Police: As many as 20 present at gang rape outside school dance
28 October 2009 11:20 am by djjl
http://tinyurl.com/yjtdoom
Why did they think it was OK to do this?
This post was submitted by djjl.
No tags for this post.28 October 2009 11:20 am by djjl
http://tinyurl.com/yjtdoom
Why did they think it was OK to do this?
This post was submitted by djjl.
No tags for this post.
“Investigators say as many as 20 people were involved in or stood and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a California high school homecoming dance Saturday night.
Police posted a $20,000 reward Tuesday for anyone who comes to them with information that helps arrest and convict those involved in what authorities describe as a 2½-hour assault on the Richmond High School campus in suburban San Francisco.
Two teenage suspects have been jailed, but more arrests, as many as 20 total, are expected, according to a police detective.”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/27/california.gang.rape.investigation/index.html
Taylor -
Thank you so much for this. From last night to this morning I was contemplating putting something up about this, but I didn’t know if it was appropriate.
This story is stomach turning. Not only the Governor should address it, but I would love it if the President used his bully pulpit and address it as well.
As I understand the news reports here, those that stood around and watched cannot be charged with anything and 5 are now in custody.
If anyone saw the full report this school is backed up to a residential neighborhood. I find it difficult to accept that no one heard what was going on. In addition, according to a school board memeber interviewed, the back of the schoold was supposed to have new lighting as well as surveillance cameras. They were installed in the front of the school but not in the back.
Evidently it is school policy that when there is a dance, or an event along those lines, monitors are supposed to check the outside of the school every so often to make sure nothing is going on that shouldn’t be. That didn’t happen either.
My heart breaks for this young woman. I wish there was a way to show her support. If possible I am going to find out just how to do that.
Where to start on an incident like this….where was the school oversight? How were these boys raised? How were the observers raised? What are the cultural influences?
We live in a culture that is all about instant gratification,no care or responsibility for our fellow citizen,everyone for himself. We do not value children or families here,little thought or money or policy attention is given to them in Washington.They do not have a place at the table to use an overused metaphor.
When the music industry,the video,movie and gaming industries are making their business decisions do they give a thought to the poison they put out and the influence it will have on the coursening of our kids? When corporations are asking their people to work longer hours for less pay do they give a rip about families and their health? When the working poor add that third job to keep their families fed does anyone worry about the supervision of their children who have the ugliest most misognistic material available with the click of a mouse?
We have commented many times on this site about the misogony focused at our women leaders,has there been any media attention to this?
We are going down the rabit hole in the U.S. and I see very little understanding of this fact.
BTW Taylor thanks for your post on this. My daughter alerted me to the story yesterday. She expressed such fear of raising her boy in our current cultural atmosphere it made me so sad. I am getting closer to advising she and my son-in-law to think about bringing Sam up in a different country.There was a time when people took huge risks to come to our country believing it full of opportunitiy and a place where their lives could improve. More and more that seems like another country one we no longer live in but can remember from our childhoods if we are old enough.
And therefore LL losing our moral authority to speak to other countries about their treatment of women.
kris…I don’t see how we have much moral authority left in any arena.
You know the problem is that our institutions (family, church, govt, etc) are too reluctant to teach the fact that all people deserve respect and dignity. We, as a nation, don’t want to do that. You’d have to show respect and insure the dignity of children, the poor, women, unemployed, uninsured, etc. Too high a price to pay. Need to sayve those coins for Wall Street and the banks.
LL….I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Djjl…you too.
You’d have to respect people like these and admit that dying is too high a price for losing a job:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33487061#33487061
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33483625/ns/business-small_business/
‘The Pennsylvania home health care company Linda Bettinazzi runs is charged about $6,800 per worker for health insurance – $2,000 more than the national average for single coverage. One reason: nearly every one of her 175 employees is a woman.
Insurers say women under the age of 55 cost more to cover because they use more health services, and not just for maternal and infant care. But Bettinazzi, the president and CEO of Visiting Nurse Association of Indiana County, believes there’s something inherently wrong in charging her company more because it hires a lot of women.
“There’s a great sense of unfairness,” Bettinazzi says. “I feel angry, and maybe betrayed would be a good word.”‘
IT’s an extension of the same attitude.
Hi kris and Lake Lady
Hi djjl.
Thanks for all your good comments and links. I am so glad, and always have been, that you are at this site.
What a nice thing to say kris. Thank you so much.
It would be hard for anyone to watch the video of that family and their story and then justify for fee medicine and the Las Vegas style insurance industry.
Hi all.
Kris – ANYTHING that interests you that is In The News is appropriate to post. This is YOUR section.
This is about moral courage in the face of mob mentality. It is cowardice.
Every one of the people who stood around should be named, their picture distributed on a website, and they should be publicly ostracized. If my son was involved, I would start a website, then I’d make him post a public apology and name every single person involved or watching. His punishment would be swift, harsh and PUBLIC.
I, too read about this incident, and thought about posting it but declined to do so. I am glad you did, though, Kris. It is stomach turning. I really think there is too much of the anything goes mentality – and no strong moral center/core anymore. And by morals I don’t mean the right wing idea of values/morals – I mean common decency and humanity to others. People just don’t care and they don’t take responsibility. Look at the poor kid who was murdered on his way home from school in Chicago a few weeks ago. As good as our country can be, it is also very sick. There are problems that just aren’t being addressed.
I have no interest in getting into a food fight; but, I must say, I continue to be curious about the male frequenters who do not comment on this type of thing. I do not think there is ANY MALICE involved. I think they simply do not see because they have not experienced.
djjl says:
28 October 2009 at 7:28 pm
Interesting isn’t it, djjl? I’ve noticed the same thing.
I wonder how many other women writers are writing about it today? I’m going to check but I am willing to bet no one a forcefully as Taylor.
I agree that there should be a public shaming of all invloved and very stiff penalities for those who assualted the young women.Men need to check each other to,we really need some male feminists out there writing about the casual misogny in male relationships.
I’ve heard that they do not comment because “they have no experience” yet they have no problem giving advice to Palin about birth control, her dress, etc, no comment about Hillary nut cracker dolls (sold by MSNBC among many others), and no comment about the rampant anti woman behavior and comments. They just don’t yet get it.
kyl didn’t even get it about “maternity” care. How high a level of ignorance can you get.
I have been so angry about this barbaric and brutal behavior towards another human being that I haven’t been able to write a comment. I would ask our male readers one thing – If this were your daughter, wife, mother, sister, what would you do? What would your response be?
I would think that men who have daughters would be especially enraged about this incident. My first response was who raised these sub-humans, who gave them their values and their beliefs about the female gender? We can’t very well preach to the rest of the world about treatment of their women when we have these kind of criminal acts occurring in this country. It seems to be getting worse. Maybe we need to go back to the drawing board on the treatment of women and begin to re-educate.
djjl says:
28 October 2009 at 8:00 pm
I guess kyl was hatched. I still don’t understand how any man could not get it. It’s more than ignorance. It’s a way of saying women don’t matter.
“What would your response be?” Jane Austen
Are you familiar with the word, “berzerk” ?
I sure miss the days when you were sent to the Principal – for chewing gum (and then stayed after school in detention) – and the girls were asked to kneel on the floor, so if their dress didn’t touch the floor they were sent home.
I don’t remember any gang-rapes back then.
djjl and Jane,
I sometimes wonder if “misogyny” is the right word? If it means “hatred” of women, that’s not usually the case (look DOWN on them – yep – but not usually “hatred”) – which begs my famous (*L) quote:
95% of all men think women are ‘less’ and women should bow down to them.
This should come as no surprize, however, as 90% of all men think all those other men are less and should likewise bow to them.
Larry King’s show tonight is on this incident. The school district superintendent was on as well as the police, psychiatrists, etc.
pmichael,
I must admit you came to mind tonight as I thought of gentlemen who would see these outrages for what they are. Please accept my apologies.
djjl, no ‘pology’ ness.
Taylor hit it on the head. “Mob psychology” is the ultimate proof we are ‘connected’ in ways we still don’t understand. You are NOT the same person when you are alone, as you are when with others. (great example – hang around your Mom *L*) This “input” when multiplied (mob) can even cause one to do things they wouldn’t even consider feasable the previous day.
Also – even amongst intelligent people *here* I’ve had people try to say women and men are far more equal(alike) than they actually are. Anyone who doesn’t expect the same competition you see in stud horses and male wolves to occur in human males is seriously fooling themselves. Shedding these primitive instincts is what we refer to as becoming “civilized” – and unfortunately I see less and less of that amongst male humans today. As mentioned elsewhere, we seem to be reverting instead of progressing.
djjl, thanks for posting. And thanks for your remakr regarding the general lack of comments from men on topics such as this very sad one. I don’t see that as “malice,” either, but as in the efforts in the LGBT communities we need the voices of heterosexuals, so in instances such as this gang rape of a young woman, we need the voices of men.
Referring to the same kind of thing as “mob psychology,” I generally use “group think.” It shows up in many ways, in this horrible case, coupled with misogyny. And I do think this is a clear example of misogyny. “Hatred” can show up in many ways, including seeing someone as less than you are.
pmichael, I think I understand your statement that we are “NOT the same person” in a mob / group as when alone. Clearly the influence of a crowd is significant.
At the same time, I don’t think individuals can be excused (I’m not saying that’s what you implied, pmichael). The 20 or so people who participated in or watched a rape didn’t cease to have responsibility for their individual choices.
OT, but I hope this time I’ll be able to continue adding a comment now and then. The previous attempts were interrupted by the need to deal with family health concerns. But I keep reading here daily, and appreciate the good discussion.
Welcome ..Joyce Arnold
Dr.Nancy did a segmant on violence towards women linked with violent media this morning.
Hi Joyce Arnold. I appreciate your comments.