Stanford Rapist’s Statement Blames “Party Culture” For Raping Someone

CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses sexual assault. If you would like to talk to a counsellor about rape, sexual assault or domestic violence, give the people over at 1800 RESPECT a call on 1800 737 732.


Jesus actual fucking christ in hell.

Brock Allen Turner, the former Stanford student who last week was sentenced to six months jail for sexually assaulting a woman in 2015, believes he is a victim of drinking culture and promiscuity.

Not a rapist, or a perpetrator of rape culture, or an example of the self-entitled bullshit that seems to stick to star athletes like a plague. He is the victim of drinking culture, and if it hadn’t been for alcohol, he would never have sexually assaulted an unconscious woman.

These vile and blame-shifting observations come courtesy of Turner’s full statement to judge Aaron Persky, obtained by The Guardian.

If you read the widely-shared, powerful victim impact letter, you’ll remember that the survivor addressed certain parts of Turner’s letter, and wrote that “he has failed to exhibit sincere remorse or responsibility for his conduct.”
And yeah, that’s pretty much exactly it. Turner writes:

“There isn’t a second that has gone by where I haven’t regretted the course of events I took on January 17th/18th.”

Good.

“My shell and core of who I am as a person is forever broken from this. I am a changed person. At this point in my life, I never want to have a drop of alcohol again. I never want to attend a social gathering that involves alcohol or any situation where people make decisions based on the substances they have consumed. I never want to experience being in a position where it will have a negative impact on my life or someone else’s ever again.

“I’ve lost two jobs solely based on the reporting of my case. I wish I never was good at swimming or had the opportunity to attend Stanford, so maybe the newspapers wouldn’t want to write stories about me.”

No Brock you lost two jobs because you sexually assaulted someone.

“I want to show that people’s lives can be destroyed by drinking and making poor decisions while doing so. One needs to recognise the influence that peer pressure and the attitude of having to fit in can have on someone. One decision has the potential to change your entire life. I know I can impact and change people’s attitudes towards the culture surrounded by binge drinking and sexual promiscuity that protrudes through what people think is at the core of being a college student. I want to demolish the assumption that drinking and partying are what make up a college lifestyle.”

The entire extract is about a 50/50 mix of ‘the dangers of alcohol’ and how Brock’s life has been ruined by sexually assault someone. Even the way he speaks about the pain he’s inflicted on the survivor is brought back to him, and how he feels about it. (“I shake uncontrollably from the amount I torment myself by thinking about what has happened.”) He mentions consent precisely zero fucking times.


The survivor, who gave a phone interview to The Guardian, said it was important for people to recognise how harmful his statements are.

“People need to know that this way of thinking is dangerous,” she said. “It’s threatening. More than my emotions, it’s my safety, everyone else’s safety. It’s not just me feeling sad and defeated. It’s honest fear.

“The anger everyone is expressing has so many levels of being hurt and feeling that fear. Anger is how a lot of us are expressing it, but it comes from a place of pain. It’s unacceptable. There’s no way you can wiggle out of this.”

If you want to read the entire published extract of Brock’s letter, you can do so here.

Alternatively, here’s a much better read – the Facebook post that’s been shared almost 300,000 times and counting, which lays out that no, alcohol is not to blame for sexual assault you deluded moron.

Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department.

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