1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

The Stanford swimmer, the rape, and the letter the victim read in court

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Double Down, Jun 3, 2016.

  1. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    Wherever it fell in the process the letter was a devastating description of why raped women often don't seek out the justice system.

    Mandatory minimums have overstuffed our prisons with nonviolent drug offenders so that politicians can posture at being tough on crime.
     
    Smallpotatoes likes this.
  2. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    Would make sense since there was mention of the sentence in the statement.
     
    Double Down likes this.
  3. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    If a judge gets upset and starts shaving down a sentence just because a rape victim has unkind things to say and lashes out at her attacker, that judge is unfit to be on the bench. I don't think that's what happened here, but the idea that could somehow be a justification for a light sentence is frankly ludicrous.

    A prosecutor friend said something very wise when I was venting about the glacial pace of my divorce case. She said she wished more judges realized that when people are appearing before them (excepting adoptions) they are doing so on one of the worst days of their lives, both plaintiff and defendant, and that those judges could show more compassion accordingly.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2016
  4. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

  5. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    Have to say, "he no longer enjoys a ribeye" is a rape defense I didn't see coming.
     
  6. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    Sounds like Dad has Dick Whitman on retainer.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2016
    cjericho likes this.
  7. Vombatus

    Vombatus Well-Known Member

    I am still pondering this story. Thanks for pointing it out, DD.

    Alma has an interesting take on it.

    For me, I am reexamining the way I post on various sites. I don't feel like joking around and some of my usual antics.
     
  8. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    I don't know how to embed tweets, but the lb poly football player who was falsely convicted of rape a decade ago said that nobody thought about the impact the sentence it would have on him at 16, and he was innocent.
     
  9. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    The father's letter is poorly worded -- 20 minutes of action is not likely meant as a sexual connotation, but as "20 minutes of an act" - but I understand the gist of what he meant.

    Again, I'm not sure what we want from the defendant, his lawyers and his parents. They're not puppets. They aren't 0bligated to a Twitter narrative.

    It's been a long week on this topic, with Baylor and Mississippi State and now this. It's so complex.
     
  10. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I am assuming that was a letter to the judge prior to sentencing -- a dad asking for leniency. Although, I am suspicious, because it isn't sourced and doesn't actually say who it was to or why; it leaves you to figure it out from the context. But if that was the purpose and the letter is legit, agree. The parents don't owe anything to an internet narrative. It was a dad trying to get leniency for his son.

    That said, it still demonstrated a tin ear, and a family trying to minimize the act he was found guilty of. Reading it, I would have guessed that with many other judges (if not most), that letter would have offended (and had the opposite of the intended effect), exactly the way most of us are reading it and are offended. Assuming that the dad ran that letter through their lawyers first (assuming it is real), the only way I can imagine they wouldn't have changed the wording is that they already knew the judge in the bag already on a light sentence.
     
  11. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    I think almost any parent would plead for their son's welfare, regardless of wrongs he is guilty of. The father is not a professional writer, and the victim's statement proves she very well could be someday, and so when you contrast them, it's rather embarrassing for the dad. I'm sure "My son cannot eat, cannot enjoy a good steak" is a genuine emotion the dad is having, trying to verbalize his grief and heartache, but it's also embarrassing (though at the same time, I understand it) that he cannot wrap his brain around the victim's heartache, and how she'll carry something much much worse for the rest of her life. You're right that Twitter outrage makes people feel temporarily better, and the judge here sat through the trial and considered the evidence and the complexities, while none of us did. Most of us saw the initial news, then thought little of what happened until we read the victim's letter. I think we both know the victim wasn't writing entirely to Brock, she was speaking to the unfairness of an entire culture. And I'm glad that she did. I really do think this letter is something that every college freshman ought to read, male and female. It might give some of them pause; it might make for better decisions. I think about this shit a lot, frankly, as the father of two young girls. There is a vicious backlash against the suggestion that we should tell girls they need to keep themselves safe, don't put themselves in dangerous situations, because it places the onus on them, not the fucking rapists. And that's legitimate! But it's an academic argument and not one that lives in the real world. We can demand better of men, and we can also understand a cultural change like that does not happen overnight, and want girls to do everything they can to avoid terrible people without shaming them or making them feel like it's their fault if something bad happens to them. If my daughters got blackout drunk and got raped, I would never think of blaming them. On the front end, I want to tell them when they get to high school and college: Please drink responsibly and avoid situations where horrible people will prey on you, or where another drunk person (who might not be awful, just drunk) might act in a way that you do not want. It's annoying to me every time I see that suggestion shouted down, see an army of Twitter outrage directed at the person voicing it, being slammed as "part of the problem." I wish we could live in a world where everyone could make mistakes with alcohol and be young and irresponsible and get home safe. That is not the world we live in. I chose to live in the real world.

    The fact that this piece of shit, Brock, ran and had to be tackled by one of the graduate students who caught him suggests he knew exactly what was going on, how wrong his actions were, and how badly he needed to run. I suspect Brock's dad has asked himself, late at night, what he did wrong in raising a son who would do such a thing, before squashing that doubt in a moment of self-preservation.

    But you're right, some of this (all of this?) is very complicated. There are hookups in college every day that fall into a gray area between real consent and dangerous intoxication. I think what people want is for the Brock Turners of the world to consider, when sober, the consequences of their choices. I'm trying to raise strong women. As a father, that's all I can do. I pray to God there are fathers out there trying to raise strong, virtuous (but also self-aware) men, ones who recognize how their decisions/actions (and fair or unfair, the onus is usually on them) can live on forever.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2016
  12. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    If your son thinks screwing an unconscious girl behind a dumpster is sex, you have bigger problems than how this whole darn mess might appear to the neighborhood. Shut up and work through it privately.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page