Here's the Problem: We Aren't Stupid

There is a post up on BeyondBT by a Rabbi who recounts his remarks at a forum on the question: "What happens when there is a scandal by a rabbinical figure in our community? How should we react?. . . "

The response was one I'm sure that most of us in the frum community have heard over and over and over again:
1. Don't Believe It: "Just because we see something written in the newspapers or over the internet, doesn’t mean I have to believe it is true! Just the opposite! We should always look at the individual as innocent until proven guilty, right?"
2. Dan L'Chaf Zechut: "There is a mitzvah to judge someone favorably even if the circumstances may appear to be incredibly incriminating."
3. Humans Make Mistakes: "We have to remember that even Rabbis are human and can make mistakes. It is very important that we judge the action and not the person. As we know, we cannot judge someone unless we have been in their exact situation."
4. Don't confuse Jews with Judaism: "If some of our own leaders are caught doing something against the law, what does it say about the community? Nothing!" and "Just because one can walk the walk and talk and the talk in frumkeit, doesn’t mean that the person is necessarily frum. It just means that they know the lingo. We have to be careful not to mix-up Jews and Judaism. "

The Rabbi then precedes to make a reference the not too far distant Spinka Case (here and here) and the Legal Symposium that followed (here and here):
"Unfortunately, the Orthodox world has not been exempt from scandals and recently there was a great rabbi who came out and spoke at length at the great tragedy that occurred with his institution. He never said it was an oversight or tried to brush it under the carpet but admitted that it was a imistake and warned people that they themselves shouldn’t make the same one!
This was true gadlus! This great sage admitted to the masses that there was a mistake made and a price to pay."

As I wrote on BeyondBT (slightly edited), here is the problem with this response in a nutshell:

we, the Orthodox public, aren’t stupid. Many of us are professionals who work day in and day out with issues of compliance. Some of us know what types of hard evidence it takes to even bring a case to trial, much more so to secure a conviction.

We know the difference between a “mistake” and a CRIME, especially organized crime which takes tremendous EFFORT and DELIBERATION to perpetrate (the case you refer to wasn’t simply a matter of forgetting to dot i’s and cross t’s, it was a fascinating case of affinity fraud/affinity crimes, worthy of a case study in Continuing Education courses).

Furthermore, when these cases continue to come to light over and over again it most certainly does say something about the community! Sadly, there are some people among us who have simply lost their moral compass, probably in part because “whitewashing” acts is all too reflexive a reaction.

The first rule of public speaking is "know your audience." I don’t know the audience that was addressed. Perhaps the answers were satisfactory for them. But, this answer which we have all heard repeatedly is hardly satisfactory. I think we are far better off saying that something is amiss in frumkeit today and that it is time to place issues of yashrut right up there with issues of kashrut.

Another rule of speaking: "sometimes less is more." In response to another case that hit the newspaper and TV headlines, the Rabbi of the community I lived in at the time said: "Despicable." Despicable works for me and I imagine it would work a lot better for the audience asking such questions.