As you have probably heard, recently 20-year-old Brock Turner was convicted of sexual assault of an unconscious person. The maximum sentence for this crime is 14 years in prison. Turner was given only six months, with three years probation. What is even worse, is that with "good behavior" he can get out early in only three months. This is a man who raped an unconscious, passed-out young woman behind a dumpster. He is a rapist, he is dangerous and I find him disgusting.
What is even worse is the explanation given by the judge who handled the sentencing. Judge Aaron Persky, who's reasoning and defense behind the joke of a sentence he gave out is that a longer sentence would have a "severe impact" on Turner's life. Yeah, OK, that makes perfect sense! Let's not make the poor rapist suffer because he was found guilty of a felony offense! Sitting in prison to be punished for what he has done is simply too much for him. It's not like the victim, the woman who will be forever changed and will have to deal with the trauma from being attacked by a disgusting human being for the rest of her life. A woman whose only "crime" was doing what thousands of young women, including myself, do all the time: go to a party and get drunk.
The fact that she consumed alcohol does not mean that she deserved anything that happened to her. No matter how drunk you get, even if you drink to the point of passing out, all you should expect from a man you meet at a party should be a ride home. Not to be dragged behind a dumpster, have your clothes pulled off and be violated.There is no excuse for sexual assault.
As a young college woman myself, we are taught from day one at orientation that one in four of us will be sexually assaulted on campus. That we have the strong possibility of being in the very same position this woman was herself. We are taught to never walk alone, to be wary of strangers and to be careful of consuming too much alcohol at parties because who knows what may happen to us. A boy might follow us back to our dorm rooms, someone might put drugs in our drink, we could black out and not remember what happened and then no one may believe us. We should not feel unsafe at parties, going out on the weekends or walking back from the library late at night alone.
The fact that Turner was a champion swimmer does not matter, the fact that he had a "promising future" does not matter, the fact that he "has never been violent before" does not matter. All that does matter is that he took advantage of a helpless defenseless person who never imagined that a night out could turn into an incident that will haunt her for the rest of her life. What about her promising future? All that is clear in this case is that justice was not served. However, I hope the impact this case has made has made many people outraged just like I am. That more people speak out and get angry just like I am.
I want to tell Turner's parents that they should not be defending their son's actions and that maybe if they raised him to treat women correctly, this never would have happened. His father had written a letter to the judge advocating for his son; that his whole life should not be ruined because of just "20 minutes of action." Turner has expressed no guilt, no remorse and has defended his actions that night. I hope that one day if he ever has a real relationship with a woman, he will one day have a daughter and maybe then he will fully understand the severity of what he has done.
I encourage everyone to read the victim's impact statement that she gave in court after the sentencing. She directly addressed Turner, and her words give more meaning than I could ever express.
