Steubenville Verdict

I could not find an original topic, so here.


Verdict is in on the rape of a 16 year old girl by two high school boys:

Guilty

The potential penalty is pretty pathetic, just a few years in jail. But, despite the best efforts on the part of the defense attorney to attack the victim with ad hominem statements, the judge apparently went by the evidence and found two of the attackers guilty.

Others who were present at the time of the attacks testified in exchange for immunity.

Oh, wow. I can honestly say I'm surprised. Even with the ridiculous amount of evidence against those boys, the attitudes of a lot of people in the town had me convinced they'd just get away with it.

I'd felt that way for a while, until the videos started being leaked. Once it got outside Steubenville, I knew these kids were getting some level of punishment.

I'm torn about the punishment. The parent in me says "Fuck these kids, and fuck the rest of their lives, because this girl is going to have the emotional scars from this for the rest of her life". The more rational person in me says hopefully they'll learn from this and do something with their lives to make amends, once they get out of jail.

I read some story about the defense's witnesses, trying to defame the victim. As far as I could tell, they went to the girl's school and found all the girls who didn't like her and brought them back as character witnesses. It's like Mean Girls in the courtroom.

Well, let's be honest, what else did the defense have? There was a fuck ton of video and photographic evidence released into the public realm. All they had left was "she's a filth whore who asked for it". That being said, the lawyers who decided to go forward with that defense deserve terminal illnesses that have slow, painful deaths.

In addition, the sister of one of the attackers tweeted out a death threat to the victim.



Her account has since disappeared.

classy.

CNN decides their coverage needs to be about how the RAPISTS lives are ruined by this, because they were football stars with bright futures.

If only there had been some way to keep that passed out girl from clamping her vagina around their fingers against their will...

*if you read anything other than frustrated and angry sarcasm into that last line, get glasses.

If you make assaulting women illegal, only outlaws will assault women.

Hope you're happy, America.

Seriously, though, in case anyone ever doesn't understand what "rape culture" is, this is a perfect example.

Man, just watching here, Twitter, & Facebook leads me to believe the coverage of this is really quite horrifying.

The year after I graduated high school something very similar happened to a girl my friend knew. When it got to the point where authorities finally found out about it and moved to prosecute it somehow ended up getting squashed because the boys were on the football team with well connected parents. They actually ended up causing this girl and her family so much stress that they moved out of town.

A year later one of the two guys was smoking crack while driving, lost control of his car, and ran over a grandfather and a 4 year old boy.

It's not only a culture of rape, but one of entitlement, and a thought process that they did nothing wrong, they should be allowed to do whatever they want and get away with it. And it gets reenforced all too often.

I dated a girl from Stubenville, I've been to her hometown. She had told me that she was gang raped at a party when she was living there and that's why she moved away from home. After having visited I can see very clearly why these things happen there and why guys who grow up there would think it's no big deal, or just another normal night of partying. If you watch the video of the kids laughing about it they even list other teams that have been brought up on gang rape charges, as if it's jut something teams do. It's truly sickening.

.

Even the one of the apologies seemed to go in that direction. It's like he was apologizing to the town for having brought attention to, and shame upon the community (because he'd texted the pictures), but not for actually raping the girl!

I'm definitely in agreement, especially with minimalism's comment on entitlement.

One major theme with criminal psychology is that an offender with a problematic mindset does not admit fault for their actions and empathize with their victims fully. This can be indicative of many traits, but ultimately it's that the offender never admits fault despite repeat offenses.

there is no honor.

Those "apologies" were fucking repugnant.

Nice one Fox... The 16-year-old victim outed by Fox News when they failed to censor her name in an aired videoclip of Trent May's apology.

Apparently, CNN and MSNBC are also guilty of this oversight, having aired the same segment over the weekend. I think it's fair to say that the media coverage of the verdict has been an abject failure.

Getting really fucking sick about how everyone from the judge to the news outlets are talking about how parents should talk to their kids about what they put up on social media.

HEY, EVERYBODY! MAYBE YOU TALK TO YOUR KIDS ABOUT NOT RAPING?

Exactly.

I'm actually glad that social media is where it is today, because it makes it so easy to collect evidence to convict people.

This whole thing makes me so fucking angry, I shouldn't read about it at work, as I'm fittin' to deliver a punch to the throat of every man I see. For weeks I've been waiting for a conviction, and now that it's been handed down I am no less enraged than I was.
I live in a small town with a huge college, the #2 "party school" in the country apparently. I stay the hell away from the area near the school where the students live, but I have heard about the things that have happened there from co-workers and non-consensual sex (by one person or a group) is so common that hardly anybody even bothers to report it.
Like Ridley said, I am furious that this whole incident seems to have served no other purpose than to teach young people that anything is ok as long as you don't post about it on social media or get caught for it.
Maybe this makes me an asshole, but I feel even more upset when I see women defending those piece of shit rapists, like that girl on Twitter. I do not understand how, as a female person and a human being, you can have zero sympathy for the young girl who was maliciously attacked and has to try and live with that trauma for the rest of her life.
And let's not forget that there were numerous perpetrators and witnesses involved in this disgusting crime, many of whom got immunity for testifying or making a statement. And some that just escaped altogether. They are the ones I am concerned about, they know now that they can do what they want, with little or no consequences for them.

The Ohio AG says he isn't done yet, and is investigating all sorts of people: head football coach, parents who threw the party and supplied the alcohol, and numerous others. So far, the only people exempt are the two or three boys who traded immunity for testimony.

Athlete Overcomes Rape

Modern news: Doing shit The Onion parodied two years earlier without the slightest bit of self-awareness.

Apparently two girls that made death threats at the victim via Twitter have been arrested as well. Hopefully anyone else who aided and abetted the rapists or obstructed justice will be dealt with quickly as well.

So... there's a petition to get CNN to apologize. Do I think it'll work? No. Do I think it was worth the 33 seconds it took me to fill it out? Yes. If a national station broadcasted a message that was "Fuck those rapists," I'd dance with glee.

Unrelated to the petition.
Henry Rollins:

Full piece here.