Say What?

/ joyroses13

I personally don’t read the news a lot, for often I find myself just shaking my head over it. Sadly that happened this morning as a news article caught my eye. It was about a 16 year old guy who had raped a girl at a party. I know, very sadly that isn’t shocking news. What was shocking was the judge’s reaction and what he said, that is what has left me shaking my head and feeling sick.

This 16 year old not only raped the girl, but he videoed it with his phone and then he sent the video out to his friends in the weeks following. The video was sent with the following text message attached to it. ” when your first time having sex was rape.”

Not only did this guy do something very wrong by raping this girl, he went and bragged about it, which just disgusts me all the more. But the judge’s reaction was the “icing on the cake”!

He said how the guy came from a good family, had wonderful test scores and was destined for good things, as far as college and career go. He commented how a rape indictment could “ruin his life!”  That the text message he had attached to the video, was just “boys being stupid”, nothing more.

Seriously????

Am I missing something? For I am totally aghast at how what this guy did can be looked at as something not bad!  All because he apparently comes from a “good family” and has “good grades!”?  So would it be right for me to assume that if this guy came from a “poor family” and had bad grades with no hopes of going to college that the judge would have thrown the book at him?  That’s the impression I am getting and its just so WRONG!

I don’t care what your test scores are and how high class you are, Wrong is Wrong!!

What message is that judge sending to this kid ?

People wonder why we have adults doing totally stupid things and not taking responsibility for their actions, well to me this is a perfect example of how that is happening! Kids are left off the hook, eyes are turned the other way and guess what, they grow up. They grow up learning that they can buy their way out of trouble and that what they do doesn’t really matter! That they are above the law if they can find a way around it. That they can be bullies and no one can stop them. That they can run for politics and … !

Ok, I will step off my soapbox now, and I promise there will be a lighter post tomorrow!

 

31 thoughts on “Say What?”

  2. The judge’s comment leaves me wondering if he engaged in the same behavior when he was a teenager. And I wonder if he’s an old guy, living in an old-school brain. But at least there was a strong public reaction against his comment.

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  3. You should get on your soapbox more often! I saw this early this morning, and am working on a post about it as we speak. Remember Ethan Couch, the “affluenza teen”? I wrote a few times about him, and this is almost the exact same scenario! You’re right to be furious … this sends a message not only to this particular kid, but to people everywhere … “good family” aka wealthy people, can get by with damn near anything. We see it every day, don’t we? Sigh. Excellent post, though I know it’s not your usual style … sometimes you see things and you just have to speak up.

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    • My mistake … I was referring to Brock Allen Turner, who raped an unconscious woman on the campus of Stanford U, and received a slap on the wrist because his family had status and money. Sigh. Ethan Couch is a similar situation, though, and was the original affluenza teen.

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    • Thanks Jill, for the kind words but soapboxes just aren’t my thing! Though yes, there are some times I just need to speak out!
      You are very right in it reminding me of that “affluenza teen”. CRAZY!
      I thought you had probably heard about it already. You are on top of these things. Look forward to reading your post.

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      • Sometimes, it is more effective coming from those of you who don’t often step up on the soap box than from those of us for whom ranting is a full-time profession! You did it well.

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  4. Oh geez, I am speachless! “Boys being stupid?” Someone should have asked that judge if he would have thought the same, had this been his teenage daughter getting raped on the tape!! This girl has been abused in so many ways, it is just unimaginable! Woa! Thank you for sharing, Joy, although it is just yet one other example of how horrible human beings can be! Ugh!!

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  5. Yep, you are exactly right JR! If he was poor he would get very tough jail time! This reminds me of so much of Judge Kavanaugh. Even though he denied it. Money and position mean everything here. I can’t imagine these things would happen in Norway or Denmark.

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  9. On a positive note . . . the judge’s ruling did not stand AND the appellate court admonished him:

    An appellate court reversed Troiano’s decision last month in a 14-page ruling only recently picked up by The New York Times and local affiliates. The panel sharply admonished the judge and warned against showing bias in sexual assault cases toward privileged teenagers, the Times reported.

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