Everyone knows Brock Turner's name, and what he did. We know that he is a former swimmer, and that he was released from jail WAY too early. However, there are some things that need to change when the media talks about him or this case in general. Here are just a few things that need to be different in future articles about rapist, Brock Turner:
1. Stop referring to him as "former Stanford University swimmer"
Nobody cares that he was once a Stanford University swimmer, or at least I don't. I don't refer to myself as "former high school student". I am a college student, and he is a rapist. "Former Stanford University swimmer" should be reserved for alumni who deserve the title, not for a terrible man who is banned from Stanford.
2. Stop treating him as a victim just because he is receiving punishment.
Rapists go to jail, that's plain and simple. Brock Turner is a rapist, therefore he went to jail. He became a registered sex offender for life. Why? Because he raped an unconscious woman. So why try to get him off the list in ten years? So he can be "former Stanford University swimmer/rapist"? He should not get to live a convenient life just because it's not fair to judge someone based off of their worst decision. He is an adult that made the decision and now he should have to live with that.
3. Stop trying to let him off easy.
Six months is nothing compared to the lifetime of despair that she has to face. And getting let out three months early on good behavior? Let's not forget the terrible behavior that put him in jail in the first place. Brock should have faced the standard rape sentencing like any other convicted person.
4. His future should be affected by his actions.
Many sources are trying to take Turner's side, stating that he should not have to sacrifice a potentially great future by spending years in jail or by staying on the sex offenders list past ten years. However, he damaged that potential roughly eight months ago. And he deserves absolutely no sympathy at all.
5. Stop trying to sugar coat what he did.
There are too many publications that refer to this case using the word "alleged" as if he didn't actually attack an unconscious woman. In this published letter that the victim wrote, she states that she had to sign papers that read "Rape Victim" on them. The witnesses chased down Brock and he began laughing. Laughing about how abstract the situation was. The situation in which he assaulted an innocent woman. That is the reaction that only a heartless person would have.
