Brian Banks, an African-American former football player, was accused of rape at the age of 16. He served five years and two months of a six-year sentence before his accuser annulled her story in 2012.
Former Stanford University student and swimmer Brock Turner faces six months in jail for three felony charges related to his sexual assault of an unconscious woman in 2015. By the way, he’s a twenty-year old white guy.
6 years versus 6 months. You’re kidding, right?
Brock Turner should be facing serious jail time, but because of a disproportionate justice system he’ll be serving hardly any. This case not only serves as a discomforting reminder that white, wealthy criminals have it easy, but also how rape culture expends its influence on college campuses.
For those unaware, Turner assaulted and raped a 23-year-old woman while she was passed out behind a dumpster after a party. According to the two Swedish students who caught him in
the abhorrent act and saved the victim, Turner was “aggressively thrusting his hips” into her.
He was found guilty back in March of the intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of an unconscious person and penetration of an intoxicated person.
After all this, Turner still doesn’t get it. He has completely disregarded the type of crime he has committed, and instead makes himself sound like the victim by blaming it on alcohol abuse and a “party culture.”
Turner wrote a letter to the judge who mandated the six month jail sentence which would be reduced to three months if he behaves. However; it reads more like an apology for his excessive drinking rather than one for raping someone.
In the letter, he pretty much suggests that his actions were inevitable because of how drunk he was. An example from his statement read: “At this point in my life, I never want to have a drop of alcohol again. I never want to attend a social gathering that involves alcohol or any situation where people make decisions based on the substances they have consumed.”
Brock chose alcohol as his scapegoat and doesn’t own up to what he did. He thought he would get away with raping someone, because he’s probably never been held accountable for anything his entire life.
It’s aggravating to even read the letter written by Turner. When he does take some sort of responsibility for the rape, he makes it seem like something bad had happened to him that night – completely forgetting that he was the one who committed the act.
“I’ve been shattered by the party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school,” he wrote.
It gets worse. Turner’s dad, Dan, wrote a letter in opposition to his son’s sentence, which not only included some misogynist remarks but also bizarre complaints about how the entire situation has made his son lose his “appetite.”
According to California law, the maximum sentence for his son’s crimes is 14 years, and while Dan should be grateful for his son’s lenient sentence, he says that 6 months is “a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action.”
Brock will spend less time in jail than it took the trial to end, and his father has the audacity to not only complain about the sentence, but deny that his son raped someone. “He has no prior criminal history and has never been violent to anyone including his actions on the night of Jan 17th, 2015,” he wrote in his letter.
A mentality like that of the father and the son comes from a dangerous mix of male, class and, you guessed it – white privilege, which has ultimately created an alternate reality for the Turners. One where there are no consequences for one’s actions, no matter how horrible those actions might be.
The letter sounds like it’s coming from a well-off and obnoxious white guy because it is. The Turners may be used to getting caught but aren’t used to getting in any trouble for it.
Brock comes from a privileged background and the judge’s orders were also incredibly privileged. His apology is devoid of any sort of sincere remorse or guilt.
And the most heartbreaking part is that his victim, who remains anonymous, read his insincere apology.
“Unfortunately,” She said, “After reading the defendant’s report, I am severely disappointed and feel that he has failed to exhibit sincere remorse or responsibility for his conduct.”
In a powerful, and utterly heartbreaking statement given by Turner’s victim to her rapist, she wrote:
“According to him, the only reason we were on the ground was because I fell down. Note; if a girl falls down help her get back up. If she is too drunk to even walk and falls down, do not mount her, hump her, take off her underwear, and insert your hand inside her vagina. If a girl falls down help her up. If she is wearing a cardigan over her dress don’t take it off so that you can touch her breasts. Maybe she is cold, maybe that’s why she wore the cardigan.”
The victim spoke out against the absurd points in Turner’s letter. She realizes his lack of repentance and transparency in his egotistical statement.
“I would say it’s a case of privilege,” said Banks, the aforementioned former professional football player and current NFL staffer. “It seems like the judge based his decision on lifestyle. He’s lived such a good life and has never experienced anything serious in his life that would prepare him for prison. He was sheltered so much he wouldn’t be able to survive prison.”
I admire the victim’s strength because it takes serious courage to overcome what she went through on January 17, 2015 – not to mention the courage to overcome the lack of justice from an apparently inordinate legal system and the lack of penitence from her attacker.
Brock Turner: Congratulations, you are white privilege’s new poster boy.