Dharun Ravi Sentenced to 30 days. Tyler Clementi Case.
by pinkagendist
Victim impact statements were heart-wrenching. The prosecutor gave a very impressive speech on the fairness of the trial. She made a compelling case for incarceration and interesting comments on the importance of bias intimidation charges.
Ravi’s defence attorney played to classic homophobia. First he made light of the events and even ended up mentioning gay anal sex. Ravi’s father’s statement was insulting. He mentioned Ravi did not live in a homophobic household, but went on to twice mention “lobby groups” with an agenda. I presume he can only be referring to the Gay Agenda.
I take what happened very seriously and not as a prude. As most people who read this blog know, I once did porn. I knew what was happening, I knew I was being filmed, I know people can walk into shops all around the world and buy videos of me engaging in sexual acts; But the idea that a private moment of my life, an emotional moment could be exposed to the world without my consent is unimaginable. It’s a form of robbery, it’s a form of rape.
Last year I had 30 days of community service for having a 0.6 alcohol level whilst driving. Martha Stewart: 1 year and a half in jail for lying to investigators. Dharun Ravi gets 30 days and 3 years probation for invading one of the most private moments human beings have. Had he been the girl next door, I can’t help but think people (including the judge) would have very different attitude to the events. A pale, nerdy, gay boy isn’t someone everyone can relate to. If it was the judge’s daughter, he’d think differently.
The law would be more harshly applied if it was a women who had killed herself. I can relate to most nerdy males gay or otherwise, I can not seem to relate to homophobic, small minded, stupid males at all. It is rather aggravating as they are a majority group. Hence why I started a blog and now troll around looking for good things to think about. This being one of them, food for thought, not that a tormentor (assisted suicide) getting 30 days is okay.
Thanks E.B. (Prepackaged argument – “if it was a women”)
Agent Demon32
I found this completely disgusting. That people get more jail time for writing a bad check is such a miscarriage of justice that it takes my breath away.
Mine too. I’ve got an awful taste in my mouth.
He does not seem at all sorry.
at all.
Painfully true… all of it. Such a sad outcome to such a sad story.
What really shocked me were Ravi’s father’s statements in court, calling it a malicious prosecution. Still, it seems people don’t understand what happened.
That bothered me, that when you see him in interviews, he doesn’t seem upset that he caused someone to kill themselves. He’s a real sociopath.
Y’know, I once saw a ballet about a tortured writer. As he typed, dancers dressed as him would come on and pick up the discarded sheets of paper and dance around with them. Eventually they pulled him out of his chair and away from the typewriter; they covered him in his rejected manuscript and spun him around, then knocked him on the ground and rolled him off the front of the stage. It was the most forceful representation I’ve seen of an artist being driven to suicide by his inability to realize his vision; I was deeply moved. The rest of the audience laughed as if this were the biggest joke ever. Americans (in general) don’t give a shit about suicide. All of our cultural training from Ben Franklin and Horatio Alger tells us that someone who is in enough despair to kill himself just wasn’t trying hard enough. The one who commits suicide is guilty, and deserves his death. This country sucks.
I was shocked today to find a piece of community news I hadn’t heard from you first: Bob Spitzer is apologizing to the world for his study in support of conversion therapy, circa 2000. Read about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/health/dr-robert-l-spitzer-noted-psychiatrist-apologizes-for-study-on-gay-cure.html?_r=1
I did that on the 18th
: http://pinkagendist.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/dr-robert-l-spitzer-noted-psychiatrist-apologizes-for-study-on-gay-cure-nytimes-com/
Where were you???
Apparently I was working at fitting my head up my own ass. I’ll try to pull it out more often.
Okay now after reading peoples comments. I feel callous about my own. I am used to hatred, I am used to closed mindedness, in my home town, there was a bridge nicknamed “Chuckahomo” bridge, where a man (a young man, practically a boy) was thrown from and drowned in the water below. I was 2 when it originally happened. my father statement to me when I learned about it, was “fuckin fag should have known better to hit on men” I was 11 or so, I asked what chuckahomo bridge meant and that is what he said to explain it. I grew up with the people that say and do horrible things. It made my heart stone, but not uncaring, just hard. I guess the bad taste in my mouth is something I am very used to. To think about it, makes me really angry and even more angry at my father’s comment validating the death of someone that never needed to die. Bah. Bad tastes and shame for a family line that continues it.
I never forgot that conversation with my father, hence why I never forget Charlie, he looks like he had a bright future ahead of him and one day I can stop bullshit like this from happening or people saying that it is good that it happens.
http://unfinishedlivesblog.com/the-victims/
Charles O. “Charlie” Howard (do a find, he is in there along with many others)
When I click on the above link, I get an Obama speech. Just from what you said and what others commented, I can say that this was a gross miscarriage of justice. Anything awful enough to drive someone to suicide, needs to be judged harshly. Shame on them.
Hi, Wendy
That link was for the live reading of the verdict. It’s long and sad, but if you want to see it, it’s here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7402305n
Thats ok. I got the gist of it from your post and your followers’ comments.
I hadn’t heard of this so I did some research to find out what had happened. The Wiki entry implied that the spying and exposure on Twitter were not directly related to Tyler Clementi’s suicide but I can imagine how something so horrible might be the final straw.
It is like a rape Pinky because it robbed him of choice and turned him into a victim. Ravi and Wei deserved to be punished. This smack on the wrist is not even symbolic. What a sick outcome.
Wikipedia can imply as much as they like. In the days before his death, Clementi visited Ravi’s twitter page 59 times. He knew he had been spied on, he knew Ravi was planning a “viewing party”. Anyone in that position would feel heinously violated.
30 days in prison is what a shop-lifter gets, although they can get up to one year. It’s utterly insulting.
Nope. We actually know from text messages they were supposed to meet the night he killed himself. The friend (M.B.) didn’t know about the filing until after the suicide.
Gods…
Why did no-one extend that young man a helping hand? Just something. A word of encouragement. Sorry, that was rhetorical. I just can’t get my head around it. Any of it.