His name came to light after he sexually assaulted an unconscious women, by penetrating her with his fingers, and leaving her behind a dumpster. He was a twenty-two-year-old, Stanford swimmer when the crime took place on January 18, 2015.
When this case made it to the media many people opinionated, some were saying it was so sad a Stanford student had made “such an act”, others were saying that it was not even rape. Rape is defined by the dictionary is a sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent. If we look at the case the victim was in fact unconscious in the moment the “act” took place, so by logic this is a case of rape and after a couple of thinking we conclude that Brock Turner is a rapist.
After many months on trial and a powerful letter of the victim explaining everything that had happened, on June 2, 2016 Turner was sentenced to six months confinement in the Santa Clara County jail. That would be followed by three years of probations and he was also ordered to register as a sex offender and to attend a sex offender rehabilitation program. The country was outraged, how was a rapist sentenced to six months in jail when there were people in jail for less serious crimes, selling marihuana and others, sentenced longer? The answer is white privilege.
Brock’s fathers, Dan Turner, wrote a letter and read it to the judge. There he explained how Brock “has an easygoing personality that endears him to almost everyone he meets.” And how after the event “he will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile” he also mentioned how his sentenced, prosecutor had asked for six years, was a “steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life”. He argumented that the event of January 17th had affected sin son so much that now he would only eat to survive and would not even eat his favorite food, a big grilled ribeye steak. He concludes suggesting that the best punishment is probation because “it allows him to give back to society in a net positive way. “ Thirty nine people defended Brock’s character, even his ex-girlfriend who said he never pressured her. In the end Brock Turner was accused of three of the original five crimes and sentenced to only serve six months on jail. Recently it was announced that Turner was going to be released because of “good conduct”.
Now let’s talk about how a rapist was sentenced to six months on jail and only served three. What? In what world do we live in. He’s a rapist and only gets six months because jail was going to be hard in him? What about the victim? Wasn’t it hard for her? Do they actually think she just woke up and realized she was raped and just shrugged it off and continued on with life? Is she not going to be traumatized for the rest of her life like him? Was she going to actually eat something or even talked? Rape traumatizes.
Since so many people were sorry that he had to actually serve sometime I decided to why not be nice and give Brock a quick summary of what he missed while he was on jail. Justin Bieber has a new girlfriend and decided to close his Instagram because of the hate she was getting. Apparently Drake and Rihanna are dating. Lady Gaga has a new single. Kim exposed Taylor on Snapchat (you may want to research this one out because it so long exactly the same amount of time to were on jail). Juan Gabriel died. I would happily talk to you about sports but I don’t know anything and I’m not interested. Also in the past three months almost 75,000 women have been sexually assaulted. Imagine how you were or still are felling, think about how the person you left behind a dumpster must me feeling, then multiply that by 75,00. This may not be accurate, but you must now because you’re a Stanford man, right?
As a Senior there are many things that scare me, colleges, life, the future and many other things, but now thanks to you that scares me even more. See I don’t want to walk down the street with fear that someone is looking at me. I don’t want to deprive myself form the things I like to do because someone may think is inappropriate. Because I want to be a human being. Because I don’t want to be dehumanized just like you did. Because I want to party and have fun without fear that I may go so far that someone may stop looking at me as a person and more as “twenty minutes of actions”. I don’t want to go to college to be afraid that something may happen to me and my college decides to not take action just to maintain its reputation. Brock, I don’t want to live in fear because of people like you.
