Ten months after his career and reputation were dismantled by the #MeToo Reign of Terror, British actor Noel Clarke says he’s a victim of modern-day “McCarthyism.”

Fact check: True.

Clarke is a 46-year-old married father of four. He’s won two Bafta awards, was a regular presence in British TV and film, and had just taken home the 2021 Bafta award for outstanding contribution to British cinema when, out of the woodwork, came a flurry of #MeToo allegations. Twenty women claim he engaged in “unwanted touching or groping, sexually inappropriate behavior and comments on set, the covert filming of a naked audition, and the sharing of explicit pictures without consent.”

Today he is, per the Daily Mail, a “pariah.”

In the wake of the allegations. Bafta suspended his membership and revoked that 2021 award just nine days after issuing it. His TV show was canceled, a project he completed was dumped to streaming, no one took his calls, and the authorities launched an investigation.

Ten months later, per an “assessment by specialist detectives with the Metropolitan Police, none of the allegations made against him has been found to meet the threshold for further police inquiry.”

“There has been no arrest, no charges, no trial, no verdict, but I have been criminalized,” Clarke told the Daily Mail. “This is a form of modern McCarthyism.”

He added:

If we don’t need police and judges and juries any more, if we only need social media and the broadcasters, then what world do we live in?’ Clarke asks. ‘At what point did the broadcasters in this country become the judges, juries and executioners of people? At what point did Bafta decide they were no longer about films, but they were about judging people’s lives? This is not about me, it’s bigger, it’s about due process. Yes, people have said these things about me – but if I say you’re a donkey, it doesn’t make you a donkey, does it?

The most damning claim against him, that he secretly filmed a nude actress, was contradicted by a witness who was there at the time.

At the same time, he doesn’t claim to be a saint:

I’ve been a regular dude, for sure, I flirt. Have I ever made a saucy comment? One hundred per cent. But not to the extent that it warranted the destruction of my life. I can’t say I never talked about sex at work. We’re adults in a workplace and people make jokes and have conversations with each other that cross the line. Sometimes you’re with each other for six, seven months, away from home. I think sometimes these are just normal, or slightly inappropriate, conversations that people have. I was never involved in any conversation that I didn’t believe was mutual, wasn’t being reciprocated. Maybe I should have known better. But you know what, I didn’t always know better.

You made me uncomfortable, so I’m going to wipe you off the face of the earth.

This man twisted in the wind for ten months due only to allegations. For ten months, he’s been investigated, and so far, there’s nothing that backs up the allegations that would qualify as crimes.

Good heavens, the man claims he was suicidal.

At what point does this Sexual McCarthyism come to an end?

An entertainment industry that produced thousands of hours of product condemning McCarthyism is right back at it. There’s just no other way to describe it. Look at Johnny Depp. After being blacklisted, he’s finally getting his day in court, and from everything I’ve seen and read, he is another victim of this #MeToo Reign of Terror — this believe-all-women BS, this fascist world where you’re erased, condemned, and punished without a shred of proof or a trial.

That doesn’t mean Depp behaved perfectly.

That doesn’t mean Clarke behaved perfectly.

But who behaves perfectly?

And the punishment should fit the crime.

After ten months, nothing justifies what happened to Clarke’s career and reputation. But this is what happens when people are judged on allegations rather than evidence and truth. This is what happens when you hand a certain group the power to destroy whomever they wish without proof or a trial. This is what happens when you refuse to learn the lessons of history.

As always, I reserve the right to change my opinion if more evidence is found.

 

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