There is little that hasn't been said surrounding this news story. People all over the country have shared their opinion regarding the Stanford rape and Brock Turner, from the victim herself to Joe Biden. If you haven't read either letter, I highly suggest taking a look at both. For those of you haven't heard it, although I doubt that's barely any of you, this crime happened back in January 2015 when then-freshman at Stanford, Brock Turner, was found sexually assaulting a young, unconscious woman behind the dumpsters. He was caught by two graduate students riding by on their bicycles.
Naturally, this should've been a fairly simple case where Turner is found guilty and sent to jail for his three charges. The reason this case got so much publicity is because of the too lenient punishment signifying America has a lot of work to do regarding sexual assault and rape justice. Unfortunately, Brock was only sentenced to six months in jail, and could potentially serve less if he's on good behavior. The maximum potential punishment was 14 years -- Turner got off a little easy causing a stir.
Brock Turner is a white, straight, privileged male and is also a star athlete. The odds were in his favor to begin with. If he had been a black male, or someone who wasn't a star athlete even, the punishment most likely would've been more severe. His own statement admits that because of his athletic status, everyone heard about the case. However, if you read further into his words, you have to recognize that he grew up very privileged. I'd assume that some small part of him thought he could get away with this crime. I highly suggest reading both Brock Turner's statement and his father's appeal regarding the case, it might make you angry.
Another valid point to contradict Brock's blame on the alcohol is many people across the country get drunk and the majority of them are able to make it through the situations without raping or sexually assaulting people. There are many other men that get drunk, hang out with drunk girls who might be "promiscuous" and can still restrain themselves from doing something that invasive and illegal. There are many other people who participate in the "college party" culture and are able to do so without taking advantage of someone. If Turner is going to put all the blame into party culture, then he needs to think of something else.
While social media is often associated with negativity, the power of the social media was able to bring this case into the public view for everyone else to see. Turner almost got away with hardly a slap on the hand, and he knew he was lucky to only get that much. However, because social media got a hold of this story, he's portrayed all across the country as a villain. I have to say good job to social media and everyone else who shared the story and expressed their outrage. The internet has a lot of bad people with bad intentions, but the internet also has the power to do good, which is put injustices into the limelight and let America know that this is not okay.
