The Steubenville Case

[DarkToph]

A couple months ago, I was made aware of the Steubenville **** case through a video made by Anonymous. For those that don't know, the Steubenville case involves some members of the Steubenville football team raping an inebriated and unconscious girl at a party. They then proceeded to take various pictures, video and even made a fairly long video bragging about their actions and mocking the victim, joking that she was probably dead and wasn't moving. Later they also made various tweets and posts making terrible comments at the victims expense. Anonymous stepped in on this because the town was actively trying to cover it up due to the football star status of the rapists. From what I've heard from various people who live in or around Steubenville, it's a tiny rathole that only has the football team going for it, thus the huge support for it. One blogger who wrote extensively about the case and lived in Steubenville even said the football culture in the area was downright "creepy" with how overboard they go with it.

A little while goes by and I hear really nothing much of the case and the Youtube account that the video was posted on was taken down. I assume that was, sadly, the end of it until recently when I saw that not only had the case been brought to light, but that at least two of the boys involved were charged and found guilty of the crimes, their sentences a minimum of 1-2 years in a juvenile detention facility and being on a sex offender list until they're 21. I was very happy to hear this news, even if I thought the sentence could've been more severe, and assumed the rest of the world took it as a win.

However, that was apparently not the same mindset of everyone as I see a post on Reddit a few days ago that CNN was playing up the rapists as the victims while not bringing up the real victim at all.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/17/cnn-grieves-that-guilty-verdict-ruined-promising-lives-of-steubenville-rapists/

Now, I get that it can be seen as a shame that these teens sunk to this level and lost what could've been a good future, but they did it to themselves. It's not like they did something beyond their control and are being unfairly punished for it. They knew what they were doing, just watch the videos or read their tweets. They knew it was wrong, but did it anyway. They did horrible things to some poor girl and they laughed it off and spend days making tons of terrible (in both senses of the term) jokes mocking her and the ****. Their actions 'ruined their lives' not the conviction.

After I read that article (Again, on Reddit) and read the comments, I didn't realize that this case was actually so controversial. I didn't realize how many people feel like the rapists are the victims and the girl was "asking for it." Yes, the victim in this case is being called out by many people because they believe she was at fault since she was intoxicated. She put herself into that kind of situation and thus it's her fault.

I'm eternally saddened by how many people believe this. **** essentially boils down to having sex with someone who didn't or can't consent to the sexual actions. Getting drunk does not mean automatic consent. She was unconscious, she couldn't consent to anything.

The victim has also been getting tons of hate mail, death threats and even hate sites dedicated to her. Happily, some girls who made death threats have actually been arrested for it, but there are still plenty others.

Sympathy has also been garnered for the rapists because many people believe it's not their fault based on their age and how they've been brought up in such a way that they've gotten, I guess, high so-to-speak on their star football player status. First of all, stop using their age as an excuse. They're 16-17 (Some of the people involved may even be 18) years old. That's sixTEEN and sevenTEEN, not 6 and 7 years old. If you don't know that **** is horrible and illegal at that age, there's a bigger problem at hand.

Second, the problem is, they knew full out that what they were doing was wrong. There are several posts and tweets that present this as they were worried they'd get in trouble a couple of times. So you can't really act like they didn't know any better due to the way they were brought up. If you want to put any blame on their environment it's that they basically assumed that they could get away with anything because of their status, which they almost did. If they weren't built up to be such gods, maybe MAYBE they never would've gone through with it out of fear of the consequences, but you still can't excuse this in the least because of that. Same thing with celebrities. The justice system keeps giving most of them breaks even on plenty of repeated offenses (Fun fact, Lindsay Lohan evaded jail time AGAIN yesterday.) Why do they keep doing these things? Partially because they know that their status and money can bail them out of most every jam. Does that make it any better? No. They still know that they're doing wrong, they just don't care. (I won't add this as an official part of this post because it's purely my opinion, but when one of the boys was given statements after their conviction, one of them said "Those pictures shouldn't have been lying around." That line alone really pissed me off because it makes it seem like he's sorry he left evidence around that allowed him to get caught, not that he was sorry for the crime at hand.)

I guess I just can't get over the fact that this many people are willing to defend convicted rapists (Who sound like horrific human beings either way) because they can throw a ball.

Now you may be wondering, where's the debate here? Am I insinuating that anybody here has sympathy for rapists? Well, no. I'm moreso curious about other aspects of this like "Why are sports so important to people?" "Why do we treat some people like celebrities just because they can play a game?" "When did we sink to such a point that some people will try to sweep **** under the rug to keep the reputation of their football team and its players intact?" "Why are people so involved with something that doesn't even matter to the point where they'll harass and wish death upon a victim of **** just because their beloved team players got in trouble for it?" "When did we start putting games over human beings?"

I know that many people are purely blaming Steubenville for this outlandish backlash and believe that most of the sympathy for the players is just coming from Steubenville or people who used to live there, but this is far from the first time this type of situation has occurred, and they can't be the only small town with this messed up mindset. In fact, this case has gotten me very curious as to just how many crimes have been swept away by towns or schools to protect jocks? Fans have died over sports. They've gotten beaten to a pulp for what teams they root for. Towns have been completely trashed in celebrations of sports victories and outcries of defeat. I just don't get it. I really don't.

[Picard]

Neither do I, really. I simply cannot understand the importance of sports in general, and why people can be so fiercely, and sometimes even violently, defensive about their favored team. I don't understand why they feel they have the right to cause harm upon other people and/or property should their team lose, or why they feel it is more important to protect the members of the team instead of a **** victim. There are some really serious issues with society and the crowd mentality, neither of which I really understand. People tend to forgo morality issues in the presence of a huge crowd, because more people means lower chances of being identified, which translates to less responsibilities as a human being belonging to a society.

I guess, in short, people are inherently evil. That is my belief. They do good things, sure, but there is always a motive, even if it is just self gratification. I help you so that I can feel good about myself, not because I genuinely wish to help you. Anyway, I guess I can't really answer your questions, since I am equally puzzled at why people see sports teams as celebrities.

[DarkToph]

I can't really bring myself to believe that everyone is evil. There are plenty of people who are, sure, but I can't believe there aren't some people out there who think of themselves last. I have a bleak enough outlook on life without thinking that.

Only theory I've been able to come up with is that sports were invented, I believe, to both be entertainment and to be a show of physical skills. In addition, sports in the old, old, old days were probably insanely dangerous. The ones that came out on top (And alive) were viewed as heroes. Even though our modern sports as also tests of physical prowess, I wouldn't ever resort to calling any athlete a hero unless they earned it some other way. They're overpaid, overglorified people. They get seven figure salaries, fame, adoration, scholarships and more because they can play a game well. I REALLY don't understand the importance of high school teams. Wasn't there a statistic out there that like less than 1% of high school sports players end up making a career out of it? Yet people still get this riled over it?

Another aspect of sports that I believe comes into play is a sense of unity that comes with being a fan. You like a team? Hey, I like that team! INSTANT FRIENDS! <3 They can also come together against common enemies (rival teams) How that snowballed into athletes are gods and sports are more important than people is beyond me.

They may be impressive sometimes with their skills, and hell, even I like watching hockey or NASCAR every now and then, but that doesn't make them any better than anyone else.

[STARMAN15]

Oh y'all... I'm about to resurrect from creeper status with a soapbox that I hold near and dear to my heart. I am from the good ole' state of Alabama and if you're thinking "Oh wow, aren't all people there rednecks and racists?" you're thinking almost absolutely correct. Now don't get me wrong, not every community is that bad and there are a lot of people that have moved past all of this, but where I'm from, out in the boonies... well, yeah...

I'm from a small farming community in Northeast Alabama. In my county, there are five schools. Four out of five are K-12 schools, and one (the one I graduated from) is actually split into Elementary, Middle, and High Schools like normal places in the world. Our county is very, VERY big on sports. Not all sports, mind you, but the 3 "big" sports: football, baseball, and basketball. Honestly, for our schools it was all about the money. They poured a lot of money into sports because sports brought in a lot of money. I believe the reason high school sports are so big is simple: it's old people reliving their glory days. When you're from a small community like I am, nobody ever leaves. They don't go to college, or if they do, they go to the one right down the road and then come back and run "the family business" with their parents. This psuedo-incestuous culture means that the highlight of peoples lives were in high school where their "claim to fame" was being on a sports team that brought them "local fame" status.

I'm going to defend small town America for a moment: the sense of community is more where local heroism comes from than actual sports themselves. I know this kinda from experience. I'm a musical theatre major, and pretty much everyone in Centre (my hometown) knows me from the plays that I've been in locally and the awards I've won at drama competitions. I'm a local "star" in my own right, the same as the football and basketball players are. I'm kinda playing devil's advocate here in saying that it doesn't surprise me that they are standing up for the rapists even though they are probably horrified at their actions.

For example, in a small town you've grown up with everyone. It can be hard for a community to handle a situation where "good kids" do something horrific. Communities go into the defense mechanism of denial. "Oh, so-and-so would never do that! I've known him since he was in diapers and babysat him with my granddaughter!" or "I was so-and-so's little league coach and he was always such a great kid!" It doesn't make it right, but it does explain to an extent why the COMMUNITY would try to sweep something like this under the rug. The same goes for the victim. "She was raised better than to drink! Her mama always warned her there would be consequences!" or "Well, according to such-and-such's daughter down at the high school, she was already a little loose anyways. I blame her raising." Because in small towns, drinking and drugs are considered as bad (if not worse) than something like ****.

I know that all of this is so backward to the way it should be, but that's how small towns are. Everything is about pride and saving face. When someone is a local celebrity, it's easier to save face by justifying it, the same as if someone is not very well known it's easier to blame them for something that is "bad." I know this is not the topic of sports and what not, but I just wanted to sort of explain the horrible but true mindset of small town America.

What I don't understand is why the media played into the mindset. There is no excuse for the national media to make it about the rapists. That is absurd and horrible. They should be the ones to break down the barriers of small town America with the truth of the matter, which is **** IS WRONG!

(I'm going to be honest, this post started as something completely different than what it turned out to be. I'll have to write another one later explaining my problems with sports.)

[Picard]

I know why the media does it, however. Money. This is why major league sports teams do it, this is why news corporations do it, and this is why big businesses do it. It's all for the money. Capitalism is utterly rampant. It is foolish to believe that news corporations report news for the people. No, they do it for cash. I'm Singaporean, so American channels are pretty much out of my area of expertise, but from reading much about it on Reddit, Fox News is a pretty big offender in such a category. They report news to suit their own agenda and for cash. It's a disgusting sight. They want to make it about the rapists and not the victim, because this will incite further discussion and news coverage. It will generate more views, and in turn, more money. There's only so much you can go with victims, so why not look into the lives of the rapists and see what made them who they were, or why they did such a thing? It's downright bollocks that news corporations can get away with such things, digging a deeper hole for the grave of society. It's just ridiculous.

On a related note, I have a very relevant video to show you. It's not ****, but school shootings. TotalBiscuit (TotalHalibut) has consistently made very good points, and I agree with him heavily. I ask of you to watch this video as well.

[Picard]

Well, what do you know? Now we have a follow-up story.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/03/at-least-200000-people-want-cnn-apologize-its-sympathetic-steubenville-coverage/63315/