So far, seventeen men and boys have been charged with the gang rape of an eleven year old girl. That number is very likely to go up to twenty-eight. The assailants range in age from a junior high school boy to a twenty-seven-year-old man. A number of the rapists are members of the championship high school basketball team and one is the son of a school board member. The men are saying it was consensual and that the girl looked older than she is.

Not buying that . . . the boys thought it was okay to join in because the adults led them and the younger boys followed the older boys . . . BUT . . . none of that excuses this, none of it. Even if the girl was egging them on . . . and there is NO evidence for this other than a kid dressing with thick dark makeup which is NOT equivalent to open to screaming to the world gangbang me . . . there is no excuse for this.

According to a number of sources, the girl was not inviting sex per se (even if she were it’s still rape when adults have sex with kids) but that she only “consented” after being told to shut up or she’d be killed . . . in my book that doesn’t really count as consent, that’s coercion and even if no physical force had been used the threat of it would have been enough to count as rape.

No, this case is NOT a reflection of the dark and violent times we live in . . . it’s a bunch of idiots in a small town who don’t have enough impulse control to stop what they know very well to be wrong. This was not some consensual gangbang orgy. This was child rape.

No, we cannot blame video games or television for this . . . we can blame the boys and men who did this. This really has nothing to do with video games or television input . . . anyone who has every played a video game or watched a movie still knows actual rape and violence is a very bad thing, this includes most young people who can tell the difference between dark fantasy and reality. So far no one has said any of the rapists are learning disabled so they are certainly responsible. Whether or not the girl consented is irrelevant . . . adults having sex with a child is rape, period. High school kids having sex with an eleven-year-old is rape. The only “rapist” who could use a mutual consent argument is the kid in junior high and that won’t fly since the girl’s consent would be suspect when you take into account the implied threat of a bunch of guys pressuring a lone girl, particularly a child. They are claiming she looked older than she is . . . but . . . even in makeup an eleven year old is not going to come off as someone over the age of majority. Unfortunately, the girl is being blamed and victimized here because the rapists include the children of a bunch of idiot elites who have raised their children to treat other human beings as objects to be destroyed and the community is evidently more interested in basketball wins than justice.

The girl has been taken from her home because of threats against her and her family if they help the prosecution . . . the mother being blamed for not taking care of her child (sure, the girl should not have been out alone so late . . . but . . . she’s not to blame for the evil act that was perpetrated against her . . . personally, I wonder at the parents of the boys involved who allowed their children to associate with known drug dealers and criminals).

This is one of those classic defense strategies of blaming the victim who was “stupid” enough to dress wrong or be out late or get into a car with a man who enticed her . . . she’s a child, she’s eleven . . . maybe she should have known better but she’s eleven and it’s not her fault that she was taken to two different locations and raped repeatedly and threatened if she said anything or resisted . . . heck, the girl was so frightened she didn’t know what to do . . . it wasn’t the victim who posted evidence of her rape to the internet or shared phone cam videos with classmates . . . no, it was the rapists who did that. These boys, and men, not only raped a child, they posted the video online and then they have the audacity to claim that it wasn’t their fault.

Seriously, even if the video showed the girl enjoying the act . . . and it does NOT . . . she’s still an eleven-year-old . . . she’s still a child . . . no one at that age should be treated the way she was treated . . . and if she really did say she was older, it doesn’t matter . . . there is no way she’s passing as an adult.

Despite the picture the defense tries to paint, this girl is no trailer trash slut . . . this is an eleven-year-old child who is in the gifted student program and flourishes with sisters who are also exceptional students. The girl has been taken from her family and placed in foster care elsewhere because of threats . . . the police are encouraging the entire family to move as family and friends, some of them powerful, of the boys and men mobilize to threaten the girl (yes, evidently winning basketball is more important than a child’s life and reputation in some places). It’s a small town and a LOT of folks are touched by this . . . given the number of men and boys involved that is no surprise . . . the blame the victim strategy is certainly the easiest to take . . . otherwise folks have to take a hard look at themselves and how they have enabled a mob attack. Certainly, individually, some of these boys may be fine upstanding people . . . but . . . they did not act alone . . . they allowed themselves to be part of a gang that took advantage of an eleven year old child . . . consensual or not . . . and a lot of evidence points to not . . . it’s rape.

The parents of the boys need to sit down with their boys and teach them something about individual responsibility . . . even if others were doing it . . . boys, you should have known better. You should have known that this was wrong . . . you should have spoken up. You didn’t. You got your licks in. Learn from your mistakes and understand that this is never okay.

If you have not read about this case, then go to http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7459716.html and read some background.

– Brian