Hats off to the brave!
Awhile back, one of my daughters posted the story on her Facebook wall about the Stanford University swimmer, who was in the process of raping a woman, when two men who happened to be walking past, noticed what was happening and decided to act. These two heroes drug him off of her and held him until the police showed up. Unless you live under a rock, you’ve most likely heard of the case. On the off chance that someone hasn’t, the rapist was a pre-Olympic caliber swimmer, named Brock Turner. For his crime, he was given an extremely light sentence by a judge, who didn’t want this elite athlete’s life to be permanently ruined by a harsh sentence. After all, he had a bright future ahead of him! No apparent thought was given to the victim and the bright future she had ahead of her, at least before being raped behind a dumpster. Poor little Brock had to serve his 6 months in a county jail instead of prison (got out in three) and is now living with his parents in Ohio, where he has the nerve to complain about being label as a sex offender and that his reputation has been forever tarnished. Apparently, he’s just now realizing that people don’t like rapists, regardless of how fast you can swim. (Side note, we also don’t like people who lie to the world during the Olympics, regardless of how fast you can swim.) The judge (Aaron Persky) was facing a petition to be kicked off the bench, but elected to move to hear civil cases instead, as if he was going to be any less of a douche lord while sitting on a different bench ruining even more lives with his ridiculous rulings. There’s still an effort to get rid of him, so maybe karma will win out in the end. The California congress took up a review of the sentencing laws and like most politicians in an election year, are promising action! Yeah, right!
What’s interesting about this whole story is that no one would have ever heard about this whole sorry nightmare had it not been for the victim. She wrote a victim’s impact statement, read it (in vain) at the trial, then posted it online after the embarrassingly light sentence was administered. It is one of the most powerful statements I have ever read. When it went viral, accompanied by knowledge of how light his sentence had been, people started to act. If you haven’t read it, Google it, then go hug your daughters!
Today, I read another story about a woman who claims to have been raped by a member of the North Carolina football team, back in February. Guess what? Even though she reported the rape the night that it happened, submitted to a rape kit, and cooperated with authorities from both the police department and the university, the university hasn’t done anything, other than say they’re not moving forward with charges. Since it happened on campus, the university has jurisdiction and has decided not to refer the incident to the real police. Their main hang up with her story? Apparently, in their minds, there is a difference between being “incapacitated” and “black out drunk”. One is rape, the other is just – well – the fault of the victim for drinking too much at a college party that’s attended by young, strapping male football players. The victim got fed up with a lack of action by the university, so she filed two “citizen warrants” for misdemeanor changes against the rapist and held a press conference! At the press conference, she laid out just how many ways the system has re-victimized her (the university never even offered her any kind of counseling), all the while treating the star athlete with respect and sympathy. The university investigators did their initial questioning of the rapist with his best friend in the room, who just happened to be a material witness providing the alibi, so they could make sure their stories matched. At one point, the investigators told the rapist not to worry. Now that the story is getting spread, the university has said they would be willing to revisit their stance, AFTER they find out what her blood alcohol level was, by processing the rape kit that is still sitting in a lab somewhere. They’re still trying to find some way to blame the victim. Meanwhile, the poor, picked on football player surrendered to police after the press conference and has apparently been suspended from the team. Time will tell if the story goes viral, or at least viral enough to put pressure on the university.
In our own town, a “serial child molester” and his team of hired thug attorneys was able to get his trial delayed for three years after being arrested. All of the girls he molested testified in open court to years of abuse, only to be savaged by his Chicago attorney. Didn’t matter. Thanks to the unwavering strength of the girls, he was found guilty on all counts. Then the thug attorneys did what they were paid to do and got the sentencing delayed for another seven months after the jury found him guilty on all counts. When his day to be sentenced finally happened, each of his victims spoke at the sentencing hearing and gave statements that literally made grown men sitting in the courtroom tear up. Well, except for the serial child molester. He was only crying about how unfair it was to punish an old, widowed man, who had health problems, was formerly in the military, and wouldn’t be allowed to spend special quiet time alone with his 5 year old great-grand-daughter anymore. The judge sentenced him to prison, which sounds good, but like the rapist Brock, he was given 3 and a half years for each count, to be served concurrently, even though he had been molesting young girls for over 20 years. That’s less than a year per victim, without even factoring in how shortened his sentence will be for “good behavior”.
Sadly, these kinds of stories aren’t uncommon. We, as a society, keep passing stronger and stronger laws to punish sex crimes, but then we allow the system to brutalize those who come forward so viciously that many victims won’t put themselves under that kind of pressure and scrutiny. Those who do come forward, expecting “justice”, suddenly find themselves being investigated in the center of a full on “victim shaming” attack.
What good are strong laws if the crimes never actually get reported or prosecuted? We need to recognize the courage it took for each of the victims to come forward. The bravery it took to stand their ground, face their accusers, withstand the onslaught of slimy defense attorneys (especially those from Chicago) and still walk away with their head held high. In each of the cases cited above, the victims refused to quit. They refused to be silent. They refused to just accept the notion that what happened to them could somehow be excused away, blamed on them, or marginalized. They also refused to let the crimes define who they are as a person. They’re better than that.
That kind of strength deserves more from “the system” than what they’ve been given!