I know, right? If only such careful consideration was made for every sentencing recommendation. Especially for those who aren’t white and Christian. Maybe our prisons wouldn’t be so overcrowded.
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In this case, it looks like it’s the prosecutor who declined to even attempt an incarceration charge as part of a plea.
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Women’s Lives Matter.
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These men deserve to have their names publicized a bit more.
“ Two Amish brothers, 22-year-old Aaron C.M. Schwartzand 18-year-old Petie C.M. Schwartz, plead guilty last week to two counts of third-degree child molestation with a child under the age of 14, a Class C felony,”
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Plus, two other brothers who are minors.
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Um… what “amends?”
Seems to me that nothing positive has been done for the victim.
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As I have heard it, nothing of note happens to the rapists. And amish women continue to be raped by family members. Not sure how this is “restorative” or “justice”.
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The most likely punishment the community will dish out is being shunned, or excommunicated, which would leave these young rapists without the very community that’s supposed to be responsible for them. The victim will be stuck, probably unable to marry. She may well decide not be baptized into the community once she is an adult, if she isn’t shamed into suicide before then.
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typically shunned for 6 wks is what I’ve read. No long term consequences, and young girls continue to be raped. There are also some charming reports of girls who have complained being sent to “mental health centers” and heavily medicated.
Also the two men prosecuted are only two of the four brothers who raped her (the other two are under 18) and the rape was discovered when she became pregnant at the age of 13.
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They would be eaten alive in the prison system too, but that’s okay see, because they are people of color.
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So 4 men, no consequences. Why no juvenile detention for the minors and suspended sentences with probation. Not just some apology to the person that wasn’t the victim.
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Isn’t sexual abuse prevalent in many closed communities? Tribalism leads to inbreeding because outsiders are off-limits.
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And/or the presumption is that this would be their “natural habitat.” There are these unfortunately universal biases that Black people are mature younger, are tougher, experience less pain, etc. - all of which makes them seen as better able to cope with tough situations like incarceration,* unlike delicate white boys. And that’s before you get to the overt racism of those looking to make them suffer.
*And also leads to really shit medical treatment, etc.
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I feel like you’re twisting my words and implying I said things I did not.
Regardless…
The point about the time and resources for raising a child was in regards to ‘why let them go’. It’s an investment that any community should respect. Many communities in the US don’t respect that investment and prefer to lock people up at great cost to the community, which is a backwards system of justice.
My evidence for the Amish community wanting the ‘rapist to wonder free’ is that they traditionally have policed their own and I suspect the judge respects that. There are numerous articles reachable through google search that support the claim that Amish police their own (although maybe imperfectly). I doubt the rapists will get off without penalty. If they do, I would not support such an outcome.
I stand corrected. The amends to the victim is not the only goal, but it certainly is one of the goals. You may not see evidence from the original article, but that is no doubt the intention of the Amish people. They don’t want any of this in the public. When I say they want to handle it internally, that does not involve publishing their process, publishing a log or recording of what transpired, or publishing the outcome. Internal means you don’t get to see because you aren’t part of their community (I suppose I’m presuming here, considering you’re on the internet, I think that’s a fair assumption 
)
Pressing would be nice. It’s very old world.
Don’t know the USA system but in this case is SCOTUS could be involved, because clearly the prosecutor didn’t follow correct procedures?
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Those things were rapists that targeted children (or at least one specific child who was their little sister).
Repeatedly.
And incestuously.
They didn’t out themselves over a guilty conscience. They were outed when they impregnated their 13 yr old little sister.
Best case scenario in this case is that they go to jail (I’m not holding breath for death penalty here).
Worst case scenario is something like the Catholic shuffle. That is where problematic (as in “unrepentant predacious child molestor”) priests were sent away to underserved & remote communities (like rural indiginous communities here in Canada) so they could atone (but mostly be less of an embarassment to the diocese). Communities were never informed of the “problematic nature” of these wayward pastors.
The most likely thing that happens here is the predator shuffle. They are exiled from their community but travel to infest another Amish community.
The Amish are not well equipped to handle this sort of scenario, and apparently do not handle these things well.
Restorative justice should be real. It shouldn’t be a flimsy excuse for a community to let slide something that they find too awkward to deal with.
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Neither the prosecution nor the defendants have any reason to appeal, so I’m not sure how it could get to any higher court, let alone SCOTUS. I don’t think the victim has standing, and definitely doesn’t have the resources.
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A 12 year old was raped by her siblings in a closed community within a wider community and how is this dealt with? Perhaps think about the genital mutilation of Muslim women in similar communities within other communities. There is no excuse and perpetrators of violence against women and children need to be dealt with in a way that sends a strong message that this cannot be tolerated in any community or religion.
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There are some crimes for which “let them go” is the right answer. Petty theft, shop lifting, trespassing, etc. I can see the case made for those.
Rape of a child? Let alone your own sister? No fucking way you let THAT go. It’s a crime of violence and leaves lifetime scars. I wouldn’t let that go any more than I’d let murder go.
Sure, every community “traditionally” police their own citizens. But we also have laws in place for a variety of reasons that recognize sometimes communities can make shitty, stupid choices. For example, female genital mutilation is illegal despite being a custom in some cultures. Would we be okay letting those communities “police” people who performed such actions? They’d simply say “no big” and let them continue.
Rape: again, this is a crime that should NOT be policed by religious groups or communities because of the wide variety of standards on what constitute rapes and proper punishment for it. You are making a terrible case when advocating for this as proper justice for that particular crime.
As others have pointed out, the Amish community is rife with sexual abuse. Far from “policing their own,” they seem to want to hide their crimes behind a wall of isolation and silence. I suspect we’d find a wide instance of child marriages, too, if we dug deeper. Which is probably EXACTLY what you get when you let religious communities “police” themselves.
“Oh, you raped a 12 year old? Fine, you marry her. Case settled.”
No. Just no. I’m totally for prisons like the Scandinavian system. But even they don’t let rapists off the hook and free to run around their old communities, and they generally have much broader definitions of what rape is and the penalties for it. Prison reform is entirely separate from this case and has no weight or bearing on it. Because the same judge likely HAS sentenced other rapists to jail time and made zero comments about how they would get “eaten alive” in prison.
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