David Babbs sacked

[Floomph]

The founder of campaigning group 38 degrees, David Babbs, has been sacked because of giving ketamine and cocaine to younger staff. What jumped out at me when I read this story was the line, 'Separately the board has commissioned an independent external investigation into a number of other allegations which have been made relating to David's conduct.' (this was in the Mail article, but I'm linking to one in the Telegraph)

Whilst it's probably not right to speculate about what other allegations have been made in this instance, this story has made me think again about Brendan Cox and the issues with sexual assault in the charity sector. I am acquainted with another man who founded a small charity (also near Hackney, funnily enough) who I know has given drugs to his young staff at parties and who doesn't sexually assault them but is highly coercive and manipulative about having sexual contact with some of them. I was a victim of his in a sense but told him to fuck off when he tried it on with me repeatedly, not being as young and vulnerable as some of the other people he works with. I'm just feeling like the whole sector is rotten right now. I can't think how I trust which charities are staffed by decent people. I am wondering generally how much charities attract narcissists or are founded by narcissist because these men end up having an endless supply of young attractive volunteers and interns who are desperate to get work or experience and who look up to these men given they think they're saving the world.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/04/founder-campaign-group-38-degrees-sacked-giving-drugs-younger/

I've never trusted or donated to big behemoth charities, have lived in various places around the world and have well travelled family living and working abroad to have seen and heard enough to give me a distinctly uncharitable view of them.

Agree with a previous poster about politicians cosying up to these charities which gives the politician brownie points and the charity an untouchable status.

Sorry for your family member CharlieParley I'd like to say I'm surprised but, sadly, I'm not.

Small charities are not always great either - Over the last year I have watched as an individual set up a small charity which they claimed would provide a specific service to local council, giving it a misleading and ambitious name. They haven’t provided the service but instead have used it as a means to get on council groups and then government groups. By the time people have realised what she is up to she has moved onto another group at a higher level. It is quite scary watching how someone with so little knowledge but so much confidence in their own opinion manipulate their way up the greasy pole.

The attitude of "well, I'm doing good in this area so I can do no wrong" seems to infect all of the charity sector. A student contemporary of mine went to work for a small charity after graduation. And on paper it genuinely looked like a good thing - working in rural Africa in the healthcare sector, genuinely empowering local people, very much in the mode of "give the person the fishing rod rather than the fish." But even then, after about 6 months or so it became apparent to him that the CEO was syphoning off large amounts of money from the charity into his daughters' education.

He agonised about whether to whistle-blow or not, but eventually concluded he couldn't put together a convincing enough paper trail, and would just end up rendering himself unemployable, so he left.

I imagine he'd lose his shit at the sight of a plastic straw but cocaine, and its trail of destruction from Colombia to a rolled-up twenty in London is just fine.

Undoubtedly.

From that Reuter's article:
"The inquiry follows a year-long investigation in six countries by BuzzFeed News published in March that found WWF had provided salaries, training and weapons to paramilitary forces implicated in atrocities against indigenous communities."

Unfortunately there is a long and horrible history of some wildlife conservation organisations and charities committing serious abuses against indigenous people

I have ambivalent feelings about Vice, however this is an excellent documentary on the subject that may interest you

Birdsfoottrefoil yes, that's true, size is no guarantee. Unlike your example, due to the nature of the work that the charity set up by my family member did, they were extremely closely supervised, inspected and/or audited several times a year, strictly regulated with accounts checked or funding (which was continuous) cut off immediately. Of course, we have since also found out that the behemoth is not supervised to that degree and loads of the really strict, and justified, rules flaunted by them with no consequences.

But I think here in the UK we've already seen just how useful regulatory capture is for charities willing to exploit this and how useful it is to be closely connected to powerful political parties when others finally raise their concerns.

I'm just coming back to this thread because this issue has triggered a bit of a crisis for me and I'd value advice on what to do.

I mentioned in my op about knowing someone who has acted in a similar way to Babbs.

I'm sitting here feeling upset that another charity has listened when someone has come forward in the case of Babbs. I want to report the man I know in some way - I guess to charity's trustees? They're very similar cases and the idea of action being taken against him fills me with relief to be honest. It's not just the supplying drugs. To be clear, this man sexually harrassed me on 2 occasions and I'm still struggling with the repercussions of that 3 years later for various reasons. It was degrading.

I don't know what to do. If I report, I have something in the way of evidence (this man sent me a written apology by email although didn't specifically say what he'd done but he acknowledges he behaved extremely badly, which I guess is something). I don't have evidence of him supplying drugs to people other then my account but lots of other people witnessed have it so it depends on whether they'd speak out. Possibly not. He is idolised locally.

I feel like I need justice to some degree - at present he's just carrying on with his lovely life and hasn't faced any consequences for some truly shitty behaviour. This is eating away at me. I still see him out and about sometimes and he has a lot of admiring female followers in our area. He shouldn't be around vulnerable young interns, etc and certainly shouldn't be pushing drugs on them (I strongly suspect he only does so to take advantage of them sexually at big house parties he holds). I know several other women he has harassed but they won't come forward as they work in the same industry and don't want to rock the boat.

Despite wanting some form of justice, I am not in a position where I could cope with a bomb going off in my life. I don't want to face any repercussions for speaking out. It's complicated but I am friends with this man's sister and we have a lot of mutual friends and honestly, they would all likely back him if word got out I'd made allegations simply because people admire him so much. He would lose his career if his charity took my allegations as seriously as 38 Degrees have and whilst I can only think that is deserved, he has a lovely wife and very small children who don't deserve the scandal. And I genuinely worry I might have to move to a new area if I went ahead with this.

I considered as an alternative just telling his sister so he has to face some consequences. He begged me not to tell her above all people. I've been carrying his horrible secret around for 3 years and it's weighing me down so much but I'm just not sure I'm brave enough to go through with taking action. I feel grubby right now to be honest.

If you can help me unpick all this I'd be grateful. I'd be advising someone else to speak out in my position but there's a few things in my real life that mean I'm pretty vulnerable in reality. I'd be scared of this guy coming to my home and attacking me too in all honesty, although in reality he probably wouldn't.

Thank you!

Floomph I'm really sorry that I don't know what to suggest. Perhaps you could complain to the Charity Commission? Charlie I'm also sorry to hear what your relative has been through.

I think people give themselves permission to do whatever they like, including things they would condemn others for, when its for 'the cause'.

I spotted a weird coincidence in the article hoodathunkit posted about the Kids Company psychologist doing drugs with the service users. The article mentions Nicci Shall, who would go on to 'my pronouns are they, you fucking cunt' fame. (See Magdalen's footage from the Jam Jar in Bristol - masked protestors etc). Interesting that someone would go from dodgy behaviour from a dodgy charity to being an aggressive trans warrior... comes back to the 'giving self permission' thing maybe.