It’s been a solid six months since Judge Aaron Persky made possibly one of the most controversial rulings of his career.
Six months. The amount of time a Stanford rapist who also happened to swim was supposed to spend in a county jail.
28 Days. That’s how long it’s been since Turner was released from this county jail due to his “good behavior” after only serving HALF of this pathetic sentence.
90 Days. The length of the pathetic sentence this scumbag ended up having.
This isn’t the first time I’ve gone on a rant about the young man who decided to rape an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. However, last time I ranted it was because he wasn’t getting the lengthy sentence to rot in prison like he deserved. This time, it’s because that pitiful six-month sentence turned into a sentence that was as brief as Kim K.’s marriage to Kris Humphries.
Turner, originally from Dayton, now has zero chance of pursuing any career in swimming. He was banned for life from USA Swimming, banned from stepping foot onto Stanford’s campus, and banned from living near any schools or child care centers. The “harshest sanction a school can put on a student” would be to ban him from being on campus ever, so that’s what he gets. However, the most minimal sentence Turner could’ve been given from the judge was two years in state prison. Persky didn’t even give us that. No, thanks to his family’s lack of steak dinners he wasn’t even put into a state prison. This man took everything from a woman while she was unconscious behind a dumpster and was given a maximum of SIX MONTHS in a county jail. Heaven forbid he even goes to the right prison because it might impact his future too much.
Here's the thing though, his future should be impacted. He chose to rape a woman. He made that decision. That decision has serious consequences. However, he never apologized for raping this woman. He apologized for not getting to know her. He apologized for thinking she wanted it. He apologized for not asking. Not once did this kid recognize that he RAPED a woman. The most he got out of this situation was that next time he shouldn’t drink as much. Next time he shouldn’t get caught.
Should there be a next time? No, he should be in prison for the rest of his life.
Will there be a next time? Well, thanks to good ole Persky there might be.
While scrolling through Facebook earlier this year, I came across a picture of a group by the name of “Brock Turner Family Support Group.” That same day, I also came across the letter from the 23-year-old woman that had her entire world torn apart by Turner, as well as one from his parents to the judge. When I first heard about this tragedy, I felt so much hurt for this woman. She was taken advantage of by a freshman in college on a night that she didn’t even plan to go out. Then I read the letter and my hurt turned straight to anger. I was furious with this man and his family. The parents of Turner had the audacity to write a full letter to the judge in defense of their son WITHOUT mentioning the victim a single time. Instead they chose to ramble about the lack of steak dinners around their house. Congrats to you piece of crap humans, you get your piece of crap son back because now that this “Stanford Swimmer” has no career left in California, he will be returning to Ohio.
I have one thing to say to him, on behalf of the entire state of Ohio: We do not want you here.