Brock Turner's Slap On The Wrist

Did Brock Turner get away with a slap on the wrist? The headlines are troubling. Stanford swimmer gets jailed only 6 months for raping unconscious coed, cries the New York Post.

The victim deserves our sympathy. It must feel terrible to think that her victimization is only worth six months. But Brock Turner wasn't convicted of rape. He was convicted of sexual assault. Don't think that language-colonization of legal definitions isn't a marxist strategy.

Why do we incarcerate people, anyway? To keep them away from the rest of us, to punish the offender, to deter other people from criminalization, and to offer restitution to the victim.

The whiff of marxist dialectic is very strong with this case. Turner is constantly referred to as the "Stanford swimmer," because this conjures images of white, male privilege. The attack occurred after a fraternity party, which evokes more privilege, and exclusivity.

The victim read a statement describing how the attack has left her feeling, "closed off, angry, self-deprecating, tired, irritable, empty." Hopefully she will overcome these feelings someday. Part of that process is knowing that she didn't do anything wrong. This imperative will forever be in conflict because she acknowledged that she surrendered her agency prior to the attack, by drinking "four shot glasses of whisky," before the party, then drinking vodka there.

Her contributory negligence is not a license to anyone to violate her, but if she didn't drink that night, the attack would never have happened.

Brock Turner has shown regret over the assault.

When judges render sentences, they take factors like these into account. We've been told by Democrats that we have an over-incarceration problem in this country. And why is that? We have instituted mandatory minimum sentences for all sorts of crimes.

The solution, Democrats say, is to abolish mandatory minimums, and give judges discretion over sentencing. Well, this is what happens! You get results you don't like!

So it's really easy and tempting to demonize Turner, his father, and even his legal defense. Julia Ioffe shame-tweeted her disgust in this way:

May all these men have daughters. https://t.co/Buq0Kzr7qz

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) June 5, 2016

May all parents of boys have legal counsel to defend them against rape allegations. Because someday we will only have mandatory minimums for white sons of privilege who cross the line.

And if you think this is purely a case of white privilege, then you've never heard of Donny Ray Williams.