Twitter Rape Victim Punished

(youtube) A girl tweeted the names of her rapists after a court said she couldn't, now she faces up to 180 days in jail and a $500 fine. The world is stupid.

Update on this story here: http://gawker.com/5928410/
Yogisays...

Yeah the presenters are someone I wouldn't listen to if they were telling me to stop a rape in progress at that moment. Still I thought this was something like they haven't gone to court yet, but they reached a plea deal and apparently that plea deal ties the hands of the victime? No that's bullshit it shouldn't be required for the VICTIM to do anything. If they send her to prison that's fucked up and I hope that judge gets raped.

Yogisays...

"...now she faces up to 180 days in jail and a $500 fine. The world is stupid."

The video clearly says 100 days...either you found another source and aren't sharing it OR you can't fucking read.

Boise_Libsays...

Favorite Utube comment:


Well can't really blame the defense lawyers. They are doing what they are paid to do. Even if their clients are disgusting scumbags.

The judge is just fucking stupid cunt

Bhruicsays...

She doesn't face anything at this point: http://gawker.com/5928410/

The defence lawyer tried what defence lawyers try, thanks to the internet it blew up in his face, and he withdrew the motion. Even it wasn't withdrawn, the chances of a successful contempt charge was pretty low. This was really a non-story.

BicycleRepairMansays...

I have no sympathy for these goddamn rapists, and if it was up to me, they should be named and shamed, they should be put in a fucking pillory on the town square and be whipped every fucking day. Yeah!!

But its not up to me.

This is why people invented a justice system. And because of thing called democracy and human rights, criminals dont always get what I think they deserve. In fact, they probably dont even get what they objectively DO deserve(however that might be determined). We have laws, under which we should all be equal. So then, should we bring back the pillory? Should we have a dedicated Twitter-feed for naming ALL rapists? How about these kids families, or the school they went to, that apparantly didnt teach them the basic rules about sex and sexual consent? Name and shame them all too?

How about stupid fucking youtube tv-hosts wannabes who doesnt understand how the legal system works, or that even criminal rapist teens also have families, should we name and shame them too?

I feel sorry for the girl who really was the victim of a crime, and I can understand why she did what she did on Twitter, but these stupid hacks on youtube arent making things better.

Yogisays...

>> ^Bhruic:

She doesn't face anything at this point: http://gawker.com/5928410/
The defence lawyer tried what defence lawyers try, thanks to the internet it blew up in his face, and he withdrew the motion. Even it wasn't withdrawn, the chances of a successful contempt charge was pretty low. This was really a non-story.


It's not really a non story because it's bullshit they even tried and it's bullshit a Judge imposed this. This would be a serious fucking problem if this girl decided to not go against the system. It's a coercive, abusive policy that the judge imposed...fuck her.

Bhruicsays...

It's a non-story from the "contempt charges" angle. It's a valid story from the "2 guys sexually assault a woman" perspective. Although we really don't know enough details to go much beyond that. We don't know what the plea bargin they worked out is. We don't know if the judge will agree to the plea bargin, or impose a stronger sentence. As for the policy, it's pretty standard for cases involving minors - at least here, I can't say about there.

PostalBlowfishsays...

>> ^BicycleRepairMan:

How about stupid fucking youtube tv-hosts wannabes who doesnt understand how the legal system works, or that even criminal rapist teens also have families, should we name and shame them too?


First, I think the hosts of this video have the naming/shaming you're suggesting handled multiple times in this video. Second, people on the internet aren't helping things?! HOLY SHIT LIGHT THE BAT SIGNAL!

I just don't get the hate in here. People are saying "I totally empathize with the victim" and then "I hate the hosts" but usually not "I hate the perpetrators" and that's just bizarre that there's more hate for people fucking around on the internet than for real life rapists.

The victim obviously was aware of the consequences (she's in a rather unfair position btw) and she named the rapists anyway. She obviously accepts that the law will punish her, which I think is rather heroic. She was raped, and she has been threatened with a penalty for talking about it, and that didn't stop her. I hope she is actually rewarded in the long run.

entr0pysays...

Only, according to the Gawker article, the judge imposed that court order back before they struck a plea bargain. Which seems totally reasonable in a system where people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. And now that they have plead guilty, the judge ruled it doesn't apply any more. So go judge.

Edit: Though I totally don't blame you if you only watched the video and got the impression the court order was part of the plea bargain. Because their reporting was crap.

>> ^Yogi:


It's not really a non story because it's bullshit they even tried and it's bullshit a Judge imposed this. This would be a serious fucking problem if this girl decided to not go against the system. It's a coercive, abusive policy that the judge imposed...fuck her.

Hive13says...

Listen, I am not trying to take anything away from this girl or the situation at all, but she was 17 years old, at a party, drinking to black-out drunk levels and got in a bad situation.

Why was she there at all? Where are her parents? They should be just as guilty as anyone.

Rape sucks. My wife was date raped before we met so I am not making light of it. I say this with all due respect for rape victims out there. People hear or read the word rape and picture Jodie Foster in The Accused every time. Legally, rape at the core level means "sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent." -Wikipedia. Here's the issue. If she is black out drunk (which she was), she could have easily offered consent willingly and later not been able to recall consenting in the first place, therefore placing the boys in serious trouble. Them pleading guilty was probably their lawyer's work, pleading guilty ends the case and seals the charges in juvenile record as they were not tried as adults. Now, I am not saying that happened here, but it is possible.

They are assholes for taking advantage of the situation and especially for taking pictures and spreading them around school. I am glad they were found guilty and they absolutely deserve it. We'll never know what their punishment was and I am quite sure it wasn't enough for this girl or her family, nor would any remotely realistic punishment be enough, honestly. The judge tried them, they were found guilty and punished according to the judge's application of the law. Case closed.

Her tweeting their names and violating the court order was stupid, but I am glad they didn't seek to punish her further for it, she's clearly been through enough.

All that being said, these hack-job video "hosts" are just making it worse for everyone, especially this girl whom I sure would rather have it all behind her instead of cramming it down everyone's throat like this morons did.

Yogisays...

>> ^entr0py:

Only, according to the Gawker article, the judge imposed that court order back before they struck a plea bargain. Which seems totally reasonable in a system where people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. And now that they have plead guilty, the judge ruled it doesn't apply any more. So go judge.
Edit: Though I totally don't blame you if you only watched the video and got the impression the court order was part of the plea bargain. Because their reporting was crap.
>> ^Yogi:

It's not really a non story because it's bullshit they even tried and it's bullshit a Judge imposed this. This would be a serious fucking problem if this girl decided to not go against the system. It's a coercive, abusive policy that the judge imposed...fuck her.



You see thats what I thought what happened originally and I was all geared up to call these people morons. But yeah I got from the video that it was a part of the plea bargin. So really this is my fault for even bothering to watch this and not reading about it instead.

KimzSendaisays...

@Hive13 I'm kind of hoping that you're joking, because seriously, her drinking is not at issue here, the assault isn't even really at issue here, at issue here was someone (the defense lawyers, and the wording of the ruling out of the Jefferson District Court) of trying to tell the victim of sexual assault that she shouldn't talk about it. There's enough silencing happening around the issue of sexual assault without giving it the sanction of law.

If you want to talk about the assault, I think it should be fairly obvious that you can't give consent while unconscious (the sources I've read say that the assault happened after she passed out). If someone is too wasted to know what's up, then consent cannot be given, and the other partner would have to be really messed up to think that sort of behavior was OK. She didn't place the boys in that position, the boys did that to themselves - by assaulting her and taking pictures.

Slagging on this particular teen for doing something that is extremely common looks like an attempt to shame the victim. If you want to go moan about drinking at parties, find a different conversation -- here's one
http://videosift.com/video/Drinking-Culture-David-Mitchell-s-Soapbox

It's these sort of attacks on character that help a tiny number of men get away with a large number of sexual assaults, because their victims don't come forward (because of fear of being ostracized), aren't believed (you were drunk), or aren't prosecuted (it's just boys being assholes).

BicycleRepairMansays...

>> ^PostalBlowfish:

>> ^BicycleRepairMan:
How about stupid fucking youtube tv-hosts wannabes who doesnt understand how the legal system works, or that even criminal rapist teens also have families, should we name and shame them too?

First, I think the hosts of this video have the naming/shaming you're suggesting handled multiple times in this video. Second, people on the internet aren't helping things?! HOLY SHIT LIGHT THE BAT SIGNAL!
I just don't get the hate in here. People are saying "I totally empathize with the victim" and then "I hate the hosts" but usually not "I hate the perpetrators" and that's just bizarre that there's more hate for people fucking around on the internet than for real life rapists.
The victim obviously was aware of the consequences (she's in a rather unfair position btw) and she named the rapists anyway. She obviously accepts that the law will punish her, which I think is rather heroic. She was raped, and she has been threatened with a penalty for talking about it, and that didn't stop her. I hope she is actually rewarded in the long run.


I did share some of my feelings towars the perpetrators, actually, and they werent positive either. As for people on the internet not helping, fair point, but there are ways of doing opinion pieces/news stories without making a bad situation worse.

My point is that one should be careful about this vigilante-business on the internet. Like it or not, there are human beings behind names and news-stories, We werent there when the crime happened, we werent there when the trial was held, we didnt even read the case files or make any effort. Because thats the courts and the legal systems job. It is also their job to find someone guilty or not and deal out punishments. Not our job.

I agree that in this case it looks like that system failed miserably, by even attempting to silence and punish the victim. That sucks, but instead of going vigilante on people, it might be a good idea to speak up against this system, appeal the descision or whatever it takes. Change the law. Thats all fine. Vigilante justice is not. That just means a bunch of uninformed trolls are responsible for dealing out sentences made using the armchair approach. We shouldt go back to that.

Rapists and murderers may be monsters to us, but society is, or atleast is supposed to be, better. To rise above revenge, bloodlust and tribal warfare, thats what civilization means.

PostalBlowfishsays...

I don't think the point of outing these people was vigilante justice. That could be a possible result, but I don't think it was the point and I don't think the fact that some people might do the wrong thing means that society should do the wrong thing and prevent the victim from telling her story.

The story is about a victim who - under threat of punishment - still insisted on making us aware of what happened to her, and let's face it - these commentators aren't responsible for that information being available. Anyone who wants to be a vigilante can get that information regardless of internet commentators.

No one has a right to punish these people except the legal system. Even with a ruling protecting the perpetrators, those men should not be permitted to expect to have their crimes hidden from the world. Now we see that threatening the victim does not put a guarantee on perpetrators having their crimes go unnoticed by society. This story makes me wonder how many other victims have been subjected to this sort of arrangement and chose to be bullied into silence.

siftbotsays...

Tags for this video have been changed from 'twitter, rape, victim, punished, jail, fine' to 'twitter, rape, victim, punished, jail, fine, savannah dietrich' - edited by xxovercastxx

xxovercastxxsays...

>> ^Hive13:

If she is black out drunk (which she was), she could have easily offered consent willingly and later not been able to recall consenting in the first place, therefore placing the boys in serious trouble.


No she couldn't because consent requires the person giving it to be of sound mind.

alien_conceptsays...

I always thought that rapists, paedophiles etc. not being named and shamed was a good thing. Not for them, fuck them. But to stop good and decent people exacting revenge and landing themselves in prison. That seems to be the definition of injustice.

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