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Over the weekend, a 15 year old girl was gang raped for 2 and a half hours by a group of men and boys at a high school dance. It has been reported that as many 10 took turns sexually assaulting her. That's horrible.
And sadly, it gets worse. The police investigating the rape have reported that as many as 10 to 20 others stood around and watched it happen. No one said a word to any one at the school. No one called the police. No one attempted to intervene.
By the time they found the young victim, she was unconscious and had to be med flighted to a hospital where she remains in critical condition as a result of the attack.
Yesterday, a friend of the girl publicly blasted school officials who failed to protect the girl. According to her story, there were no less than four security guards at the dance that night and not one of them bothered to check into why a group of students and others were standing around outside. She also reports that a school official looked out the windows, saw the group and did not go out to investigate what they were doing.
When I first read this story, I was absolutely horrified. I still am. And it just keeps getting more horrifying to me. But the more I hear about it, the more I realize that I'm not just horrified, I'm pissed off.
In California, it is a crime to fail to report a criminal act against a child under the age of fourteen. Because the victim in this horrible story is 15, police claim they cannot charge the bystanders with a crime. I call bullshit.
Had these individuals simply been walking by, saw the girl being raped and continued on their merry little way... I would probably agree with the police. It sucks. It makes you a shitty person. But it doesn't make you a criminal.
But, that's not what happened here. These individuals didn't just walk by and see the girl being raped. Oh no no. They heard the girl was being raped and went to watch the show. They laughed and cheered those raping the girl. They took pictures. Right then and there... it stopped being a matter of them simply witnessing a crime and became a matter of them participating in a crime.
Did they rape this girl? Maybe not. But they certainly participated in the situation. They helped make a victim of this girl not because they didn't do anything to stop the situation but because they encouraged the situation. They laughed. They cheered. They took memento photographs. And when it was over and the victim had been dumped, unconscious, under a bench, they went and bragged to their friends about the awesome gang rape they just watched.
And we can't charge them with anything?
Are you fucking kidding me?!
That's part of what aiding and abetting is all about. They knew about the crime. They helped keep the crime quiet so it could continue. They participated in the crime by goading on those perpetrating the crime. They took photographs of the crime. In any other case, that would be aiding and abetting and a few other offenses as well. But for some reason in this case it's not? Bullshit.
If we can stupidly charge teenagers whom possess questionable common sense with child pornography for taking nude photographs of themselves (as well as their boyfriends for receiving said photos)... why the hell isn't the entire picture taking aspect of this a crime in and of itself?
Bloody hell people! If we're going to enforce ridiculous laws such as this one, why not do so when an actual crime has been committed by assholes instead of enforcing it against kids who thought they were doing their boyfriends a favor? The fact is, anyone who can cheer for someone who is actively raping another is a whole hell of a lot more dangerous to society than is the honor roll student who wanted to make her boyfriend happy.
The victim here didn't ask for nude photographs to be taken. She didn't take them herself. She didn't ask 10 men to gang rape her while another 10 to 20 cheered them on. She didn't ask to be in such bad condition that she had to be med flighted to a hospital or placed in a critical care unit. She didn't ask for any of this. And it infuriates me to no end that we're telling her, as a society, that only those who actually touched her can be held responsible for what was done to her? Half of those who helped victimize her can't be touched because they didn't actually touch her? That we're going to continue victimizing her by letting them off with not even a slap on the wrist?
Nu-uh. Nope. And no way.
The fact is... they can be charged. Whether it be with aiding and abetting, with child pornography or with something else altogether. They can and they should be charged because they didn't just watch. They helped victimize a child who will never fully recover. For the rest of her life, she will remember being repeatedly raped while a crowd of faces laughed down at her and, while she prayed for it to end, did everything they could to ensure it continued. She was in hell for 2 and a half hours and these fuckers helped put her there.
And we're really going to tell her there's nothing we can do?
Fuck that.
My boss told me this story at work the other day and I was stunned too....middle schoolers are capible of this???? This makes me scared to have kids, not because I'm scared my kids would behave like this (although no parent can predict how their kids might turn out,) but rather because I don't want my kids going to school with kids like this...
Its a scary world we live in...
Love,
Carrot
I agree. If nothing else, they should be charged with child pornography for taking pictures of the act. It's ridiculous that the police are unwilling to come up with a charge for them.
~C
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I think those bystanders should be charged for taking pictures and not reporting to the police. This is outrageous and the police should arrest those people for failing to report such crime.
I can't believe this. This is some of the lowest form of humanity possible.
We can only hope the poor girl can get over this. If anything, she'll probably hate people because of this, because she saw and experienced the worst of it. Gosh. I can't believe this stuff happens. I shouldn't be surprised anymore but I still am. Surprised and disgusted.
Instead of being scared of the teenagers in our society, I would be scared of the school systems. I remember my high school dances wouldn't allow something like this to happen at a dance. The school should be penalized for letting this horrible crime happen, and the security guards should be fired. Of course those kids that took pictures should be charged, but seriously how the hell did somebody not step in and help? There must of been something wrong with the people at this school. I'm sure alcohol/drugs could of been involved in the act too.
Bottom line, this should have been prevented.
I am shocked that this happened. Unbelievable! I too think the bystanders should be charged with something. I don't care what, but they need to take responsibility for their actions. Seriously! As for the school officials, if that was my daughter I would sue them and the district.
The girl was white. Every name I've seen so far for the perpetrators was Hispanic.
To begin with, it is rather foolish to assume that you can determine someone's cultural and racial heritage just because their name looks to you. Secondly, your assertion is simply false.
And here is a coorborating source.
It is irresponsible to jump to conclusions about the race of the suspected perpetrators of this crime, which can serve no other purpose than to exaccerbate an already horrible situation by injecting a racist undertone into the discussion.
TTFN,
Blackout
---
Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the ProU community.
But you would be singing a different tune if this was a gay man.
You willingness to jump to conclusions about my position is no more well founded than your original error. Why not just admit that you didn't check your facts and that you were wrong?
TTFN,
Blackout
---
Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the ProU community.
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that. "-G.H. Hardy
What's your point with that comment? You believe that there shouldn't be multi-cultural schools?
He is under the impression that it was a hate crime against a white student.
~C
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There should be a bunch of things sent to tht girl.
and..
they should b charged like hell
id never do tht.
i think u showed ur anger perfectly enough i dont need to show mine
---Stay Gold---
It is those who stand by and do nothing that give their silent consent.
I'd like to give my biggest thanks to fallon and every commenter on this post for not blaming the victim in this case. If you go to other websites with news stories on this case, you can read some disgusting comments on how average people believe this girl was "asking for it". So I want to thank you all for that.
I find it interesting that fallon (and others) chose to focus their anger on the bystanders and not on the perpetrators of rape in this case. I'm not disagreeing that the bystanders contributed to the violation suffered by this girl and I'm not saying this their behavior isn't egregiously immoral. Unfortunately I'm not surprised that that many people (my guess is they were mostly guys) stood around and enjoyed watching other guys rape that girl. How different is it really from watching a porn video where a woman is beaten and cursed at while multiple men penetrate her and come all over her? It's disgusting to hear, but men watch online videos like that every day. Everyone should take a look at this article "Rape Culture 101" to understand how our society allows, even supports this type of behavior. It's the best and most comprehensive definition of rape culture (with tons of examples) that I've ever read.
I think that most people would like to assume that, with all these witnesses and the brutal nature of the act, these guys will be convicted. I hope to god that they will, but there was a similar gang rape case, the Haidl Case, where the rape was videotaped and all of the perpetrators were set free because their lawyers argued that they girl wanted to be a porn star and thus asked to be brutally assaulted while unconscious. Enough jury members believed this to make a hung jury and have the case declared a mistrial.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
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Of course we're angry with the people who comitted the rape itself, but it seems like justice has been served more for them than for the people who stood around and did nothing about it. Watched it. Videotaped it. Those people are just as much to blame as the rapists themselves, but they're getting off scotch free (or were at the time this blog was written), which is why the anger seems to be focused on them.
~C
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Thats is horrible and wrong on so many different levels. I agree with you with the fact the other poeple should of been charged with something. How could they just sit there and watch that. People are sick and messed up. They were part of the crime just standing there. I completely agree with you. That is just so messed up and hurts me that anyone could do that. It is ridiculous. Megan
This is so terrible, People watching as well as the ones committing the crime should be punished to the fullest. There is a school in Chicago where this honor roll student was beaten to death about 2 blocks away from the high school by gangs going to that school. The kid wasn't part of the gangs or had any affiliation with them. The gangs were fighting each other and the kid was walking home from school and was simply there in the wrong place and time. There were bystanders and people taking videos and pictures of the beating and no one did anything until the very end where someone submitted the video to Fox News Chicago and called 911. It seems like students living in rough neighborhoods don't see how wrong it is to beat or rape someone. They become immune to the violence and deem it acceptable to commit the crimes. Violence needs to stop and somehow teach children about how wrong it is and to seek help when you see a crime.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/pshah50
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