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POPSvideo: Jasiri X - "Beware Young Girl" More lyrics: And to the shock of her family and the witnesses she was charged with assaulting police and resiting them the difference when you black just the claim that ya yellin can turn a preacher's daughter to a dangerous felon so I tell em Verse 2 So much fun she had at the homecoming dance 930 she got to leave to get a ride from her dad saw a friend runnin past he asked her come and grab a little something that would last the party's jumpin in the back she laughed this was her chance to hang with the cool kids the older guys ones she didn't even go to school with but the rule is to never drink with strangers I wish that I was there so I could tell her she's in danger that those who she thought were good fellas would sedate her beat her and gang rape her and they would forever change her with hatred and anger for 2 and a half hours they brutalized her worse than pouring acid on a flower Continued below.
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POPSRichmond gang rape seen as "nearly inevitable"
More: English teacher Jessica Price, who knows the victim and most of the arrested suspects, said the girl has helped in conflict-mediation groups wanted to join the Police Explorers, a Boy Scouts group that lets boys and girls learn law enforcement with local police… That such a girl could be so brutalized speaks more to a pack mentality, stoked by booze and street machismo, than it does to the general character of Richmond High's youths, Price said. "Those boys who did what they did weren't picturing that girl as a human," she said. "I think you see these kinds of boys at a lot of high schools - so desensitized it was like they saw her as a toy. Boys like that - there aren't many like them, but they can be so hard. All they needed was something to set them off." She told a school district safety panel last week that some girls trying to find out who had watched the rape were being threatened in the hallways - and that, too, she blames on a desensitized mentality.
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POPSSurprise spectator at Garrido hearing More: Hall was a blackjack dealer in South Lake Tahoe when Garrido kidnapped her in November 1976 and drove her to a storage unit in Reno that he had stocked with pornography, sex devices and a mattress. He raped her repeatedly over the course of several hours. He was convicted of federal kidnapping charges and of rape in Nevada. Under sentencing guidelines now in place, Garrido would have been behind bars for more than two decades - and wouldn't have been free in 1991 when Dugard was snatched off the street in South Lake Tahoe. But under 1970s-era sentencing laws, Garrido was eligible for federal parole after just 10 years, and he was set free in 1988. "I intend to be at as many (hearings) as I can," Hall said. "I'm not going to shut up and go away like the parole board told me to do 21 years ago. I have my own personal reasons for wanting to see him put away."
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POPSGore Vidal: latest candidate for Worst Person In The World I can't come up with anything to say without descending into epithets and ad hominem insults against Mr. Vidal, so I'll just repeat: candidate for Worst Person In The World. EDITED TO ADD: Let me make this clear . Comments alleging that the victim wanted it, deserved it, or was indeed a prostitute as Vidal alleges are out of line and (as of 2:20 pm Pacific time) will be deleted from here out. Comments alleging that "we don't know the full story" display the commenter's ignorance of the grand jury testimony and and (as of 2:20 pm Pacific time) will be deleted from here out. DO NOT EVEN TRY TO CLAIM THAT A 13-YEAR-OLD IS AT FAULT FOR HAVING BEEN RAPED, NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES.
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POPSMark Morford: The gang rape and 30 Republican senators who don't give a damn about battered women More: Turns out, when faced with such vileness, all filters fail. All balance is thrown off. You thought you had some sort of way to process and attain perspective? You are proven wrong. So perhaps all we can do is ponder how pathetic and sad these various senator's lives must be, how these bitter old men will now go home at night and announce around the dinner table that, yes, today they worked very hard to help improve the welfare of the nation by essentially enabling rape and sexual abuse, tried their darndest to prevent women who've been viciously attacked from having much legal recourse. And lo, Satan will chuckle happily. Then maybe these senators will try and hug their wives, or their daughters. And maybe, if there's any justice in the universe, their wives and daughters will slap them as hard as humanly possible, lock them in a shipping container, and never let them touch them again.
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POPSWhat is "rape culture"? Click through for the whole thing. More: Rape culture is treating straight sexuality as the norm. Rape culture is lumping queer sexuality into nonconsensual sexual practices like pedophilia and bestiality… Rape culture is rape being used as a weapon, a tool of war and genocide and oppression. Rape culture is rape being used as a corrective to "cure" queer women. Rape culture is a militarized culture and "the natural product of all wars, everywhere, at all times, in all forms." Rape culture is 1 in 33 men being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is encouraging men to use the language of rape to establish dominance over one another ("I'll make you my bitch")… Rape culture is 1 in 6 women being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is not even talking about the reality that many women are sexually assaulted multiple times in their lives. Rape culture is the way in which the constant threat of sexual assault affects women's daily movements.
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POPSPolanski, "Hounddog", and 13-year-old voices More: Earlier this week, I was talking to a friend about l'affair Polanski, and she brought up a really good point: Remember the "Hounddog" controversy? (No? Then you might remember the "Dakota Fanning Rape Movie" controversy.) In that case, a female writer-director, Deborah Kampmeier, was excoriated for depicting a fictional child rape -- via close-ups on a clothed Fanning's face and hands, not simulated intercourse -- to tell a story about, among other things, the way victims are silenced. Outrage over the use of a 12-year-old actress in a rape scene, spearheaded by conservative groups like Concerned Women for America, brought the independent film national attention -- and yes, Virginia (and Carol), there is such a thing as bad publicity. Theater chains backed out of showing the movie. Protesters called the district attorney's office in Wilmington, N.C., where the movie was shot, demanding that Kampmeier be prosecuted for child pornography. The filmmaker received death threats.
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POPSSchroedinger's Rapist Rape culture hurts women and decent men as well. More: So when you, a stranger, approach me, I have to ask myself: Will this man rape me? Do you think I’m overreacting? One in every six American women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime… While you may assume that none of the men you know are rapists, I can assure you that at least one is. Consider: if every rapist commits an average of ten rapes (a horrifying number, isn’t it?) then the concentration of rapists in the population is still a little over one in sixty… How do I know that you, the nice guy who wants nothing more than companionship and True Love, are not this rapist? I don’t. When you approach me in public, you are Schrödinger’s Rapist. You may or may not be a man who would commit rape. I won’t know for sure unless you start sexually assaulting me. I can’t see inside your head, and I don’t know your intentions.
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POPSWhy "but it will confuse the children" is an obnoxious excuse for discrimination As the post points out, ou know what else confuses kids? Everything: Time zones. Books without pictures. Cargo pants. Certain hair colors. Jello molds. The magic trick with the quarter behind the ear. Mirrors. Mentadent toothpaste dispensers. Everything confuses kids, because they're kids. So "Will it confuse kids?" is probably not the best litmus test for, well, anything besides toys and Spongebob plotlines (and even then, there's a lot of leeway).
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POPSPolanski's victim looked her age A lot of the people trying to excuse Polanski's acts seem to be focusing on "but she looked older than 13!" – as if it would have been perfectly acceptable to drug and rape somebody older than 13, and the only problem was her age. Suppose you set aside the fact that he drugged her and raped her orally, vaginally, and anally while she cried and repeatedly said "No!" Suppose none of that applied. The age of consent in California is and was 18 (and has been since 1913). Samantha Geimer looked like a young adolescent, not like an adult. I get carded when I buy alcohol, and I'm 39 years old. I don't mind, because I understand that protecting kids – by keeping them from drinking, in this case – is important. But somehow it's reasonable to get all handwavy and "well, she looks older!" if it's about sex? I don't think so.
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POPSDisgusting: Polish politicians and artists speak in support of Polanski Very disappointed in Wałęsa. More: So there we have it, a curious -- or not -- double standard. Pedophiles are considered degenerates in Poland now, undeserving of human rights. Except when they are famous filmmakers with powerful friends, that is. An inescapable lesson from Polanski's saga so far: if you are going to rape a child, don't be a plumber or auto mechanic; be famous and rich. Then justice will be slow and lenient for you, and people will forgive your crime. Nah, they'll be clamoring to speak out in your defense.
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POPSPut Polanski attention where it belongs: He raped a child More: These outlets represent the case as clouded by the victim’s forgiveness, prosecutorial misconduct, the family’s alleged opportunism, and other elements of the story which have no bearing on the key fact that the case is about the rape of a child. Too often, the media is complicit in misrepresenting or silencing the victims of sexual assault. The Women’s Media Center calls on the media to report the unfolding story of the Polanski arrest and possible extradition with clarity and specificity. The rape of a child is at the heart of the case. That is not disputed, and should not be represented as subjective.
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POPSPolanski, rape, and the myth of "Not Like Us" More: Rapists don’t tip the homeless guy, because they have some spare change from Starbucks. Rapists don’t survive the Holocaust. Rapists don’t sit in the cubicle across from us at work, and send us funny xkcd cartoons. Rapists don’t have uneventful, long-term relationships with their college girlfriends. Rapists don’t show up on set every day, directing a critically-acclaimed movie. Rapists don’t get married, nervous in a tux at the end of the aisle. Rapists don’t spend their weekends browsing at the farmer’s market, and then stop for brunch and do the NYT crossword. Rapists don’t co-write this screenplay with us. Rapists don’t hang out at the pub with their friends, watching football and drinking just half a pint of beer, because they’re driving.… We tell these myths to ourselves and each other often, but of course, they are lies. A rapist is nothing but a man who doesn’t listen when you say stop.
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POPSPolanski apologists in translation More: The victim doesn’t want to put herself or her family through this ordeal anymore - If I can intimidate my victim enough, I can get away with it!… He didn’t know she was thirteen - All girls should be required to tattoo their ages in a visible location in order to protect men from accidentally raping them. Also, it would have been perfectly okay for him to drug and rape her if she had been sixteen. Nobody would even care about this case if Polanski weren’t famous - Who cares about rape anyway? Sadly, there’s some truth to this last one. According to RAINN, 1 in 6 women will be raped in her lifetime. (My sense is that the numbers are even higher.) Yet only 6% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. As a society, we don’t care. At least, we don’t care enough.
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POPSRape is never okay... unless you also happen to make Great Art More: Rape is a crime of violence. It doesn't matter who the rapist is. It doesn't matter who the victim is. It doesn't matter how hard she fought or what she was wearing or how much she had to drink. It doesn't matter whether she knew the rapist, whether she'd gone out with him, whether she kissed him or went back to his place or had sex with fifty thousand other men first. No one has the right to rape another person, and anyone who does must be held accountable, must receive the message that rape is not okay and will not be tolerated, each and every time, no exceptions. How else can we ever build a society in which a woman can move freely through her world without fearing for her physical and emotional safety at every turn? I can only hope and pray that our justice system takes this opportunity to declare loudly and without apology that no one has immunity from accountability for rape, not even Roman Polanski.
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POPSMore rebuttals to more Polanski-apologist rationalizations More: Where is the outrage of so many of these same people over men who have been sitting on death row for decades based on perjured testimony, judges who didn't let in relevant testimony, or simply biased juries... even before we get to DNA issues? He's guilty... he admits he's guilty... he ran... but we like him... so it's okay. Epic Fail. If you want to make the argument, make a real argument. I haven't heard one yet.
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POPSPolanski's lost alibi More: If the plea was withdrawn, could the DA’s office pull the case together after all this time? Probably. First of all, even though Geimer said she didn’t want Polanski to do any more time, I wouldn’t discount the possibility that she’d show up to testify at trial. But even if she didn’t, lots of other evidence is out there: Geimer’s spontaneous statements to others about the rape, the observations of the nurses and doctors who examined her, and Polanski’s admissions to friends, family, and others would come in. Bottom line, there’s a case that can be made even without the victim—and without Polanski’s guilty plea. And if this case does go to trial, Polanski might find himself wishing he’d gotten it into court back in 1977. Because Wells was certainly right. The ’70s are long gone, and today people see rape for the crime it is.
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POPSNew game: Don't Give Money to The Rapist More: There are several means of doing this, some of which relate to downloading them, which is TOTALLY ILLEGAL, and the official position of Tiger Beatdown is that you should NOT DO ILLEGAL THINGS. Oh, hey, here is another illegal thing: rape! An activity engaged in by Roman Polanski!
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POPS"Polanski's victim and me" by Robert Goolrick More: it is the absolute, final, and total end of childhood, of any sense of innocence and wonder. Perhaps the girl in California had already lost hers. Perhaps her mother manipulated the situation. I, frankly, don’t give a good goddamn. That girl is forever defined by that moment, as I have been defined by my own moment of terror and pain and horror. There is, for me, no place on this whole planet that is safe. I move farther and farther from the center of things. I find myself in hotel rooms or houses in remote places where nobody knows where I am, and very few even care. I have been an alcoholic, a drug user, a sexual deviant and addict. I have tried with what heart I have left to be kind and generous and loving, and I have wrecked my life and hurt people I love. I have tried to be whole, to be a regular man inside a regular man’s skin, and I have failed miserably.
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POPSFugitives from justice don't get to dictate the terms of their case More: Documentarians should have a wide leeway to argue their case the way they want, but there's a point at which ethical lines are crossed. Zenovich…seems to have been blinded by her contact with Polanski. Here's an example: The word "sodomy" is briefly referenced in Zenovich's documentary, but it's a somewhat ambiguous term, and it's never explained. Zenovich has fun flashing bits of the victim's grand jury testimony on the screen, but she never gets around to using this exchange from that testimony, which was made public in 2003 and published by the Smoking Gun: "Then he lifted up my legs and went in through my anus." "What do you mean by that? "He put his penis in my butt." …she also said that she had repeatedly told Polanski no, but that she was too afraid of him to resist. It's a drag to include a scene of anal rape of a 13-year-old in your moody documentary about such a Byronic figure, but it's also fairly relevant.
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POPSHarvey Weinstein thinks being an artist makes raping a child okay, it seems More: I am reassured to know that people with this kind of power, and this kind of money, fully believe they have the right to use the connections that they have, to help a friend evade prosecution for this 'so called crime'. It makes me feel very positive about the world, that the drugging and raping, of a 13 year old child- is not rape, as long as it is a powerful celebrity that is raping her. It reassures me that women like Deborah Winger, and Whoopi Goldberg- are standing up to tell the world that this 'so called crime' is not really that bad, its not like its 'rape rape' after all. Well if a case where a undisputed facts are that a 13 year old was repeatedly fucked against her will, after being drugged, is not rape= then really, I would like to know what constitutes rape at all? Oh wait, I am not reassured. I am fucking angry. Disgusted. Horrified. Dumbfounded.
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POPSReminder: Roman Polanski raped a child More: Polanski was "demonized by the press" because he raped a child, and was convicted because he pled guilty. He "feared heavy sentencing" because drugging and raping a child is generally frowned upon by the legal system. …The point is not to keep 76-year-old Polanski off the streets or help his victim feel safe. The point is that drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not -- and at least in theory, does not -- tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are, no matter how old you were when you finally got caught, no matter what your victim says about it now, no matter how mature she looked at 13, no matter how pushy her mother was, and no matter how many really swell movies you've made. Roman Polanski raped a child. No one, not even him, disputes that.
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POPSWhy Polanski's apologists are wrong Clipmarks strips the anchor from the URL. The comment this was clipped from can be found here . Roman Polanski: self-admitted child rapist and 30-year fugitive from justice.
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POPSUS should bring Roman Polanski to justice More: Much has been made of the fact that Polanski's victim, now 45, has said she no longer feels any anger toward him and does not want to see him jailed. But it's irrelevant what the victim thinks and feels as a grown woman. What's important is what she thought and felt at age 13, when the crime was committed. Those who argue that there's something unjust about Polanski's arrest are essentially accepting his argument that it's possible for a 13-year-old girl, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, to "consent" to sex with a man in his 40s. Or maybe his defenders are saying that drugging and raping a child is simply not such a big deal.… This isn't about a genius who is being hounded for flouting society's hidebound conventions. It's about a rich and powerful man who used his fame and position to assault — in every sense, to violate — an innocent child. And it's about a man who ran away rather than face the consequences of his actions.
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POPSFour things about the Hofstra rape/recant story More: 4) Honestly, this case just makes me so sad. I think it's highly likely that something bad happened that night, whether or not she literally consented. It's hard to imagine something like this happening if all the parties had engaged in direct sexual communication and sought enthusiastic, affirmative consent - not just lack of protest. For me, this whole mess just demonstrates how badly we need a real sea-change in how we talk about and view sex in our culture. Here's where a conclusion should go, but this column has none. Because this case has none. And this crisis has none. At least none so far. But we're working on it. Right?
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