If you've been on Facebook or have been watching the news these past few days, you've probably seen countless articles and videos on "20-year-old Stanford boy, Brock Turner, given light sentence," based on the woman he assaulted a year ago.
Based on social media's high presence, if you're friends with me on Facebook, you've probably seen even more articles on the case and those talking about it. Like many who are talking about this case, I as well stand with the girl from Stanford.
If you talked to me three weeks ago, before this all came out, I would have said the biggest thing in media right now is this wild election. And that would be all that my timeline would encompass. I wouldn't be talking about how horrible rape culture is or how it still needs to be worked on, but this California woman started this dialogue for me, and that is why you should stand with her too.
It sickens me to my stomach to know that yet another rapist is practically walking away with a slap on the wrist. I cannot wrap my head around the idea that the Judge Aaron Persky felt it was an "overreach of justice" to sentence a rapist, who happens to also be white, an athlete, and attends a prestigious college, only six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Who also according to an article found here, will now only be serving three months of his 6-month sentence.
The Story:
It all started at a college party that she didn't even plan on going to, but she did because she was visiting her family and younger sister, and knew that it would be the only night with her, so a party happening down the road where she could be silly and embarrass her younger sister was her plan. And is that her fault? No.
She drank, like many do when they go to college parties, whether underage or not, and she didn't realize that she may have drank just a little more than what she was used to. Again, should she have been more careful? Yes. But does that mean she should have been sexually assaulted? Heck no.
According to her letter to her assailant, she woke up in the hospital, not remembering how she ended up there.
"The next thing I remember I was in a gurney in a hallway. I had dried blood and bandages on the backs of my hands and elbow. I thought maybe I had fallen and was in an admin office on campus. I was very calm and wondering where my sister was. A deputy explained I had been assaulted. I still remained calm, assured he was speaking to the wrong person. I knew no one at this party."
Should this mean that she wasn't assaulted? Of course not. She outlines the details of the examination the doctors and nurses performed on her, and even then she still didn't know for sure if this really happened to her.
That kind of fear is a fear we will never come to know.
It wasn't until she realized her underwear was gone that she suddenly started to realize what had happened to her.
"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. I still remember the feeling of my hands touching my skin and grabbing nothing. I looked down and there was nothing. The thin piece of fabric, the only thing between my vagina and anything else, was missing and everything inside me was silenced. I still don’t have words for that feeling."
Nothing. Did I ball my eyes out when I read that? Without a doubt. She lost her soul. Someone had come in and stripped it away from her, and there was no getting it back. No words, no needles or surgery could ever give her back the body she once knew, and I cannot ever come to know what that feels like.
Her detail in the timeline of discovering that she was sexually assaulted felt like I witnessed a murder. But that wasn't the only part that terrified me, the court case brought out even more anger in me.
Judge Persky claimed that a longer sentence would "have a severe impact on Turner, a champion swimmer who once aspired to compete in the Olympics," based on his clean criminal record, and a statement made by Dan A. Turner, father of the Stanford sex offender in a letter defending his son:
“His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve,” he said, “That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.”
Other letters by family members, friends, coaches, and teammates from Turner's life also aided in Judge Persky's decision.
The excerpts from some of the letters can be found here, but there was one in particular that aided as the one letter Judge Persky saw as a "stronger character reference" during the trail.
Leslie Rasmussen, a friend of Turner's said:
"I don’t think it’s fair to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against him. I am not blaming her directly for this, because that isn’t right. But where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists. It is because these universities market themselves as the biggest party schools in the country. They encourage drinking. I think it is disgusting and I am so sick of hearing that these young men are monsters when really, you are throwing barely 20-somethings into these camp-like university environments, supporting partying, and then your mind is blown when things get out of hand.
This is completely different from a woman getting kidnapped and raped as she is walking to her car in a parking lot. That is a rapist. These are not rapists. These are idiot boys and girls having too much to drink and not being aware of their surroundings and having clouded judgement."
My first issue with her statement is she is saying that the girl is pressing charges based on how much she drank. No, she is not, she was raped, sexually assaulted, violated.
Second, she says "I think it is disgusting and I am so sick of hearing that these young men are monsters when really, you are throwing barely 20-somethings into these camp-like university environments, supporting partying, and then your mind is blown when things get out of hand." Young men don't become monsters because universities support partying and drinking, they become monsters when their true colors come out. Turner had all the control in that situation, if he could run away when two grad students found him on top of her he was able bodied enough to refrain from putting his fingers inside of her.
Lastly she ends by saying "This is completely different from a woman getting kidnapped and raped as she is walking to her car in a parking lot. That is a rapist. These are not rapists. These are idiot boys and girls having too much to drink and not being aware of their surroundings and having clouded judgment." She was unconscious. Location does not matter, rapist rape whether they are sober or not, in broad daylight or not in parking lots, dorms, or not. Rape is rape and it is uncomfortable for me to see it being defined by a location.
Turner may have never acted this way in front of his friends, because those are people he knew. People who know his character and know his actions, but to a stranger Turner could be whoever he wanted to be without his character being judged in that moment. So that's who he became that night a guy who raped a girl unconscious.
In an article by NY DailyNews author Shaun King compared an almost identical rape case from Vanderbilt University to Turner's Stanford case. The comparison made me angry, but sadly didn't surprise me. According to the article, Cory Batey, a man of the same age as Turner, was found guilty of raping an unconscious woman in a dorm room. With ample evidence, Batey was found guilty of three felony counts, including aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery.
This case was only a year ago, and oddly enough the judicial counts of rape have suddenly been changed for Brock Turner?
From my understanding, the only things separating these two boys was race and the time when it hit the media.
As King shared in his article, black men have faced harsher charges for crimes for as long as we can remember. Is it fair? No.
Like Turner, Batey claimed he was "drunk out of his mind" and couldn't remember what happened that night, but did that make his sentence diminish? Of course not.
If being an athlete, being white, and being too drunk with a clean record were what made Turner look like he was innocent enough to only get six months, then how come we aren't reducing Batey's sentence? Oh, because the cases are just "too different."
There is nothing different.
Rape is rape, and should be justified as such in the court of law. I cannot and will not ever know or understand the fear and worry this girl is facing and will face in her future. But, I know I cannot be silent and hope that someone else will write another article saying how I feel about this, or stand around hoping someone will do something to make change.
There have been thousands upon thousands of rape cases and victims whose stories never made it this far into the media, but for those who may have their stories, I stand with you also. I stand with you so we can bring an end to this injustice. It cannot go on. It is cruel and it is ruining life permanently.
Turner may not be able to swim professionally or at the college level ever again, but he can still swim, he still has the body and strength in his bones to swim in a body of water. The girl he sexually assaulted lost her body, her body is no longer hers to do the things she enjoys. She may never feel the same about the things she once loved ever again, and that is what is truly frightening.
She is the victim, not this guy. According to her statement, he had changed his words many times throughout this case. Her story has been consistent all the way through, but his has not. How can that be justified, judge? I am horrified that we live in a world that has become too negligent to realize this. It is not the world we should be living in. We must look different.
At this point in time, I ask you to stand with her, the girl behind the dumpster, and all the girls and guys who have become the rape victims. I ask you to not let their stories become just another "20 minutes of action," but become a fight song to end the mis-justice in rape cases that take place all around us.
Her story is not the only one, there are many out there. Be the change you want to see and do not let this be just another story. Instead, let this be the beginning to end this madness in rape culture, and let it be no more.
Sign this petition to remove Judge Aaron Persky from the bench, for this injustice.
I stand with the girl from Stanford, will you?
