http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/04/hard-candy-and-the-rape-crew Comments On: Hard Candy and the Rape Crew by Charles Mudede en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Tue, 21 May 2013 09:45:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by grats, sleazeball]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:11:05 -0800 The Stranger Posted by doodle4395]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:31:28 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Ms. D]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:03:35 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Tough luck punks]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:41:58 -0800 The Stranger Posted by diner mo]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:54:25 -0800 The Stranger Posted by diner mo]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:52:14 -0800 The Stranger
Rape as justice is pretty much the definition of rape culture. You're no better than these kids, go fuck yourself.
Posted by sleazy conservatives masquerading as hippies]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:01:05 -0800 The Stranger
"Thanks for the insults."

Thanks for defending rape culture.
Posted by you deserve shame]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:59:28 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Tough luck, punks]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:52:13 -0800 The Stranger Posted by diner mo]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 06:59:40 -0800 The Stranger Posted by singing cynic]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 05:37:19 -0800 The Stranger Posted by one's far less horrifying than the other]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:23:23 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Bonefish]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:09:11 -0800 The Stranger Posted by clashfan]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:34:14 -0800 The Stranger
@60: Exactly.
Posted by Minerva]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:22:20 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Mister G]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 15:33:29 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Lissa]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 14:09:05 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Mister G]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:54:59 -0800 The Stranger
Good. We're not a court of law, you incredible idiot. The evidence of their ill-act was not a photoshop or cgi stand-in. They were horrible people on camera, and they are being treated like horrible people. Their example should resonate, the court of public opinion has nothing to do with "the media".
Posted by fuck off for defending rape culture]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 10:22:22 -0800 The Stranger
Supposedly there is - or was - a plethora of documentary evidence of what happened, but so much of that evidence is hearsay and/or vanished that a proper trial is desperately needed to sort the facts from the bullshit. Even the guy in the video - what he says is stupid and vile, but who knows if he is talking about what he saw happen, what he thinks happened, what he heard happened or if he's just making shit up to troll - and he CLEARLY likes to troll. Most of us should be able to remember how controversial rumours spread like wildfire in teen communities, and few people in those communities know anything about the value of fact-checking, evidence or discretion.

It is all too easy for me to imagine a girl being carried from a room and some joker (like the one in the video above) saying 'ha ha they're going to rape her', after which the story takes on a life of its own. Sure, it doesn't LOOK like that's what happened, but there's enough nebulous possibility there that no one's eternal reputation should be staked on nth-hand accounts assembled in the media - and ESPECIALLY no kid's.
Posted by diner mo]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2013 02:25:11 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Amanda]]> Sat, 05 Jan 2013 23:51:08 -0800 The Stranger
Also, for people arguing against public shaming: there are several reasons why it's the perfect option here. This isn't one person doing something wrong (or a group of teenagers doing something wrong), this is an example of a whole town doing something wrong by protecting them. They are the ones who need to be publicly shamed - to send them a signal that this behavior is not acceptable at all. Because honestly, something like this (athlete/rapists being protected because of a fucked up value system that values hometown wins over the well being of women) happens every couple years, and while I haven't done any scientific studies showing where it happens the most, I seem to remember the word "Ohio" coming up a lot with these types of cases. Can we make small football towns in Ohio synonymous with athlete/rapists the way Arizona is with racism until this goes away?

Also, in terms of ruining their lives forever, have they shown any signs of repentance? Because if they haven't, then go ahead and ruin their lives forever. These guys are shitbags. If they repent, and only if they repent, can we talk about forgiveness. And for people worrying about their ability to find work: they can ALWAYS get a job in the future: if someone who is known as a member of a self-described "rape crew" in a nationally-publicized case truly repents of their behavior later on, they can almost definitely get a job as a speaker educating other men about rape and domestic violence. But that would depend on them, wouldn't it?
Posted by redemma]]> Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:25:11 -0800 The Stranger
But you're right - it does come from something. Ellen's character in Hard Candy (a fictional movie) I assumed was just Doogie Howser smart and extremely twisted - twisted by what they never delve into - and not a complete improbability, especially in a movie fer christsake. But these guys were twisted by something.

We do not know where they came from, just what they have done. And it speaks volumes.
Posted by Anne18]]> Sat, 05 Jan 2013 19:43:29 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Bonefish]]> Sat, 05 Jan 2013 19:10:20 -0800 The Stranger
Eighteen was chosen as the "adult" age because our legal system needed to have one consistent age and 18 was good enough; not because 18 is where some type of magical developmental milestone suddenly occurs. The brain develops gradually just like other parts of the body.

Sixteen-year-olds may not be adults yet, legally or developmentally, but they're most of the way there. They're far enough along that they should at least be able to tell that gang-rape is wrong. They're far enough along that they bear responsibility when they commit acts like this. Being 16 is an excuse for mild idiocy, not for being a violent fucking sociopath.

I'm all for trying minors as minors in our legal system, but this piece makes them out to be purely the suggestible victims of their own surroundings: that is not the case. Whatever social repercussions they face are appropriate whether they've reached legal adulthood or are "only" 8/9ths of the way there.

This isn't the same as a five-year-old who shoots his friend with his dad's gun while playing cops and robbers. Try them as minors if that's the best course for our legal system to take (they haven't crossed that legal border yet, after all). But don't write about them as if they're too young and naive to know that gang-rape is a serious, violent act. This wasn't due to their lack of two more years of growing up: this was their own doing.
Posted by Bonefish]]> Sat, 05 Jan 2013 19:05:58 -0800 The Stranger