Hello, readers! I'm sure you're all familiar with the Stanford rape case that has been recently circulating the web due to the release of the rapist's sentence. This is something that can happen to anyone, and we all need to be more aware and press harder for the rightful conviction of these rapists. If you aren't familiar here's a link to the story and also to a heartbreaking, but strong letter that the victim read during the trial, which was mostly directed to her attacker. https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-po...
When did the country become afraid and led more by saving face than justice? Was this guy an excellent swimmer who may have gone to the Olympics? Maybe. Was he drunk? Yes. Is it still rape? Yes -- not to mention the fact that he never admitted to what he had done, only that he had been extremely drunk at the time. If you ask me, upon conviction, he should have been required to admit to his crime in front of the court and his victim. He should have to be embarrassed and uncomfortable. He shouldn't be allowed to take away someone's independence and safety.
At the beginning of the BuzzFeed letter that I linked, there was a string of questions that were presented to the victim and she had to answer them. If you ask me, it seems like she's being viewed as the attacker, which is disheartening and wrong. This attacker should have gotten a much larger sentence than the six months in county jail that he received. Who cares if a longer sentence would have "severe impact on him;" he should have thought about that before he raped an unconscious young woman. This rape will have a "severe impact" on her for the rest of her life. In her letter she talks about how this has irreversibly affected her saying "It is embarrassing how feeble I feel, how timidly I move through life, always guarded, ready to defend myself, ready to be angry." She will never live the same way and it is all because one person decided to take that away from her without her consent.
Take a look at these staggering statistics about rape in college, and throughout life.
Here's my main point: this shouldn't happen. Rape victims should not have to go through pointed questions that interrogate their motives, especially when there were witnesses to the crime. We need to find a better way to protect our society and to stand up for these victims, so other people will be deterred from committing a similar crime. It will never stop until we decide to act against it and work towards a better future.
Another thing is that we need to be watchful of the people around us. If you are in a situation, know someone who is, or see something that doesn't look right, don't let your thoughts be quieted by second guessing. You could save someone's life. That's what those witnesses did for this young woman, they could have easily kept going, but instead they stopped and did the right thing. She even said in her letter, "I don’t sleep when I think about the way it could have gone if the two guys had never come." Rape victims shouldn't feel this way; we can do better and we should do better to end rape culture and decrease the steadily climbing rape count.
