Trent Mays,17, and Ma’lik Richmond,16, are not “stars” of the Steubenville rape trial show. This case was not a cautionary tale movie on Lifetime. It really happened and these boys are monsters and they aren’t the only people who were effected by this trial. There is a young girl, a victim of gang rape, who was publicly shamed, drugged, mistreated, graphically and publicly assaulted, whose life will never be the same again. And yet if you were watching CNN yesterday morning as the Steubenville rape verdict was presented you might have gotten confused and thought that those boys were the victims of some coercing, long island Lolita/ Black Widow type. You might have gotten confused and felt some sympathy. I, myself, was utterly disgusted and flabbergasted.
I don’t want to become the all Throat Punch all the time blog. I try to reserve Thursdays for ranting about the world’s monsters but then people just keep doing stupid things and I can’t help it. I try to steer clear of media on the weekend so that I can be present in the moment. Then it happened. Sunday, after brunch, I caught the Steubenville Rape verdict on CNN. I am disappointed. What was Poppy Harlow thinking? Was she confused on just what was going on?
Poppy Halrow, reporting from the trial, seemed a little rattled and melancholy at the verdict as she reported to anchor Candy Crowley.
“Incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart…when that sentence came down, [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Ma’lik] collapsed in the arms of his attorney…He said to him, ‘My life is over. No one is going to want me now.’ Very serious crime here, both found guilty of raping the sixteen-year-old girl at a series of parties back in August.”
Then CNN panned slowly to one of the convicted rapist crying like a little girl. Am I supposed to feel sorry? They are not sorry for what they did. Don’t get it twisted CNN. They are sorry that now they have to pay ( barely.) I watched in silence, with my mouth agape because surely I was having a nightmare. There is no way in the world that a female reporter was sympathetic towards the rapists.( The operative word being RAPIST) I don’t give a flying flip if they are only 16 and 17. I don’t care how “promising ” their futures were and I care even less if they fell apart. Was I in the twilight zone? Was this a national media punking? Where was Ashton Kutcher and Dax Shephard? Did Poppy Harlow forget her meds?
Then Candy Crowley while speaking with Paul Callan, a legal expert, asked him to elaborate on the future of the two young men. She seemed very concerned about the vulnerable states of the rapists and how this verdict might effect the rest of their lives. What about the life of the girl who they raped? Who is her advocate? The one they so callously referred to and joked about as the “Dead girl”. They thought it was funny to drug a girl until she was unconscious and then use her like some sort of team sponsored blow up doll. They could have killed her. They could have physically damaged her permanently. I’m certain they did mentally. They have ruined her life in a big way. But still CNN feels sorry for them.
“The most severe thing with these young men is being labeled as registered sex offenders. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law…That will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Employers, when looking up their background, will see that they’re registered sex offenders. When they move into a new neighborhood and somebody goes on the Internet, where these things are posted, neighbors will know that they are registered sex offenders.”
Yes, they got an insulting slap on the wrist conviction and sentence but thankfully, it carries with it the label of sex offender. They will for the rest of their lives. And? They ARE sex Offenders. They deserve to be labeled as such. I only wish they had it tattooed to their foreheads and received mandated chemical castration. I don’t care if they were jocks with hearts of gold and a 4.0 GPA, they are RAPISTS!!!! You have sex with an unconscious girl, you are a rapist. If you don’t want to be labeled as such then don’t rape girls. These boys had no common decency and no respect for women. Maybe they will gain a better understanding of rape and a sense of remorse once they have completed their time in prison. I hear they sure are pretty.
The verdict is an insult and if I were the victim’s parents I would be pissed. For the victim, she would have been well served to spit on her rapist when he came sobbing in front of her. He was sobbing for himself, no one else. As for CNN,I think maybe Poppy Harlow and Candy Crowley were having a simultaneous stroke. It’s the only thing that makes any sense to me, as to why any woman would ever feel sympathy for ANY RAPIST!
Hey CNN and Steubenville rapists, rape is rape. Rapists are criminals, not victims. Rapists should go to jail for a long time. Victims should not be ignored and treated like they are responsible for snatching away the rapists’ promising futures. They rapist made the decision to relinquish their rights to a promising future the moment they lost respect for someone else’s life and decided to rape her. These arrogant boys thought they were above the law and our society allowed them to lack morality and trivialize rape.The bottom line is that rape is rape and rape is a crime, whether these boys and CNN believe it or not.
Do you think justice was served? What do you think of how the Steubenville rape case was reported?
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