Imagine this. You're chilling after a gig after seeing one of your favourite bands, a band who mean so much to you that they've played an integral part in forming your identity. You've seen them play several times before and you've interacted with them on social media so much that you can personally message them. In other words, this is a band whom you unconditionally trust. Suddenly, a member of said band proceeds to come up behind you and attempt to unhook your bra. How would you feel about this? Shocked? Betrayed? Violated?
Spare a thought for the people who are coming out about their harrowing encounters with Austin Kerr, bassist of Set It Off, in which they were subjected to harassment both in person and over messages. These encounters have ranged from persistent messaging in an attempt to force fans to have a threesome with him to underage sex and abduction. Despite being told to stop in many of these instances, Kerr would either continue his actions or only stop once he or the person whom he'd been molesting had been pulled away.
That's not how consent works. No, would you believe, actually does mean no. By blatantly ignoring the fact that they didn't want to do anything, Kerr has denied them of their human right to choose what they want to do with their body. As result of being forced into unwanted sexual situations, there are going to be people out there who feel responsible for what happened to them because they couldn't stop it. For all the people who have spoken up, there are going to be just as many who aren't saying anything because they blame themselves. The one thing in common that all his victims will share however is a changed outlook on how they interact with musicians in the future. Being a musician means being in a position where you are trusted by your fans which, for the most part, many musicians understand. Kerr however has misused this position to abuse the trust of several of his fans, underage or not, who were all vulnerable due to their trust in him. His actions mean that for some victims, it's going to take some time before they can trust their favourite bands again.
Though there has been some issue as to whether incidents could have been prevented by the victims, that isn't the main thing because really, the victims shouldn't have been placed in such situations in the first place. What is important is that Kerr felt he had the right to degrade these fans and must now be brought to justice for what he has done, both to protect anyone who could be his next victim and to allow those who have been wronged by him to move on with their lives.
In spite of this, many have still been insisting that these fans have been making false allegations. If you're one of the people who have been protecting Austin or who doesn't believe what is being said, consider this; why would these ladies lie about a member of a band, which they really like, when the repercussions of such a lie would possibly cause the band to break up and would most definitely ruin the life of the member involved? To think that a person would be so juvenile as to make up stories of harassment for attention is absurd. These people have had to overcome their fear of Kerr to come forward about what has happened to them and to shame them for wanting to prevent anyone else from having such traumatic experiences is just plain wrong.
At this moment, Set It Off hasn't published a statement so I can't confirm whether the whole band has been made aware of what has happened. Nonetheless, considering that their guitarist Dan Clermont has been told by fans of incidents on numerous occasions, including via Twitter dms which can be seen below (these dms were shown to me by one of his victims), it's unlikely that they don't know. Set It Off need to acknowledge what Kerr has done and take appropriate action before more people are left psychologically scarred. First and foremost, it is the fan's safety that matters and if Set It Off can't realise that, they don't deserve the right to play in front of a crowd, no matter how good they are.
