About two weeks ago, when I heard the name Brock I immediately thought of the spikey haired Pokémon trainer I used to love when I was a kid.
Now, after June 2 the name has been accompanied by last name Turner, and the thoughts aren’t nearly as pleasant.
Brock Turner is a 20 year old Stanford student that has recently been convicted on three counts of sexual assault on a young woman. His sentence includes 6 months incarcerated and then some probation. There has been well placed outrage against the sentencing, but even more anger has been aimed at Turner’s father, who made some ill-advised arguments against his son’s consequences.
1. He does not believe that “20 minutes of action” should land his son in jail for six months.
But what about the girl who’s life is now completely changed? He gets to serve his time and then work on getting past this. She is now and always will be a rape survivor who never asked for the title.
2. He does not agree with the sentence because his son would not be a danger to others, so why place him in jail.
I’m sure his victim didn’t agree with her rape either, but she didn’t get to have any say when it came to that, considering she was unconscious.
3. His son loves to eat, but because of the stress of this incident, he now cannot get himself to eat anything at all.
The stress, humiliation, and anger his victim feels will probably affect her eating, sleeping and living habits, too.
Arguments were made against the young woman, saying that she was drunk and her judgment was foggy, so it is not Brock Turners fault.
I strongly and wholeheartedly disagree.
Drunk does not mean willing. Sleeping does not mean willing. Flirting is not consent.
The victim was unconscious for her assault. She had no idea she was attacked until she woke up in the hospital. Yes, she was very drunk. Yes, she passed out.
But being drunk is not illegal. Rape is very, very illegal.
There is no good argument that can be made for Turner. There are eyewitnesses who saw the incident and assisted in breaking it up. Brock Turner had previous aggravated encounters with girls at the same frat house he was at the night of the attack. He claims to not have experience with partying or drugs, but there is plenty of text messages, photos and other testimony that can prove, without a doubt, the exact opposite. If you ask me, the light sentence of 6 months is a joke and an outrage. There are smaller offenses out there that get much larger sentences, but for some reason this student received a sentence that will never leave the victim feeling that justice has rightfully been served.
I do not care if you are a swimmer. I don’t care if you are on dean’s list, president of your class, or have completed countless service trips in third world countries. If you rape a woman, you should be dealt a sentence you deserve. If the word rapist was replaced with murderer would we be making the same arguments? Would his swimming times be listed at the end of newspaper articles? Would we be concerned because he cannot eat full meals due to the stress the murder trial was putting on him?
Those “20 minutes of action” have changed a woman’s life forever. Brock Turner is the sole reason that she may struggle with her demons for years to come. Six months in jail facing his own form of demons just isn’t enough.
