For the past few weeks we have been bombarded with pictures of a well-dressed college student on every news source. When you first see his picture, you wonder what he has achieved that he made it on the news, then you find out he is, Brock Allen Turner, a man who is a criminal that raped a girl behind a dumpster while she was drunk and unconscious. The articles and news stations are painting this criminal as a victim. We need to remember that he is a rapist that should not be given special treatment because of his skin color, accomplishments or gender. The legal system should have been there to protect the real victim, but instead, it dragged her through hell then ultimately failed her. As a society, we need to step up and speak out against this injustice.
A lot of articles that I've read have focused on Turner's accomplishment's and what he had planned for his future. They forget that none of that matters when it comes down to the fact that he attacked an unconscious woman. I use the word attack because that is what any type of sexual assault is. It is an aggressive action against another person. His swim times and what he looks like while he is swimming doesn’t change the fact that he is a criminal. The judge, writers, reporters, and everyone else needs to remember, he is a criminal that can swim, not a swimmer that made a mistake. The victim isn't just "20 minutes of action." She is a human being that had to wake up and be told what happened to her.
Turner shines a light on the white male privilege in our society through his sentence and his families statements. His future and well-being were prioritized over his female victim and over all other females he will meet. Turner was supposed to be given a minimum of six years in prison. Instead, he was given six months, but his release date is scheduled only three months into his sentence. The judge was worried about the impact that state prison would have on the criminals life. He chose this because he knew that Turner had caused harm, but at this point there was nothing he could do and ruining another life wasn't going to resolve what had already happened.
The victim did not stay silent. She read him a letter about how she has been impacted by the attack. Her most staggering statement was, “Even if the sentence is light, hopefully, this will wake people up. I want the judge to know that he ignited a tiny fire. If anything, this is a reason for all of us to speak even louder.” Nothing has ever been truer. A fire has started and it is our job as a society to keep it going. We can't just sit back and let this pass. We can't wait for someone else to do something about it. If this is allowed to happen without protest then the minimum sentence for rape has been set at a level so low it is unfathomable. So many men and women stay silent about their rapes because they are scared of being victim blamed and having to go through the legal process to find out they still will get no justice or peace of mind. It's time to stand up and protect the victims and give them the closure they deserve.
