Accused Can Sometimes Be The Victim

Reality can be a hoax sometimes. Although human beings are rational thinkers, we tend to believe things that we hear very easily. Victim-blaming comes in many forms and is oftentimes more subtle. It can apply to cases of rape and sexual assault but also to more brutal crimes like domestic violence. However, one should not jump to conclusions without analyzing and investigating both the ends of a rope. One side of the story can make the case susceptible to misleads.

Johnny Depp, 55 and Amber Heard, 32, were known to be married from 2015 to 2017. Back in 2016, Heard had accused Johnny Depp with the charges of domestic abuse. She had given certain testimonies of the incident that her ex-husband had hit her (with photos as evidence). Moreover, at one incidence, she also took a video of him flinging a wine glass at her in a fit of rage. How is that even possible in a heated situation like this? After much back and forth, the former couple finalized their contentious divorce in January 2017. She claimed that he would lose his temper and would start to lash out on her, verbally as well as physically. In a state of obvious, people naturally rallied behind Amber and reprimanded Johnny’s actions (then seemed to be true). People from Johnny’s background contradicted that he would never hurt a woman. Some people also went as far as calling Heard a gold-digger and an imposter which is disrespectful to the actual victims of domestic abuse.

Johnny and Heard, both of them have an eminent reputation in Hollywood industry. Taking into consideration the accusations and contradictions, the celebs have their public image and their profession at stake enormously. The accusations on Johnny were proved to be false but on the other end, Amber, who played the victim-card, was exposed for lying about the accusations. In the midst of all this turmoil, people changed sides after Johnny Depp filed a $50 million defamation case against Amber. In this regard, he had presented justified evidence that he was on the receiving end of the abuse. As the court had declared the accusations as “categorically and demonstrably false”, it was quite reasonable for Johnny to file a defamation case against her. Those witnesses who have known Amber Heard very closely stated that she has had a long history of short temper and that she was the one who was alleged for the abuses, including punching and kicking. It is very disheartening to know that how easily people lose their temper and start displaying their worst behavior which contradicts morality.

Poster Credits: Ruchi

Blaming, accusing, and playing the victim card is merely possible if one has planned evidence. Sadly, the truth will always prevail over everything no matter how robust those false pieces of evidence are. At one point, the court had come up with one statement of Amber which made this case even messier than it was already. It stated that Amber was previously arrested for “violent domestic abuse” and also confessed under an oath to a series of violent attacks of Mr. Depp. She also confessed that she allegedly staged all of this just to advance her career.

Keeping all this aside, the victim card that was played by Amber Heard had some emotional strings attached to the actual victims of domestic abuse who had gone through that brutal phase. If she had deliberately taken advantage of playing the victim of domestic abuse, then she has stained her morality entirely. However, we should reach out to the actual victims to hear them out without shaming them. At the same time, the perpetrator who is accused should be given a fair chance until proven guilty (if he/she is really innocent). We profess ourselves to be practical thinkers then we should not be ignorant to the innocent as well as the guilty. We should always consider both sides of the story. Only because of a few cases like these who purposely stage their innocence out of personal grudges should not make us insensitive to those who have actually gone through domestic abuse. Why are we not willing to hear them out? Why should the accused suffer deliberately if he/she is really innocent? We should not be so quick in concluding with judgments made out of misleading reality. Moreover, assumptions should not be made without pragmatic scrutiny. The actual truth will always be hidden until we decide to dig deeper in search for it.

Written by: Kiran (Content team)


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