both, while those guilty of second or subsequent offenses could face felony penalties, including up to 10 years in prison.

The state’s current criminal harassment statute requires that prosecutors prove someone engaged in a “knowing pattern of conduct or series of acts” — or three or more incidents, according to a 2005 Supreme Judicial Court ruling — to be charged. The proposed revenge porn statute, however, would be triggered by a single incident, not three.

Eldridge said he personally is concerned with a first-time offender facing potential jail time over what could be an “emotional” act.

“Quite honestly, it’s likely a couple who has or had a relationship, and an image is shared in the heat of a fight or some dispute, is that person going to know that that could mean jail time? Is that really going to be a deterrent?” he said.

So basically Jamie Eldridge opposes passing a common sense law that not a single elected official in the entire country opposes, because if you broke that law you could go to jail. That’s literally his only argument. By that logic we should just get rid of all laws and prisons.

It’s also not a “a particularly severe problem,” because he doesn’t know anyone who’s been affected by it.

“I did not hear from many colleagues that this was something that was happening in their district,”

However, it happens all the time. In New Hampshire, where revenge porn has been a felony since 2016, a man named Chad Boardman was charged after sending naked pictures of his ex-girlfriend to her roommate in an attempt to get her kicked out of an apartment. But all Chad had to do was just say that he took a trip into Massachusetts for a day and sent the images after crossing state lines. As long as there are no federal laws or state laws in Massachusetts, the Bay State will be the place that people know they can come to commit this crime.

Jamie Eldridge pretends to care about women and victims of sexual abuse. But in reality they are lower on his priority list than criminals  themselves. Jamie Eldridge pretty much believes that jails shouldn’t exist, and his primary constituency appears to be prisoners. In 2020 he made an ex-con who started a prison riot in Shirley the face of his push for jail reform.

He just doesn’t care about victims of anything, and will automatically empathize with people who cause harm to others, and he is the only reason Massachusetts remains one of just 2 states where victims can continued to be abused by bitter exes.