njlauren
Posts: 1577
Joined: 10/1/2011 Status: offline
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Blaming the victim is old hat, the defense lawyers tried to go after the girl's background and such, but were shot down, it is why we have rape shied laws, because it was common to badger witnesses, ask them why they were wearing such provocative clothing, you name it, it is only within the last 40 years that this is no longer allowed. But unfortunately, the attitude holds, and in small town america, ironically supposed to be 'real americans', 'god fearing citizens' whom I am sure would be all up in arms about same sex marriage, probably see this as some slut who got drunk and tempted hose boys (after all, ya know, think about eve in the Good Book...). I haven't read all that much about the details, but I wonder if all the preacher types i am sure are in that town, have come out against this evil, or are they sitting really quietly in their corner....they should be screaming from the pulpit at this, wanna bet most of them sympathize with the boys? Put it this way, if it hadn't of been out there, on social media and so forth, wanna bet the coach, the school administration,law enforcement and the parents would have made every attempt to sweep this under the rug? Small town virtues seem all that great, but where are those virtues here? Where is the outrage at what the boys did? Something similar happened not all that far from where i live. 3 football players (big surprise) from Glen Ridge High school (which in some ways is similar to steubenville, kind of blue collar town, sports crazy, lots of churches) back in 1989 were convicted of sexually assaulting a mentally challenged young woman (who I think had an iq of 64), they used a baseball bat and a broomstick, it was foul...and you should have heard the outrage of the town, they threatened the girl and her family, people said she was a slut, she seduced the boys, she 'wanted to play' (the poor girl had the maturity of an 8 year old, intellectually and emotionally), the priest of one of the boys said the girl was a troublemaker out to get this fine boy (why said priest wasn' defrocked, well, I think I know now..if molesting kids isn't enough, why should this?)..it was foul, it made the town the butt of jokes and when the football team played other schools they faced jeers like "should change your name to the rapists"......and know what, they deserved it, few people in that town stood up for decency, either. If it wasn't for some decent cops and a tough da, who knows what would have happened. People tell me sports aren't glorified, but the move Friday Night Lights is accurate, and it isn't just football mad Texas. Hell, my local high school district tried to get through an appropriation to borrow close to 20 million dollars to redo all the athletic fields, build brand new football statiums for the high schools, when they are cutting back academic classes, letting teacher positions close through attrition and the like.....tells you about skewed priorities, and I don't like in small town america, either.
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