On September 2, 2016 Brock turner was released from jail. A convicted rapist received three months of jail time because of you, Judge Persky. You said you didn’t want to “ruin” his life, but do you know what he did? Can you even comprehend the severity of the situation? Do you understand the kind of life that poor, innocent woman will live after being raped while partying with her sister? Do you understand how low her self-esteem must be knowing that the person who raped her is walking free after only three months? Do you realize the effect this will have on every woman who has ever been raped or sexually assaulted?
We encourage women to speak out after these horrendous offenses, but what the hell is the point? Brock Turner is a monster, don’t get me wrong. But you, Judge Persky, had the power to punish him. You chose not to. Do you realize what you have done to rape culture and women?
No, you don’t. Because you don’t care.
You don’t care that you have effectively ruined someone’s life. You don’t care that a rapist is walking free and can strike again. You don’t care that now every woman on that Stanford campus is afraid of them. You’re putting them in harm’s way, but you don’t care.
You care about getting paid. Brock Turner’s family is wealthy, so we know you’re getting rich off this. You care about protecting a criminal because he’s a “good swimmer”. You care about the future of a god damn swimmer more than the life of every woman he may come across.
But I sympathize with you, because it’s not solely your fault. We live in a world where rape isn’t talked about. It’s pushed under the rug, and we just pray he doesn’t do it again. Because the majority of reported cases are against women, it’s not that big of a deal. There’s no severity. We live in a country where you can rape a woman and often times not get any jail time, but if you’re black and are caught with drugs, you’re faced with mandatory minimums. There’s no mandatory minimum for ruining someone’s life? So while I hate what you did, and I wish you would have made a different decision, I can’t fault you for three months. That guy from IU got nothing.
