Dear American Justice System,

I know what I’m about to say is unfair. I know I’m laying a lot of blame on a system that is far bigger than my comprehension. I know blaming a whole group for just a few people’s actions is the exact thing we’re fighting against in today’s society but I don’t know who to address this to. I don’t know who has the power and I sure as hell don’t know who will read this and care about what some small suburban girl has to say. You’ve done a lot of good these past few years, but I can’t sit here quietly anymore. I can’t act like it’s all okay when it isn’t. I can’t pretend that I’m not scared to just be me… and that’s not a life worth living.

On January 17th, 2015, an anonymous girl went to a frat party with her sister, one she was never planning on going to until the last minute. Regardless, she had fun, danced, and drank alcohol because she was allowed to. She was over the age of 21 and it was a party; she had the right to let loose without consequences. But the next morning she woke up on a gurney covered in blood and dirt with no recollection of how she got there. Later, she heard doctors whispering words of “Rape Victim," which, as you can imagine, sent her into a state of shock. Just a few days after her hospital visit, she had to read an article on her phone that gave vivid details of her rape. How the man took her behind a dumpster, took off her bra, pulled her dress over her shoulders, took off her underwear and penetrated her with a foreign object. She was found there unconscious and curled in the fetal position. But according to the man? “She liked it," he said. According to him, it was consensual. He was dancing with the anonymous girl, kissing her, until he asked if she wanted to go back to his dorm. She said yes. Yes, she gave full consent, the girl who was so drunk she did not remember what happened the next morning. The girl who was found unconscious. This man, in case you haven’t figured it out already, was Brock Turner.

Let’s talk about Brock and what we know about him. According to his mother in a written letter to the judge, Brock was “easy-going, kind, considerate and respectful." He struggled to read as a child, was a Cub scout, participated in the 6th grade musical, and he started swimming competitively at the age of four. He swam for years with such passion and continued throughout high school, spending hours in the morning and afternoon practicing. Along with this, he took honors and AP courses and maintained A’s in school. He was also very kind and giving to the mentally disabled community by helping with Special Olympics. He was never privileged or wealthy; his parents are middle-class workers and his two siblings have thousands of dollars in student debt to this day. Brock was planning on going to the Olympics for swimming before January 17th. Then his dreams were crushed. His whole family was in grief. Brock was in agony and could hardly eat. In his mother’s letter, she pleads with the judge by saying Brock has never been in trouble before and now he can’t even get a job with this charge on his record. Funny how when talking about grief, she never once mentioned the girl who was penetrated against her will. Any rational person would read this after hearing the allegations and ask “What does any of this have to do with his actions on the day of January 17th?” The answer is nothing. Brock’s past accomplishments have nothing to do with his current faults whatsoever. It doesn’t change what he did. But apparently you, the government officials who worked on this case, weren’t as rational as some of us because you decided to use all of this information as Brock’s get-out-of-jail-free card.

When we first heard about this whole case, what headlines did we see? Well, things like “Standford swimmer gets 6 months for rape” from WSPA or “Sentencing bill inspired by Stanford swimmer case heads to governor” from The Sacramento Bee. They didn’t say Brock Turner or rapist. No, that would have been too insulting. Instead, they referred to him as “Stanford swimmer" as if to say “This white, male star athlete is now being charged for a crime far below him." The backlash received by news outlets like this was huge. I couldn’t go on Twitter or Facebook without seeing a rant about word choice in reports and articles. But this letter isn’t addressed to the news outlets. This is addressed to the justice system. The people responsible for giving punishment to people like Brock Turner. So let’s move onto the verdict shall we?

On January 28, 2015, Turner was faced with five different charges: rape of an intoxicated person, rape of an unconscious person, assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. On March 30th, 2015, Brock Turner was charged with the last three felonies. The first two rape charges were dropped on October 7th, 2015 after DNA tests revealed that there was no genital-to-genital contact.

Now let’s consider Brock’s three charges. Criminal sexual penetration sentences are determined by the degree of the offense and the punishment can range anywhere from one year to even life (according to criminaldefenselawyer.com). According to the California government code (this was the state Brock was arrested in), “any person who assaults another with intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, oral copulation, or any violation of Section 264.1, 288, or 289 shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, four, or six years”. Let’s take the smallest punishments for these three charges as an example: one year for sexually penetrating an intoxicated/unconscious person and two years for assault with intent to rape. That would mean Brock Turner should serve a MINIMUM of three years for his crimes. But what did you do? Not enough.

On June 2nd, 2016, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Brock to six months in jail, followed by three years of probation. If he exemplified good behavior, he could get out in 3 months. 3 MONTHS. And that’s exactly what he got. On September 2nd, Brock Turner got released from jail. While the anonymous girl suffers with countless public retellings of the night she was raped at hearings, Brock gets off easy. While the anonymous girl has to deal with effects of rape such as PTSD, depression, and even dissociation for the rest of her life, Brock Turner serves 3 months and goes back home to his loving and supporting family. How is that remotely fair at all? Even though his name will be permanently put on the National Sex Offender Registry and he will be expelled from Stanford (according to their code of conduct), his punishment will never be worse than hers. Her punishment is mental and psychological; it’s knowing there will never truly be justice served. And that’s where you come in.

I’m a 19 year old female who attends college in downtown Chicago. I go to college parties like any other college student and most people who attend these parties consume alcohol. A level of danger is added because I go to school in the middle of city that’s known for it’s crime. In 2014, there were 1,343 reported rapes in Chicago and as of 2016, it’s the 24th most dangerous city in the United States. Though Chicago is amazingly beautiful and cultural, just walking down the street or taking the train can sometimes be nerve racking. As a young female, I will always have to take precautions to protect myself, but verdicts like Brock Turner’s make everything worse. One in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape at some point in their lifetime (Fisher, Cullen & Turner, 2000; Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006). So does this mean one in four college women who were raped face the chance that their rapist will not serve their deserved sentence? Brock Turner’s case serves an example that offenses like rape and sexual assault are only horrible enough to get you three months in jail. If you look through the victim’s eyes, how will three months ever feel good enough? And this is just an example of a man raping a woman. 1 out of every 10 rape victims are male, according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). Both genders are affected by sexual assault and they deserve to feel safe and protected.

Even though Brock Turner’s case may seem like old news, the announcement of his early release spurred up a lot of emotions in me. I remember when Buzzfeed posted the anonymous girl’s statement that she read in court and it brought me to tears. I cried multiple times the week Brock Turner made the news and I felt so guilty about it because those tears weren’t for me. How dare I twist this story about a poor girl getting raped and make it all about me, right? Well, I’ve realized now that my tears are justified. Like I said, I’m a 19 year female college student. That anonymous girl could have been me. It could have been my best friend. It could have been any of my classmates. It’s hard for this story to not hit home when you’re in my position. People my age read these reports and say to themselves: “I would never let somebody do that to me” or “ I would have fought back” or “I’m too smart to let that happen”. But they don’t know anything until it happens to them. It scared me to read about Brock Turner because I didn’t want to live in a world where my rapist would only get three months of punishment. But that’s the world you have created as of today.

This issue is so much bigger than Brock. August 21st, 2016: an alleged rape occurs between a male and female after a party at York College of Pennsylvania. August 30th, 2016: it’s announced a USC football player, Osa Masina, is being suspended from his team after being accused of rape, sodomy and other sexual crimes. Those are just a few of many reported rapes on college campuses. But this issue is even bigger than that. According to RAINN, every two minutes an American is sexually assaulted. There are an average of 288,820 rape and sexual assault victims in the United States every year. When something like this is so prevalent in our society, shouldn’t all offenders be given the same punishment? If he committed the crime, if he raped someone, why is it that the young, white Stanford swimmer serving three months? Why does his success or potential even have to be a public of discussion? All of my questions and frustrations are not coming from a place of hatred. I’m not intending to offend anyone.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that I’m scared. I’m scared to be young, I’m scared to be a female, I’m scared to be a college student. I’m scared and I shouldn’t have to be. I should expect justice to be served, I should expect to be heard, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is hearing this anonymous girl. They are so many stories left unheard, so many stories we don’t even see on the news because they often don’t go to court or trial. I don’t want to be the next story. In fact, I think you have some rewriting to do.

Sincerely,

The girl who is sick and tired.