Brock Allen Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who was discovered raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on campus in January of last year, will be sentenced to six months in county jail and probation. Prosecutors had recommended that Turner receive a sentence of six years, but judge Aaron Persky determined that Turner’s age — 20 — and lack of criminal history warranted him a much shorter sentence.
“A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him,” Persky said at Turner’s sentencing on Thursday. “I think he will not be a danger to others.” Meanwhile, the 23-year-old victim in the rape case, who had had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit at the time of the rape and who had no memory of the attack, gave important testimony at the trial.
“You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today,” she said, reportedly directly to Turner. “I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt.” And yet it’s Turner who would be severely impacted in his sentencing? Right.
Well boo hoo. Poor Brock. Brock was pulled off a sexual assault on a passed out woman behind a dumpster. He is a rapist and sexual offender. He will spend 3 months in jail and his father is whining over his son. Brock should be put away for at least a decade. I am revolted that the prosecutor only went for 6 years.
What is wrong with these people? Is it because Brock was a white guy from Stanford that he is held to a lower standard on this heinous act?
The only reason this trial is “newsworthy” is because he’s a “white guy from Stanford, and it is “College Rape” and “Military Rape” that is the focus of the media. The ridiculously lenient sentence is just another aspect of the trial.
These sorts of assaults happen all the time…in the general community. Strangers. Acquaintances. Family members. When “violence” isn’t involved, or it wasn’t in connection with some other capital crime, these cases often result in light sentences. They happen right here in our community, and few actually catch the eye of the media, which is more interested in perpetuation of “Ignorance, distraction, and guilt” than actually reporting on the goings on in the community. But, for someone willing to dig a bit, the number of these crimes occurring, and the resulting sentences would shock the average citizen.
I’m not saying Campus rapes or military rapes shouldn’t be discussed. What I am saying is a sexual assault is not more heinous or evil because it occurs in some sort of structured or institutional environment, rather than the community-at-large. Put the convicted rapists in jail, for a long time.
No argument here. I wanted to kill someone when Buck Carter got 8 days in jail or something ridiculous like that. Blackmailing a person into sex is no different from rape in my opinion.
Any time these cases are in the news instead of ignored, we should take the opportunity to discuss them.
@MoonHowler
Buck Carter should have been buried under the jail. He was a law enforcement officer. He violated a special public trust. He used his power to coerce his victim, which is no different that coercion using intimidation, or pointing a gun at them.
Totally agree with you, Steve. I had an extremely unpleasant encounter with him. (he had my son, not me) I was in the car which opened me up to all sorts of insults and rudeness. One of my big regrets is that I didn’t report him at the time. I didnt want to make it worse on my kid. It would be a different ballgame today.
Assault is assault. I don’t get what elevates it to heinous when the assault includes a sexual component instead of just physical violence. Since sexual assault is almost always applied to men’s actions towards women is this similar to identity politics that gave us hate crime legislation? Because rape is men expressing hatred for women it damages society more than other violent expressions of hatred? I don’t know. I’m thinking I’d rather be raped than lose a kidney, an eye and some teeth from a beat-down if some drunk sports fan was upset with me because I was wearing the wrong team colors.
Men also rape other men.
I don’t see rape as an option. Rape goes beyond assault. It violates the self differently.
Perhaps others would like to weigh in here.
@ed
Sweet Buddha on a rubber raft! Ed…if you think a woman being mugged is the same as a woman being raped, there really is no helping you.
Thank you, Steve. I was speechless. Almost.
@MoonHowler
Duct Taping your head, prior to engaging Ed in a debate helps. Otherwise, you risk terminal cranial explosion.
In reading the comment, I couldn’t help but develop a mental picture of Ed, approached by two burly men, while munching on a soy-burger. They say “Give me your wallet and your keys, or we will bash your face in.” Ed says “Take my wallet and keys…but for the love of unicorns, don’t punch me in the face. Sodimize me if you must, but don’t risk blinding me. I couldn’t bear to be blind…”
I know, I know. That’s pretty harsh. I can’t help it. All of the on-line interactions I have had with Ed, all of his inane comments regarding the right of self-defense, etc. has resulted in me forming this mental picture of Ed. This is why I believe “Ed” is a caricature…a troll. No man could be that weak.
His last comment takes the proverbial cake. Rape is no worse than any other type of physical assault.
He doesn’t understand that rape “wounds your spirit” in a way that never heals. I know a couple of rape survivors. This is what they tell me. I’ve been in fights. I’ve won some, and lost some. Had black-eyes and a broken jaw. Those things heal, and they haven’t haunted me, haven’t impacted my interpersonal relationships in any way.
Ed is either a fake, or he’s the weakest, most clueless soy-fed mangina walking the face of the earth. I would much prefer the former, as the latter makes me doubt the survival of our species.
I don’t think he must know any rape survivors. Otherwise he would not be so cavalier about it.
@MoonHowler
Duct Taping your head, prior to engaging Ed in a debate helps. Otherwise, you risk terminal cranial explosion.
In reading the comment, I couldn’t help but develop a mental picture of Ed, approached by two burly men, while munching on a soy-burger. They say “Give me your wallet and your keys, or we will bash your face in.” Ed says “Take my wallet and keys…but for the love of unicorns, don’t punch me in the face. Sodimize me if you must, but don’t risk blinding me. I couldn’t bear to be blind…”
I know, I know. That’s pretty harsh. I can’t help it. All of the on-line interactions I have had with Ed, all of his inane comments regarding the right of self-defense, etc. has resulted in me forming this mental picture of Ed. This is why I believe “Ed” is a caricature…a troll. No man could be that weak.
His last comment takes the proverbial cake. Rape is no worse than any other type of physical assault.
He doesn’t understand that rape “wounds your spirit” in a way that never heals. I know a couple of rape survivors. This is what they tell me. I’ve been in fights. I’ve won some, and lost some. Had black-eyes and a broken jaw. Those things heal, and they haven’t haunted me, haven’t impacted my interpersonal relationships in any way.
Ed is either a fake, or he’s the weakest, most clueless soy-fed mangina walking the face of the earth. I would much prefer the former, as the latter makes me doubt the survival of our species.
This kid should be jumping up and down to get such a lenient sentence. Hopefully he becomes a productive member of society
I am one of those people who sees a lurking rapist in that kid…for the rest of his life.
There is a broad range of assault from getting pushed around a bit to a near death experience. There is also a broad range of sexual assault. This discussion can’t be real until you put some parameters around the intensity of violence and that intensity is really independent of whether the violence is sexual in nature. However you want to describe it, “wounds your spirit” is mumbo-jumbo for therapy. I equate physical and metal therapy to be the same basic medical healing thing.
I’m pushing to get an explanation of the relevance of the Victorian notion of damaged goods and the harm when sexual purity is lost (mostly only for women) implicit in the notion that sexual assault is more heinous than equivalence physical assault. Why is walking up to someone and slapping them less of an assault than kissing or hugging them with romantic interest? If we culturally dispense with the antiquated Victorian sexual model perhaps we would help with faster healing of the “wounded spirit” by eliminating the shaming implied in how the legal system and law enforcement treats sexual assault victims.
@Steve, jumping into silly snarkiness is evidence you haven’t though very deeply about this. Do you ever get embarrassed by your buffoonery?
Ed, we aren’t talking about hugging and kissing without permission. We are talking about an act of violence that is unlike any other kind of assault.
Yes, there are different kinds of rape. Date rape, stranger rape, probably affect people differently.
I can’t speak for other people. I just know its different than having your nose broken or smashing your fist.
@Ed
Ed,
Being an authentic male, why in the world would I be embarrassed? Mumbo Jumbo? Who’s the soft-head spouting off about “victorian sexual constucts”? I believe in the dignity of the human spirit, and recognize that sexual assault is a direct assault on not only the body, but to soul as well.
You may think me a buffoon. Considering I have no respect for you as the man you claim to be, I am sure you can understand that your opinion means little to me.
“Ed, we aren’t talking about hugging and kissing without permission.”
Then what are you talking about? That is the definition of sexual assault: physical intimacy without permission. You can’t take the most violent penetration cases and then compare it to a relatively minor physical assault like getting bopped in the nose and claim that sexual assault is soul damaging but physical violence isn’t. Sexual assault is simply violence and there are degrees of violence depending on the situation and the amount of medical care and therapy needed to heal from it. Getting a thrashing within inches of one’s life can leave physical and emotional scars that require years to heal whether the perpetrator got sexual gratification from it or not.
I.e., to say that a woman who had vaginal intercourse that she doesn’t remember and has no physical side effects from it has some how been horrendously violated while a victim of a savage beatdown who remembers it vividly in nightmares should just be a man and get over it seems a biased position that is unjust and likely sexist.
My question: when the level of violence is the same, what justifies elevating punishment in situations where men got sexual pleasure from their violence over crimes where they didn’t?
If we didn’t put some “self-value” on our own sexual self, we would probably all be running around jumping the mailman and assaulting the dry cleaner. Its the very nature of the sexuaL self that is violated. Look, I have never had anyone jump out of the bushes and rape me s(thank goodness) so I can’t speak to first hand experience. I can address the notion of date rape or at least near date rape, both personally and also from discussing it with friends over the years.
It is a special kind of assault. Far too many drunk men, especially drunk young men, think that sex is something that is theirs to take.
From the Washington Post:
A “steep price to pay”?????? He took away this girl’s dignity and violated her personally and privately in ways that should be reserved for given intimacy. Isn’t that why we call it intimacy?
The father should be freaking horse-whipped in the public square for making excuses for his son’s incredibly bad behavior. His son is a spoiled rottener, entitled POS and so is the father.
@MoonHowler
“20 minutes of action”
Let that sink in. How long does an armed robbery take? How about a drive-by shooting? How about a domestic assault?
Had Turner not been “happened upon” by passers-by, it’s quite likely he’d have gotten away with it.
Also, with a 6-month sentence, he’ll likely be out in 4 months.
The expression “of action” was totally offensive. One sided action. Little bastard needs a long stay in the “big house.”
He has already had all but 3 months suspended. It makes me sick.
I understand how people don’t want their friends and relatives in prison. It’s not a pretty place, from what I am told. However, their love of Brock doesn’t undo the fact that while drunk he committed a heinous act. I wonder what they would have said if he had run over someone and killed them while drunk?
Here are some of the letters the judge got from Brock’s friends and family:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/06/08/what-the-stanford-sex-offenders-loved-ones-said-to-keep-him-out-of-prison/?hpid=hp_rhp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
I understand that if you have money you get a lighter sentence, mainly because you can afford better lawyers. OJ is living proof.
I wonder if if this kid had been from Manassas Park going to NOVA if his fate would be the same or if he would be serving 10 years?
Hmm,, no answer to the key question:
“when the level of violence is the same, what justifies elevating punishment in situations where men got sexual pleasure from their violence over crimes where they didn’t?”
If you can’t answer the question without resorting to religious language about damaged souls, then the law is capricious and therefore unjust.
@Steve, if you are as abrasive in real life as you are on the internet, it is no wonder you insist on having a gun at all times. You might try therapy to figure out why you resort to personal attacks instead of sticking to the issue. Do you have mental midget syndrome? When the topic exceeds your comprehension instead of spending time reflecting about it you start commenting about the person instead. Very Trumpian! I’ve been in many fights but none that have resorted to violence. Perhaps improving your interpersonal skills would prevent broken jaws and black eyes. FWIW
“I’ve been in many fights but none that have resorted to violence.”
Then you haven’t been in any fights.
Wow……
You are one of the most obtuse idiots I’ve seen on the internet….and believe me…I’ve seen quite a few.
You didn’t get an answer because your question is idiotic.
The crime isn’t elevated because a man experienced sexual pleasure. The crime is elevated because someone experienced a particularly heinous form of harm and violation,
Your person is the subject of comments because your statements and questions are, many times, not worth commenting on and are so astoundingly crass or strange that we wonder if you are on meds.