Well, remember that the set of men under consideration here already excludes the majority who simply wouldn’t offer to walk the woman to her friend’s house in the first place. So you are left with just 1) the outright isolate-and-assault psychos, 2) the entitled “my-kindness-better-be-rewarded-with-sex” assholes and 3) those who are willing to genuinely go out of their way to help someone else just because that person needs help. While (1) might only be 5% of the male population, (2) is probably substantially more sizable, and (3) isn’t exactly huge. So when a stranger offers to walk a drunk woman home, I think it might be an odds-on bet he’s at the very least creepy.
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A recall effort for the judge is underway, according to the Guardian, and some small consolation that the victim is feeling positively overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and cries for justice.
Stanford sexual assault: judge facing recall campaign over light sentence
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I was going to argue that a recall might be going too far, but then…
“There is less moral culpability attached to the defendant who is … intoxicated,”
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Wait a second! That’s not what was said here!
Judge Aaron Persky empathized with Brock Allen Turner and could easily imagine what it would be like to lose sports fame (as Persky enjoyed), to lose a Sanford education (as Persky enjoyed), to lose the sort of easy success and high regard that a young, reasonably affluent Stanford graduate (like Persky was) can expect as a matter of right. Judge Persky could easily imagine how dramatically different a state prison is from Stanford frat parties, and how calamitous was Turner’s fall. That’s how Judge Persky convinced himself to hand such a ludicrously light sentence for such a grotesque violation of another human being.
(also we may need to close this topic, for some reason it didn’t get an auto-close interval…)
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I was commenting about the fact that there are four major law schools in the bay area and that the odds that a judge went to undergrad and law school at one or two of these are great. Thus, recusing oneself because of similar college experience would be difficult for many of Santa Clara judges. This is similar to the kind of argument that Trump is making about Justice Curiel: he’s of Hispanic heritage, so he must be biased.
My brother went to Cal and the Santa Clara for law. He also played water polo at Cal. He’s been in municipal law his entire career, but I can’t even imagine that if he were a judge that if he would have done what this judge did if a Cal athlete came before him.
Simply put, Persky did not do what he was sworn to do.
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Or maybe there should be more women judges, more judges from minority backgrounds, more judges from not-elite-schools.
I do not think it is at all unreasonable to ask a judge to recuse himself if he went to the same elite school and was an undergraduate at the very elite school the attack took place. On top of that, also a student athlete, also a white male (dare I ask, fraternity membership?). How much shared background with the defendant is “enough” for a judge to be recused?
The root of all this seems to me, to be far too much unwarranted empathy from the judge. (And also Brock Turner and his family are kind of terrible people, but the sick thing is that the system f’ing worked, the guy was found guilty, what specifically did not work was the judge and the sentencing…)
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How about just “Don’t rape people”. Bringing up the drinking plays into the rapist’s lame excuse. It also plays into that other thing–blaming the victim for excessive drinking.
I know lots of people that like to get drunk and somehow they manage not to rape anyone.
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He’s also a victim of being a good swimmer and being admitted to Stanford.
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The only one that can contest the sentencing is the rapist, if he wants to appeal the conviction. The prosecution can’t ask an appeals court to increase the punishment.
I totally agree. But having an elite education or being male should not disqualify someone outright.
Again, many judges have gone to elite universities. This is how they become judges. But how is this different from what Trump has proposed with his current dealings with regards to Trump University? If a defendant or a defense lawyer is a Democrat, should the judge also be a Democrat? This isn’t viable and if someone like Trump gets his way, it will open up a Pandora’s box. Unfortunately, we can’t have it both ways.
I’m hopeful something good comes out of this. I hope this judge gets recalled for not upholding his oath, and I hope this sends a message to other judges. In my heart, I like to think that many other judges in the Santa Clara county are equally pissed as we are.
FYI: [USA Swimming wants nothing more to do with this guy] (Redirect Notice) and as he never renewed his membership, they’ve effectively banned him. As a former swimmer, please don’t judge all student-athletes by this prick.
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He is appealing the conviction, per his lawyer.
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Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ-on-a-goddamn-crutch, what an asshole.
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I didn’t say that. It’s the combination of multiple things that the judge has in common with the defendant:
- exactly the same elite university as the defendant
- similar athletic scholarship background
- also white
- also male
- I am guessing, also a fraternity background?
- The attack itself was on campus, at a fraternity party
I ask again:
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Oh, Brock, you’re making me tear up.
Asshole.
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At least four out of five of them could be any of a number of judges in S.C. County, unfortunately. (#5 and #6 are essentially the same thing)
Not being a judge, I’m unsure how these cases are assigned. It could be rotating thing, lottery, or a chief judge appoints. But you are correct that something needs to change. I just don’t know how to do it without creating even bigger problems.
My point is that if Brock attacked someone outside a bar in Berkeley, that is a very different thing than it happening on campus, as a Stanford student. So the particulars of the case make it extra-Stanford-y.
Anyway, frustrating, because the system basically worked as designed for this rape case which is… rarely true. It’s just the judge, specifically, that’s the problem here.
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Frikkin’ idiot. Or maybe he subconsciously wants a harsher sentence.
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I agree. I have a “\s” failure in general, might be because I’m British.
