A topic that has been trending on social media and has been mentioned dozens of times most recently in the news is the story of Brock Turner, or, as he may be more well-known for this name, The Stanford University Rapist.
If you haven't read the story or heard of it yet, what most recently happened was this. Brock Turner, a 20-year-old swimmer from Stanford University in California was convicted of three felony counts of rape, but sentenced to only six months in jail—three with good behavior. Back to the beginning, here is what happened. In January of 2015, two students were riding bicycles at around one o'clock in the morning when they happened to come upon a dumpster, and behind it, a man on top of a woman who did not seem to be moving, and who was later discovered to be completely unconscious. When approached, Turner stood up and ran, leaving the woman unconscious, half naked, and sexually assaulted as he ran from the two students. One called 911 emergency, and the other tackled Turner and held him down until authorities arrived. Throughout the past year, Turner's anonymous victim has gone through hell and back, only for her story to be taken lightly by the justice system and by those who should be trying to help her be okay again.
This story caused outrage not only in the public, but also in me. In my opinion, Brock Turner deserves nothing but to sit in jail for the rest of his life, because not only did he commit this heinous act, but he also tried to avoid prison by coming up with nonsense about what happened that night. What happened to this young woman angers me in so many ways. I want everyone who reads this to search on the internet for, "Outrage over 6-month sentence for Brock Turner in Stanford rape case." If you search this, you will find a CNN article with this exact title, but within the article you will also find the 12 page letter that this young rape victim wrote and read to her rapist. In that letter you will read graphic details of what this woman had to go through and how she dealt with it. I read this article, and what angered me so much about this article was that she wrote about how for hours, nurses examined her body for various abrasions and such, but this quote is one I'll never forget.
"After a few hours of this, they let me shower. i stood there examining my body beneath the stream of water and decided, I don't want my body anymore. I was terrified of it, I didn't know what had been in it, if it had been contaminated, who had touched it. I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else."
This young woman will never be able to forget what happened to her, and for that, Brock Turner, I hope one day you're sitting in your home wondering how you could've been so stupid and wishing that you could go back to the day that you raped that girl and left her behind a dumpster, unconscious, half naked, unaware of what had just happened to her, and most of all, very broken.
However, I cannot only blame Brock Turner for how sick and twisted this world can be, for he is not the only person to ever have raped someone or been convicted of rape. There are so many people who are raped every day and who become just as broken as this young victim. What I hate the most about this case is that I have to be afraid of what could happen to me. At 17 years old, I already have a red speaker on my keys that, when you pull the pin, sounds a loud siren and alerts my surroundings, just in case I am to be taken against my will. At 17 years old, living in Michigan, in the winter it gets dark very early, and I am told that I cannot take the trash out while at work after it gets dark out for fear of someone with evil intentions lurking in the parking lot. At 17 years old, two days away from becoming a senior in high school, college is fast approaching, and I hate the fact that I have to be a tiny bit afraid of going to college because of a case like this.
I wish that I did not have to be afraid of my surroundings just because I am a woman.
Brock Turner, although what you did "ruined your life," I hope one day you realize what you put your victim through, and how much she has to live with now that you've hurt her so badly.
To all the other Brock Turners of the world, I hate that I have to fear you.
