If you are a person on this earth, you were most likely moved by the statement made by the victim in a rape case against Brock Turner, which she read aloud to the former Stanford swimmer before his sentencing.
In it she said directly to him, “You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice.”
It was profound, eloquent, moving, passionate, and haunting, all at once. The kind of thing that strikes every fiber inside you.
What the shit is the exact opposite of that? You’re about to find out.
Turner was sentenced to just six months in county jail for his actions, which consisted of sexually assaulting an unconscious person. One of the reasons the judge gave for the incomprehensibly light sentence was Turner’s show of remorse, part of which he divined from a letter Turner sent to the judge.
Not sure what Judge Aaron Persky thinks remorse is, because Turner’s statement really indicates none of that, full of half-hearted displays of regret, victim and culture blaming, and a very refusal to fess up to his actions. Like, fuck, if I sent this shit to my mom at 15 after she caught me smoking pot, she would have grounded me even longer for feeding her so much bullshit. Here are some choice (as in pathetic) excerpts from the letter, which was obtained by The Guardian.
The night of January 17th changed my life and the lives of everyone involved forever. I can never go back to being the person I was before that day. I am no longer a swimmer, a student, a resident of California, or the product of the work that I put in to accomplish the goals that I set out in the first nineteen years of my life.
Bummer. Man.
I can never forgive myself for imposing trauma and pain on [redacted]. It debilitates me to think that my actions have caused her emotional and physical stress that is completely unwarranted and unfair.
Yes. Perhaps a thing to say after that display of regret is “I’m sorry for having done that.” Is that a good idea if you genuinely feel remorse? Yes? Yes?
Hang tight while I read your next ten sentences looking for the word “Sorry.”
…
…
…
…
…
Must have just been an oversight. But let’s not forget the real problem here. Him being locally recognized.
I’ve lost two jobs solely based on the reporting of my case. I wish I never was good at swimming or had the opportunity to attend Stanford, so maybe the newspapers wouldn’t want to write stories about me.
HAHHAHAH. There is another fucking way to get these stories not written about you, you fucking prick.
And it’s not not drinking anymore.
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. I never want to experience being in a position where it will have a negative impact on my life or someone else’s ever again.
I know I can impact and change people’s attitudes towards the culture surrounded by binge drinking and sexual promiscuity that protrudes through what people think is at the core of being a college student. I want to demolish the assumption that drinking and partying are what make up a college lifestyle I made a mistake, I drank too much, and my decisions hurt someone.
How a judge can read this — which blames sexual promiscuity on him trying to have sex with an unconscious person — and think he is genuinely remorseful, and just not upset he got charged, baffles me. It’s what makes people believe there really is a systemic culture which aides and abets white dudes who commit sexual assault and rape.
You were busted trying to rape a woman who was passed out. And all you have to say is you’re “shattered by the party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school.”
Yea. It’s EVERYTHING ELSE’S fault.
Fuck the fuck out of here, dude.
You can read the entire letter at The Guardian.