Before anything else, Brock Turner is a rapist

Brock Turner is a rapist.

Let’s get that out of the way. No letter written by his father or subsequent letter written by his friends is going to erase this. He is a rapist.

One of the most shocking things about this case is how cut and dry it is. This is not a case of her word against his on whether the rape occurred. Brock Turner was caught in the act and tried to flee from the scene. If it weren’t for two good Samaritans, we wouldn’t know about this case at all because the victim had no memory of the event.

The media will refer to him as “All-American” with a “promising future.” They will use his school photo and not the mugshot. They will mention how great of a swimmer he was. They will say all of this as if it is a shame that someone with these credentials would go to jail.

As I mentioned, he is a rapist, and he should be viewed and treated as one. Stop referring to how well he can swim. Stop talking as if we should be impressed that he goes to a top tier school. Just because a rapist has a talent does not lessen the degree of his crime.

One of the big factors in this case is alcohol. People like to talk about alcohol as if it’s this magical elixir that makes people do things they would never do sober. They like to say that because the victim was drunk, it was her fault.

Let’s reframe that. If someone is drunk and then is killed by a drunk driver, would it be their fault or the driver’s fault? If someone was passed out from drinking and then was murdered, would it be their fault for drinking too much? Why is rape the only crime in which we look to the victim to see if they could have done anything to stop it?

Additionally, alcohol does not make you do anything that you haven’t thought about doing sober. I’m a college student. I have had my fair share of alcohol. I’ve been to my fair share of parties.  Let’s stop pretending that everyone is just a few drinks short of raping the next person they run into at a party. Alcohol just eliminates the inhibitions surrounding that behavior. Alcohol doesn’t cause you to do bad things; it just helps you realize that you’re okay with doing it.

Even more infuriatingly, Turner father wrote a letter to the judge begging for a lenient sentence. He called his son’s rape, “20 minutes of action,” as if he was commenting on a football game. This is what hurts the most. In her letter, the victim mentions that if he had just owned it, if he had just apologized, settled and moved on, it would have been less painful. But no. The Turner family is hell-bent on painting him as the victim in the case.

I wonder if Turner’s father would still frame the rape in such a cavalier way if it were his son being raped behind a dumpster at a party. I wonder how Turner’s older sister feels. What would her family say if she was in the victim’s position?

There is some hope. Turner has been banned from USA Swimming, from returning to Stanford, and will have to register for the Sex Offender Registry.Petitions are circulating to recall the judge who gave Turner such a lenient sentence.

We need to let society know our outrage so future Brock Turners and their fathers know that this is not okay. Brock Turner and his father are a symptom of rape culture. Turner’s father should not be crying that his son’s life is now ruined. He should be furious that his son ruined someone else’s being.

@TheTab