Drink Responsibly...

I am just getting to old for this crap. Here's the story. A Stanford swimming star was charged, tried, found guilty by a jury, and convicted of raping a young woman for which he has been sentenced to 6 months in jail and his name in the Sex Offender database for the rest of his life. One would think that is a good outcome.

Oh, but wait folks...apparently not. The prosecutor asked for 14 years, but the judge chose to sentence the guy to 6 months (3 months off for good behavior) and a lifetime as a branded sex offender. Social media went insane because of the light sentence and petitions are making the rounds and being signed to recall the judge for the light sentence.

Here are the basic facts (from my perspective): Blind drunk girl with a blood alcohol level 3 times over the legal limit goes to a frat party. She comes into contact with a boy whose blood alcohol level is 2 times over the legal limit at a Stanford frat party. What could possibly go wrong, right? Drunk boy asks drunk girl back to his dorm room, but they don't make it past the dumpsters before they do what drunk boys and girls at frat parties do. Two students biking around at 1am in the morning for what reason only they know, find drunk boy having sex with drunk girl and stop it. The girl is obviously unconscious. This is bad because, even though the boy swears she gave consent, according to the law, an unconscious person cannot give consent and rightfully so. Ergo, the drunk boy is arrested, charged, convicted, and sentenced to jail time [See: sentence above].

Here is where my frustration comes in. Exactly what wisdom (or lack of it) have we instilled in young women to think that they can voluntarily get blind drunk (3 times over legal limit) and not bear just a tiny bit of responsibility for these kinds of situations? Mind you, the boy IS going to jail and rightfully so, but why does she get to play the completely innocent victim? This may sound harsh, but life comes with risks. And our job is to try our hardest to minimize these risks.

One of those ways is to, say, not take a casual stroll through Central Park at 2am. If you don't do that, then chances of getting mugged are drastically reduces and you have wisely chosen to minimize your risk of being mugged or worse. Another way is to lock your doors and windows when you leave your home to minimize the risk to being robbed. Of course, robbers break in, but by buying insurance against indicates that the homeowner understands that there is a risk and has it covered just in case.

Another very important way is to not get blind drunk before going out your door (or to a frat party). Yes, yes, I know, don't blame the victim. But when one sets out voluntarily to get blind drunk to the point one cannot remember who or where one is, one drastically raises the possibility of bodily harm. You should not get to abdicated personal responsibility and then call yourself an innocent victim. I have been branded a victim-blamer, but it seems to me we could minimize these kinds of crimes by instilling in young women that perhaps the wise choice would be to not go out of their way to make themselves vulnerable by getting blind drunk. If they can try to minimize the risk to their person, it would be a great first-line defense against bodily harm.

Let me stress that none of this means that what this guy who has been tried, convicted, and sentenced is in any way, shape, or form any less of a rapist. There are people in the world who want to do harm to others. But we have to start by acknowledging that there is a risk and to try our hardest to minimize that risk by being responsible and paying attention.

Discuss...or not.