commentary by Patrick H. Moore
When I was a young man I was seriously down and out for a few years, living in low rent apartments in our local “hood”, East Palo Alto, and trying to stay out of serious trouble. I had graduated from high school in Palo Alto (the proud Class of ’68) which was across the tracks from East Palo Alto (on the right side of the tracks, so to speak). The world famous institution of alleged higher learning, Stanford University (known as “The Farm” back in the day), is due west of Old Palo Alto which is hella pricy and a bit on the snobbish side.
In any event, on weekends back in the early ‘70’s, on Sunday mornings, my sweetheart S______ and I would rise and shine; grab a bite at a downtown greasy spoon (this was before the investment bankers moved in and the greasy spoons vanished) and then wander over to Stanford U to recover from the previous night’s “festivities” on the shore of Lake Lagunita, a manmade lake in the middle of the campus and a very pleasant place to recover from a hangover.
Although I was undoubtedly a lost soul during these years, I still retained a sliver of hope for the future, and somewhere buried deep within my pea-brain was the realization that if I knew which way was up, I would be going to college and improving my mind. While lolling around Lake Lagunita, which was near Fraternity/Sorority Row on the Stanford campus, I had a clear view of an outdoor campus basketball court where privileged young men and women emerged from their residences and whiled away the pleasant hours playing hoops at the court.
I remember watching these presumably healthy and happy kids and wishing fervently that I was in their (basketball) shoes. But I wasn’t. I was down-and-out living in the hood trying to keep the ancient pilot light lit, working in factories, drinking way too much and studying my reflection in the knife. (The last phrase is a lie; I just threw it in for effect but everything else is true. Let us simply say that Patrick H. was failing to thrive.)
But envious as I was of those lucky and privileged Stanford kids, I would have never wished to be in the shoes of a certain former Stanford swimmer, 19-year-old Brock Allen Turner, who on the night of January 18th screwed up his life so royally that he will most likely be paying a heavy price for a long time to come.
And the funny thing is, loser that I undoubtedly was, I can honestly say that I never even considered doing what Mr. Turner allegedly did at 1:00 am on January 18, 2015.
Alice Phillips and Joseph Beyda of The Stanford Daily write:
Freshman swimmer Brock Turner will be charged with five felony counts on Wednesday after he allegedly raped an intoxicated, unconscious woman on Jan. 18, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office confirmed on Tuesday night.
Turner faces these charges: rape of an intoxicated person, rape of an unconscious person, sexual penetration by a foreign object of an intoxicated woman, sexual penetration by a foreign object of an unconscious woman and assault with intent to commit rape.
Based on these alleged acts, Turner could face up to 10 years in prison. He might very well have gotten away with his alleged crimes had it not been for the actions of two cyclists (Stanford has at least 10,000 bicycles on campus.)
The San Jose Mercury News reports, that Turner was sighted on top of an unconscious woman (the victim) at approximately 1 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 18, by the two cyclists, who chased him down, caught him, and held him prisoner while a third person called the police (shades of how the good folk of East Los Angeles captured the infamous Nightstalker, Richard Rodriguez, back in the 1990s, holding him captive until law enforcement arrived on the scene).
The incident occurred on Lomita Court near the Kappa Alpha (KA) fraternity. “After the arrest, he was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and released on bond later that day.”
(It seems likely that if Turner were not a privileged white boy, he would not be out on bail.)
According to University spokesperson Lisa Lapin, the alleged victim was not a Stanford student. As a result of his violent fall from grace, “Turner has voluntarily withdrawn his registration as a Stanford student and is not permitted on campus. Turner is not eligible to re-enroll,” according to the Stanford News Report.
“This is something that the University takes very seriously, and the University took immediate action,” said Ms. Lapin.
Catherine Criswell, the University’s Title IX Coordinator, praised the cyclists who apprehended Turner:
“Several students, both graduates and undergraduates, were upstanders (as opposed to bystanders) in this situation. They made the courageous decision to intervene and provide assistance. That is exactly the type of leadership and caring we attempt to cultivate in our community, and we commend those students on their courage and quick response.”
Turner was a pretty good swimmer. In his last meet on Jan. 10 meet against Pacific, eight days before the alleged rape, “he finish(ed) third in the 1,000-yard freestyle and second in the 200-yard backstroke.”
He worked as a lifeguard and had been heavily recruited athlete before joining Stanford’s high-powered swimming program, at one point ranking 10th in the nation. He twice won the state championship in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle while attending Oakwood High School in Dayton, Ohio and participated in the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials.
He better get in all the swimming he can before he goes to prison (assuming he doesn’t beat this on some kind of “wealthy and privileged” defense), because – to the best of my knowledge — the California state penitentiaries lack swimming pools.
Simon McCormack of Huffington Post reports that SF Gate notes that Stanford has come under fire for having lax sexual abuse policies.
Between 1997 and 2009, just four of 175 reported sexual assaults were formally adjudicated at Stanford, with two of the alleged attackers held responsible, according to a report prepared by [Stanford law professor Michele Landis Dauber].
Wow! Does this mean that 171 rapists or wannabe rapists got away with it? Of course, some of the reports were probably exaggerated but I would assume that the majority of the accusations were valid.
It’s a curious thing to wrestle with the apparent fact that our college campuses have slowly but surely become “rape playgrounds”, but all too often, that seems to be the case.