Brock Turner, his father and the judge

[LesBaker]

Should all be tarred and feathered, then beaten badly, then kicked out of this country forever.

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to be King.

Shit would be different!

 

[Prime Time]

http://gizmodo.com/facebook-removed-a-stanford-rapist-meme-and-users-are-p-1781108907

Facebook Removed a Stanford Rapist Meme and Users Are Pissed
Sophie Kleeman

Several Facebook users have taken to the platform to complain that their posts about convicted rapist Brock Turner—whose treatment and sentencing has drawn widespread criticism—have disappeared.

Here are a few recent examples:

The meme in question appears to be this one, which was also posted to Imgur about two days ago:

It appears that these users all shared the same post, which has now disappeared. While identical memes can still be found on Facebook (here, here, and here, for example) and have been shared thousands of times, Facebook confirmed to Gizmodo that at least one original post (which was then re-shared an unknown number of times) was removed.

“This content was removed in error, and we are currently working to restore it. Our team processes millions of reports each week, and we sometimes get things wrong. We’re very sorry about this mistake,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

The platform’s community standards dictate that it does not tolerate bullying or harassment of private individuals, but that it does “allow you to speak freely on matters and people of public interest.” According to the spokesperson, the removal may have stemmed from confusion over Turner’s public versus private status: he was initially classed as a private individual, but the uproar over his recent sentencing has drawn him into the public sphere.

For some Facebook users, however, the removal was simply evidence of more of the same. “I think it’s further evidence that certain people have privilege, and they can get their needs met,” Emilee Mainali, whose meme post disappeared yesterday, told Gizmodo when reached by phone today. “There’s this white male privilege bullshit machine that’s definitely driving that bus.”

“Most rapists aren’t caught because they’re not caught doing it. As a woman, I am outraged at this ruling—but on top of all that, then for Facebook to get involved, [and] I’m not even really allowed to say how I feel about it?” she added. “We do need to have a voice, we need to advocate for ourselves.”

Facebook’s spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that the standards team was working on restoring the original content, and that it would endeavor to ensure that future posts remained in place.

Update 6:29 p.m.: According to a few of the users, the original post is now back and can be found here.

 

[LesBaker]

It's just SO wrong in so many ways.

The judge should be impeached, the verdict suspended and he should be re-sentenced by a different judge

This whole thing is sickening.

 

[LesBaker]

I just read the victim's letter, which she read in court addressing her rapist face to face.

Add his attorney to my list. What a slimy muthafuckah.

Follow the link and you guys can read it for yourself.

@Mackeyser I'm curious since we have had this discussion before. Does this sound like the effect of a date rape drug? It does to me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...owerful-message-to-a-former-stanford-swimmer/

 

[Memento]

I feel for the victim. And Brock Turner deserves to be castrated and thrown in prison to rot.

 

[Prime Time]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/pressure-builds-judge-over-california-sexual-assault-case-002605890.html

Pressure builds on judge over California sexual assault case
By Alex Dobuzinskis and Amy Tennery

(Reuters) - Senator Barbara Boxer on Monday decried a California judge's decision to sentence a college athlete to just six months in jail for sexual assault, and signatures on an online petition calling for the jurist's ouster later passed 400,000.

The sentence last week by Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky against former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner gained international attention after a letter from the athlete's father to the judge that was posted online described the assault as "20 minutes of action."

"Six months for someone who viciously attacked a woman, especially after she was so brave to come forward, is outrageous," Boxer said in a statement released late Monday.

Asked for a comment on the controversy over his ruling, Santa Clara Superior Court spokesman Joseph Macaluso said Judge Persky is prohibited from commenting on the case because there may be an appeal.

Last week, the victim in the case read a 12-page letter to the court detailing her feelings in the wake of the assault. It was later read millions of times online. The victim's name has not been released to the public.

The uproar over the sentence is part of growing outrage in the United States over sexual assault on college campuses.

In the Stanford case, prosecutors said that witnesses saw Turner, 20, on top of the woman as she lay motionless outside a fraternity party in January 2015. When Turner ran away, two students tackled and held him for police, prosecutors said.

Turner in March was convicted of intent to rape an intoxicated and unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person. His lawyer said on Tuesday that he was considering appealing the conviction and had filed a notice of intent to appeal with the court.

An online petition at Change.org urging the removal of the judge had collected more than 400,000 clicks of support by Tuesday afternoon, in a largely symbolic gesture.

Stanford law professor Michele Dauber has vowed to start a more formal recall effort against Persky, but that is a difficult process rarely used in California.

International interest in the case has led media organizations to request interviews with the woman, but prosecutors said on Tuesday that she wished to remain anonymous.

In a statement released by Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Alaleh Kianerci to CNN, the woman said that in addition to wanting to protect her privacy, she could better represent all woman if her name and image were not known.

"I'm coming out to you simply as a woman wanting to be heard," she said in the statement to CNN. "For now I am every woman."

(Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Sharon Bernstein, Bernard Orr)

 

[LesBaker]

I've yet to hear anything from the judge about why a paltry six month sentence was handed out?

Anyone?

 

[Rams Until I Die]

This is the most disgusting news I've read in a long time.

 

[Prime Time]

I've yet to hear anything from the judge about why a paltry six month sentence was handed out?

Anyone?

http://heavy.com/news/2016/06/aaron...ord-recall-petition-election-photos-sentence/

1. He Has Come Under Fire for Saying Prison Would Have a ‘Severe Impact’ on Turner

Judge Aaron Persky, 54, has come under fire for saying at Brock Turner’s sentencing, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others.”

Persky said he considered Turner’s character, lack of criminal history and remorsefulness when deciding the sentence, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Prosecutors had called for six years in state prison, while a report from the state probation department recommended less than a year in county jail.

Persky said in court that Turner had “poisoned” the lives of those involved, according to the Palo Alto Weekly.

“The question that I have to ask myself is … Is state prison for this defendant an antidote to that poison?” Perksy said. “Is incarceration in prison the right answer for the poisoning of (the woman’s) life?”

The victim, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told Buzzfeed News, “Even if the sentence is light, hopefully this will wake people up. I want the judge to know that he ignited a tiny fire. If anything, this is a reason for all of us to speak even louder.”

District Attorney Jeff Rosen said Monday that while he disagrees with the judge’s sentence, he does not think he should be removed from the bench.

“While I strongly disagree with the sentence that Judge Persky issued in the Brock Turner case I do not believe he should be removed from his judgeship,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “I am so pleased that the victim’s powerful and true statements about the devastation of campus sexual assault are being heard across our nation. She has given voice to thousands of sexual assault survivors.”

Local attorneys called Persky respected and fair.

“He is an absolutely solid and respected judge,” Santa Clara County deputy public defender Gary Goodman told the Associated Press. “Persky made the right decision.”

Criminal defense attorney Barbara Muller, who works two weeks a month in Persky’s court, said he is one of the “fairest judges” in Santa Clara County.

“He considers all facts and is very thorough,” Muller told the AP. “He plays it right down the middle.”

2. He Was the Captain of the Lacrosse Team at Stanford & His Critics Say He Was ‘Persuaded’ by Turner’s Background as an ‘Elite Athlete’

Persky, a San Francisco native, graduated from Stanford University, the same school where Brock Turner was a freshman swimmer when he was arrested in January 2015. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1984 and his master’s degree in 1985.

He was the captain of the lacrosse team at Stanford, according to a 2002article in the Stanford Daily.

“I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and a Master’s Degree in International Policy Studies. After graduation, I rode my bicycle from Palo Alto to Washington, D.C. to raise money for the Red Cross African Famine Relief Campaign,” he said on his campaign website. “In Washington I worked for the International Trade Administration of the United States Department of Commerce, where I investigated other countries’ unfair trade practices.”

Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor who has been critical of Perksy’s sentence, told NBC News she thinks he was lenient because of their similar backgrounds.

“I think he was very persuaded by the background of the young man as an elite athlete,” she said.

Dauber also told NBC, “The judge had to bend over backwards to accommodate this young man. I believe that many people believe that assaults that happen on campus are less serious that assaults that happen elsewhere.”

3. The Victim’s Powerful Statement to Persky Has Gone Viral

The victim read a powerful 13-page statement to the court during Brock Turner’s sentencing, calling out the light punishment Turner received and saying he had left her “devastated.”

She also said he “dragged me through this hell with you,” through a year-long process that culminated with a trial.

“You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today. The damage is done, no one can undo it,” she said. “And now we both have a choice. We can let this destroy us, I can remain angry and hurt and you can be in denial, or we can face it head on, I accept the pain, you accept the punishment, and we move on.”

She addressed the sentence, writing:

The probation officer’s recommendation of a year or less in county jail is a soft timeout, a mockery of the seriousness of his assaults, an insult to me and all women. It gives the message that a stranger can be inside you without proper consent and he will receive less than what has been defined as the minimum sentence. Probation should be denied. I also told the probation officer that what I truly wanted was for Brock to get it, to understand and admit to his wrongdoing.

She also said she understood that it was Turner’s first offense:

As this is a first offence I can see where leniency would beckon. On the other hand, as a society, we cannot forgive everyone’s first sexual assault or digital rape. It doesn’t make sense. The seriousness of rape has to be communicated clearly, we should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error. The consequences of sexual assault needs to be severe enough that people feel enough fear to exercise good judgment even if they are drunk, severe enough to be preventative.

The probation officer weighed the fact that he has surrendered a hard earned swimming scholarship. How fast Brock swims does not lessen the severity of what happened to me, and should not lessen the severity of his punishment. If a first time offender from an underprivileged background was accused of three felonies and displayed no accountability for his actions other than drinking, what would his sentence be?

The fact that Brock was an athlete at a private university should not be seen as an entitlement to leniency, but as an opportunity to send a message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class.

The Probation Officer has stated that this case, when compared to other crimes of similar nature, may be considered less serious due to the defendant’s level of intoxication. It felt serious. That’s all I’m going to say.

What has he done to demonstrate that he deserves a break? He has only apologized for drinking and has yet to define what he did to me as sexual assault, he has revictimized me continually, relentlessly. He has been found guilty of three serious felonies and it is time for him to accept the consequences of his actions. He will not be quietly excused.

He is a lifetime sex registrant. That doesn’t expire. Just like what he did to me doesn’t expire, doesn’t just go away after a set number of years. It stays with me, it’s part of my identity, it has forever changed the way I carry myself, the way I live the rest of my life.

The woman also thanked the two bicyclists who saved her, and addressed other sexual assault victims,

“On nights when you feel alone, I am with you,” she said. “When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought everyday for you. So never stop fighting, I believe you.”

4. He Lost His Bid for the Bench in 2002, But Was Appointed to a Vacant Position by Fellow Stanford Alum Gray Davis in 2003

Persky first ran for a Superior Court seat in 2002, but lost to Ron M. Del Pozzo, according to Santa Clara County records. Del Pozzo received 122,036 votes and Persky received 112,668.

His defeat came despite several endorsements, including from the Santa Clara Bar Association, the San Jose Mercury News, Congressman Mike Honda and two former San Jose Mayors.

He was then appointed to the bench in September 2003 by then-Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat and fellow Stanford University alum and athlete. According to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, Davis selected Persky, then a 41-year-old prosecutor, to fill a spot vacated by Judge Conrad Rushing, who had been elevated to the Sixth District Court of Appeal.

Persky is running for re-election to another term as a Superior Court judge, but he does not have an opponent, according to the Associated Press.
According to Ballotpedia, the Superior Court election is nonpartisan, so Persky does not have a political party. The primary is used to narrow down the field, Ballotpedia explains. If a person wins the majority of the votes in the primary, he or she wins the general election. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two vote-getters advance to the November general election.

The primary race for his seat would have been held on June 7, but he is not listed on the ballot because he is unopposed.

A write-in opponent could still run against Persky in the general election, officials told the Associated Press. A candidate would have to register as a write-in candidate by August 17.

He has never been challenged during his time as a judge.

For Persky to be recalled from his seat, a petition with more than 81,000 signatures of registered county voters would need to be collected, the Associated Press reports. The petitions would need to be submitted by August 12 for the recall election to be held in November.

5. He Prosecuted Sex Crimes While He Was a District Attorney in Santa Clara County

Persky graduated from the University of California-Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law in 1990 and was admitted to the bar that same year.

“After law school, I worked for the judges of the Superior Court of San Francisco for one year, researching civil and criminal legal issues. I then joined the law firm of Morrison & Foerster as a litigation associate, gaining substantial experience in civil cases,” he said on his campaign website. “The firm sent me to Tokyo, Japan to work for a Japanese client for one year. I studied Japanese and later won a prestigious speech contest for non-native Japanese speakers, which was nationally televised in Japan.”

After returning from Japan, he became a criminal prosecutor in the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted “sex crimes and hate crimes.”

“I focus on the prosecution of sexually violent predators, working to keep the most dangerous sex offenders in custody in mental hospitals. I am also an Executive Committee member of the Santa Clara County Network for a Hate-Free Community, where I helped create a county-wide law enforcement policy on hate crimes. In addition, I serve as an Executive Committee Member of the Support Network for Battered Women,” Persky said on his campaign website.

“Aaron Persky is a Superior Court Judge in Santa Clara County, currently assigned to hear criminal matters in Palo Alto,” the Santa Clara Bar Association says on its website. “Governor Gray Davis appointed him to the Santa Clara County bench in 2003, where he has handled criminal, family, civil, and probate cases. He is the former Chair of the Court’s Community Outreach Committee. Judge Persky has a special interest in improving the effectiveness of the Court’s alternative dispute resolution programs.”

Persky is paid $155,181.62 a year, according to Transparent California.

He has no record of judicial violations.

During his 2002 election bid he told the League of Women Voters his top priorities if elected would be “honesty and integrity,” “equal justice for all” and “effective use of technology in the court room.”

 

[Faceplant]

Get a rope. The kid and his father are disgusting. The judge has some splainin' to do as well.

 

[LesBaker]

I wonder if I raped the judges wife or daughter behind a dumpster if I would get this light of a sentence..........and honestly I'd would have asked him that in the courtroom if I had been the victim. It would have been part of my letter, I would have shamed and embarrassed him as much as possible.

 

[Faceplant]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ju...-sentenced-brock-turner/ar-AAgRGfm?li=BBnb7Kz

Jurors Are Refusing to Serve the Judge Who Sentenced Brock Turner

© Santa Clara County Sheriff—AP Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, who received six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, in an undated booking photo provided by Santa Clara County Sheriff
At least 10 prospective jurors are now refusing to serve the judge who sentenced Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer sentenced to six months in jail last week for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus.

Turner was sentenced last week for assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman and sexually penetrating an intoxicated and unconscious person with a foreign object. Prosecutors recommended that Turner be sentenced to six years in prison, but Judge Aaron Persky handed down a sentence of six months, saying a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on the 20-year-old. Supporters of the victim have harshly criticized the sentence as too lenient, and a Stanford law professor is leading a recall campaign against Persky.

While lawyers were selecting jury members for Persky’s new case, which is unrelated to Turner, prospective jurors told Persky, “I can’t believe what you did,” and “I can’t be here, I’m so upset,” according to the San JoseMercury News. In each case, Persky replied with “I understand” and excused the upset juror.

If jurors continue to protest being assigned to Persky’s cases, it could cause problems by prolonging the jury-selection process, the Mercury News reports.

[San Jose Mercury News]

 

[Dieter the Brock]

"severe impact"
Yeah of course prison would have a severe impact on this kid,
Specifically on his butthole...

The judge has saved him from the "severe impact" of getting ass raped each and every day in prison,
So essentially The judge has saved the kid from the exact horror he inflicted on this poor drunk gal

Anyway - fuck Stanford

 

[Athos]

I just read the victim's letter, which she read in court addressing her rapist face to face.

Add his attorney to my list. What a slimy muthafuckah.

Follow the link and you guys can read it for yourself.

@Mackeyser I'm curious since we have had this discussion before. Does this sound like the effect of a date rape drug? It does to me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...owerful-message-to-a-former-stanford-swimmer/

I've got the fortitude to say I almost didn't make it through that entire letter, emotionally. Soul crushing. My eyes were watering at the end when she described her sisters misplaced guilt.

This strong woman has more eloquence and goodness in her than I hope to have. And it was nearly all robbed from her. Or it was and she's trying still to get it back.

The sentencing itself is/was criminal in itself.

How lawyers and judges like this live with themselves especially if they have wives, daughters, or granddaughters or nieces or sisters is disturbing.

 

[LesBaker]

I've got the fortitude to say I almost didn't make it through that entire letter, emotionally. Soul crushing. My eyes were watering at the end when she described her sisters misplaced guilt.

This strong woman has more eloquence and goodness in her than I hope to have. And it was nearly all robbed from her. Or it was and she's trying still to get it back.

The sentencing itself is/was criminal in itself.

How lawyers and judges like this live with themselves especially if they have wives, daughters, or granddaughters or nieces or sisters is disturbing.

It's emotionally so very harsh isn't it.

@Faceplant nice find..........

 

[dieterbrock]

If justice was served, this POS would get treated the same as Theon Greyjoy and answered to the name Reek forever more

 

[Mackeyser]

I just read the victim's letter, which she read in court addressing her rapist face to face.

Add his attorney to my list. What a slimy muthafuckah.

Follow the link and you guys can read it for yourself.

@Mackeyser I'm curious since we have had this discussion before. Does this sound like the effect of a date rape drug? It does to me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...owerful-message-to-a-former-stanford-swimmer/

Hard to say. Elements do sound like rohypnol, but considering that she was at 3 times the legal limit, it's also possible, I mean I dunno what she drank that night, but she may have been under the impression that what she thought was crappy 100 proof vodka was actually 190 proof EverClear and miscalculated how much actual alcohol she was imbibing and maybe because of that drinking it too fast, she may have just passed out.

I know one one of the things that has repeatedly been written about when it comes to these parties has to do with these "toxic brews" these frats come up with that mask the potency of EverClear and get everyone smashed in a hurry. They are SO potent in fact that young people have started going straight to signs of alcohol poisoning.

All I know is that this whole thing makes me sick. I read the very courageous letter from the victim. I read the pathetic and ignorant letter from Brock who still doesn't seem to understand that he's a rapist and being drunk doesn't turn a person into a rapist. I read the even more pathetic and mind-numbingly stupid letter from the father that got me so upset it gave me a migraine. Not even kidding.

I've told all my kids since they were little that there are few things on this planet worse than violating another human being. If they EVER did that to another person, they would have to worry about law enforcement and the victim's family AFTER I got done with them.

 

[LesBaker]

Hard to say. Elements do sound like rohypnol, but considering that she was at 3 times the legal limit, it's also possible, I mean I dunno what she drank that night, but she may have been under the impression that what she thought was crappy 100 proof vodka was actually 190 proof EverClear and miscalculated how much actual alcohol she was imbibing and maybe because of that drinking it too fast, she may have just passed out.

I know one one of the things that has repeatedly been written about when it comes to these parties has to do with these "toxic brews" these frats come up with that mask the potency of EverClear and get everyone smashed in a hurry. They are SO potent in fact that young people have started going straight to signs of alcohol poisoning.

All I know is that this whole thing makes me sick. I read the very courageous letter from the victim. I read the pathetic and ignorant letter from Brock who still doesn't seem to understand that he's a rapist and being drunk doesn't turn a person into a rapist. I read the even more pathetic and mind-numbingly stupid letter from the father that got me so upset it gave me a migraine. Not even kidding.

I've told all my kids since they were little that there are few things on this planet worse than violating another human being. If they EVER did that to another person, they would have to worry about law enforcement and the victim's family AFTER I got done with them.

Her BA level was .12 when she woke up, the Drs figured that she was .22 at the time of the assault. That's not enough booze to knock someone out for several hours and relieve them of memories of an entire night. That's about the equivalent of 6-7 drinks and she had eaten dinner so she wasn't doing this on an empty stomach. She didn't even respond when she was shaken and shouted at in the ambulance and also when an a needle was stuck in her arm for an IV. She was drugged.

I'm convinced he picked her out because she was drinking and already buzzed and gave her some rohypnol.

This is sickening. Campus assaults cannot be treated this lightly, no assault should be but too often on campus women are being drugged and raped like its some kind of sick twisted sport for predatory guys. And WAY too often athletes are involved and I find that particularly disturbing.

 

[Mackeyser]

I'm beginning to think you're right, Les.

Just found this extra about the judge.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...al-assault-judge-aaron-persky-de-anza-college

Seems he went really, REALLY light on these community college baseball players who gang raped a female soccer player from that same school because she had the temerity to try to put her life back together again, face her demons, reclaim her femininity, sensuality, sexuality and...gasp...went to a party.

Apparently, the only way to get justice after being gang raped is to sit in a dark room and eat broth and cry incessantly until maybe justice is served in whatever half measure it's getting served that day.

That judge, Judge Persky is why rape culture flourishes. If the law really punished rapists, it wouldn't be nearly as pervasive.

 

[LesBaker]

I'm beginning to think you're right, Les.

Just found this extra about the judge.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...al-assault-judge-aaron-persky-de-anza-college

Seems he went really, REALLY light on these community college baseball players who gang raped a female soccer player from that same school because she had the temerity to try to put her life back together again, face her demons, reclaim her femininity, sensuality, sexuality and...gasp...went to a party.

Apparently, the only way to get justice after being gang raped is to sit in a dark room and eat broth and cry incessantly until maybe justice is served in whatever half measure it's getting served that day.

That judge, Judge Persky is why rape culture flourishes. If the law really punished rapists, it wouldn't be nearly as pervasive.

Reading that was awful.

WTF......