Stanford Rapist Provokes Public Outrage

In modern society, the female power movement is on the rise. The female form is being celebrated in all of its glory, and rape culture is being met with extremely vocal opposition by a screaming horde of both feminists, and quite frankly, all people with a common sense of decency. One recent case is provoking extreme outrage.

Over a year ago, in January 2015, Brock Turner raped an unconscious (and therefore unconsenting) woman. He was seen by two eyewitnesses, who physically forced him off of the victim, chased him down when he ran away, and held him until police officers arrived. When the issue came to court, Judge Aaron Persky gave Turner only 6 months in jail for fear of being “unnecessarily harsh”. His rationale? “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him … I think he will not be a danger to others.”

Before a jury, Brock Turner was convicted on three counts – assault with intent to commit rape of an unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object. Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen has publicly replied to Perksy’s decision with unabashed disgust. “The punishment does not fit the crime … The predatory offender has failed to take responsibility, failed to show remorse and failed to tell the truth. The sentence does not factor in the true seriousness of this sexual assault, or the victim’s ongoing trauma.” Rosen is also vocally outraged by the fact that the convicted has yet to apologize, or take any sort of ownership or responsibility for his actions. “To this day, the defendant denies what he did.”

The victim of this heinous crime, who remains nameless, seemingly went ignored in her testimony. She offered an extremely eloquent statement to the court, and it had little impact on Judge Persky’s decision.

“I thought there’s no way this is going to trial; there were witnesses, there was dirt in my body, he ran but was caught. He’s going to settle, formally apologize, and we will both move on. Instead, I was told he hired a powerful attorney, expert witnesses, private investigators who were going to try and find details about my personal life to use against me, find loopholes in my story to invalidate me and my sister, in order to show that this sexual assault was in fact a misunderstanding. That he was going to go to any length to convince the world he had simply been confused. … You ran because you said you felt scared. I argue that you were scared because you’d be caught, not because you were scared of two terrifying Swedish grad students … You were caught red handed, with no explanation … When the policeman arrived and interviewed the evil Swede who tackled you, he was crying so hard he couldn’t speak because of what he’d seen.”

Persky’s sentence has been widely noted as being blatantly lenient, and it has sparked up a social conversation on white privilege. Had Brock Turner been black, would he have gotten off so easy? Had he not been a Stanford athlete, would he have been incarcerated for the full recommended six years? It wasn’t until this past Monday, June 7, that Turner’s mugshot was even released to the public. Up until this week – a full fifteen months after his arrest – a Google Image search of Brock Turner’s name would result in a smiling school photo.

Since Aaron Persky’s controversial decision, a petition was generated on Change.org calling for his removal from office. The 12,000 men and women who have digitally signed the document seem to believe that if the Judge is capable of coming to this conclusion, he is unfit to remain in any sort of power.

The anger of the public has yet to cease. The pot was stirred even further when a letter from Brock Turner’s father – described as “impossibly offensive” – surfaced on Sunday, June 6. The letter offered an explanation for why Turner deserved a probation rather than time in jail. He belittled the weight of his son’s doings, calling it “20 minutes of action”. In his writing, he never once mentions the victim of his son’s actions. He merely turns the tables to make it appear as though Brock is the one deserving of pity. “His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve,” the father, Dan Turner, wrote. “He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile.” He reminded his readers that his son is now a registered sex offender, a label that will follow him for the rest of his life. He blames Brock Turner’s brutal sexual assault on Stanford’s party culture, claiming that his son fell victim to the evils of alcohol rather than his own twisted agenda. Here is an excerpt from the outrageous writing:

“First of all, let me say that Brock is absolutely devastated by the events of January 17th and 18th 2015. He would do anything to turn back the hands of time and have that night to do over again … I can tell you that he is truly sorry for what occurred that night and for all the pain and suffering that it has caused for all those involved and impacted by that night … His every waking minute is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear, and depression. You can see this in his face, the way he walks, his weakened voice, his lack of appetite … Now he barely consumes any food and eats only to exist.”

A letter with an opposing voice has been circulating as well. The unnamed victim wrote beautifully about the unfortunate happenings of that January night – District Attorney Rosen has noted that “what has helped to create such national attention in this case is the eloquence of the victim … Never in my 20 years as a prosecutor have I seen a more eloquent victim statement. [It has] come to represent the truth of thousands of sexual assault victims have experienced as well.”

“Sometimes I think, if I hadn’t gone, then this never would’ve happened. But then I realized, it would have happened, just to somebody else. You were about to enter four years of access to drunk girls and parties, and if this is the foot you started off on, then it is right you did not continue … You do not get to shrug your shoulders and be confused anymore. You have been convicted of violating me with malicious intent, and all you can admit to is consuming alcohol. Do not talk about the sad way your life was upturned because alcohol made you do bad things. … [I] let my guard down, and drank liquor too fast not factoring in that my tolerance had significantly lowered since college. The next thing I remember I was in a gurney in a hallway … A deputy explained I had been assaulted … When I was finally allowed to use the restroom, I pulled down the hospital pants they had given me, went to pull down my underwear, and felt nothing.”

The horrific actions of Brock Turner and the response of his victim has started a worldwide conversation about today’s unfortunate rape culture. The mere fact that Brock’s father wrote a letter painting his son as a victim of the happenings of every college campus in America shows that something has to change. Little boys have to be taught from a young age to respect women. As one Twitter user, @AmyJoRyan, put it, there are plenty of better things to do with 20 minutes – “teach your son women are people, teach your son rape is bad, [and] teach your son human decency.”