Sports, kids & rape. Steubenville discussion.

[weemadando]

http://localleaks.blogs.ru/2013/01/01/s ... illefiles/

That is a massive article (also regularly updated apparently) detailing what appears to be a very serious case of kidnapping, sexual assault and gang rape with masses of video & photographic evidence supplied by the perpetrators. Which has subsequently been covered up by the parents and law enforcement (not mutually exclusive).

There's a lot there that seems like speculation or is not confirmed, but the sheer volume of content "recovered" drops several people pretty squarely in it.

But hey, they're sportsmen. They can't be held to the same standard as the rest of society. But the prosecutors & Sheriff, if the facts as presented are true, they need to go to gaol.

[weemadando]

Part the deux.

Why is sports and important part of this? Because sport remains the last place where gender segregation and discrimination is publicly accepted. The culture around many sports is deeply toxic - the never ending stream of sexual assault and rape cases around the NRL and AFL in Australia and college and professional Football in the US are just the tip of the iceberg here.

Spending and support for women's sports are orders or magnitude lower. A fucking horse can get named "Sportswoman of the Year" (however tongue in cheek they may have intended it to be). Participation in certain sports is discouraged if not actually banned.

Is it any wonder that sport is a bastion of our rape culture? Where role models need to have classes on how not to gang rape women?

This has been my moment of Internet rage for today, please return to ignoring societies issues.

[Nathan F]

I feel your frustration. I witnessed athletes being given preferential and special treatment by my undergraduate university (one which fielded teams in the SEC here in the US). I was taking mathematics and liberal arts courses in unairconditioned classrooms in 100 degree weather or with broken heaters in the winter, but the football team was practicing in a brand new multi-million dollar climate controlled full indoor facility. Sexual misconduct was the norm in the athletics-only dorm. There were literally instances of athletes who used a fake gun to hold up a convenience store near campus WHILE WEARING TEAM SHIRTS. A few years ago, there was a scandal where tutors were feeding test answers to athletes on the off chance they took a class that wasn't a complete joke. And that was after they were forced to disband the "Urban Studies" program, which was set up as a major for athletes who couldn't get accepted into any other department. Needless to say, women's athletics were not plagued by such issues.

Many people would pass much of this off, stating that men's athletics brought in millions of dollars in licensing and ticket sales to the university every year, not to mention boosters donations. What they didn't mention was how much of that money stayed within the athletics department.

People say this is changing at my alma mater, but it will not see any real change for years. I'm hesitant to say it will ever change, unless NCAA Football comes out and admits what it really is: a free minor league for the NFL and divests itself of any supposed academic interests. Allow schools to license their name to a private team, but keep them separate.

Okay...enough of my tangential rant.

[Thanas]

Kinda makes you long for the days we had galleys to sent such scum to.

This is a good NYT article on the case which has been referenced in the OP

[weemadando]

Even the "good" people in that story are utterly repugnant.

“I tried to tell Trent to stop it,” another athlete, who was Mays’s best friend, testified. “You know, I told him, ‘Just wait — wait till she wakes up if you’re going to do any of this stuff. Don’t do anything you’re going to regret.’ ”

What a fucking hero. Standing up to his friend to make sure he doesn't rape an unconscious girl, but holds off so he can rape a conscious yet still so drunk as to be completely unable to give consent girl.

And not out of any concern for the victim, but because his friend might get in trouble.

AND THIS IS THE PERSON WHO IS THE "GOOD GUY" IN THIS FUCKING TALE.

[Crown]

This goes beyond the usual sycophantic behaviour that revolves around sports stars that lets them get away with being wankers, this is a community who's authority figures are so corrupt and devious that they enable sadistic and sociopathic behaviour, indeed one appears to encourage and direct it.

[Losonti Tokash]

Yeah in case anyone missed this, the first party they went to that night was hosted by one of the team's coaches. Later one of the coaches being interviewed threatened to have the reporter or someone close to him killed.

[Vympel]

This is pretty fucking odious, but I'd prefer if the website didn't make a host of claims without references. How do I know which claims have a basis and which are just malicious scuttlebutt?

[thejester]

Seriously Ando did Matthew Richardson visit your school and refuse to high-five you or something? The AFL is the perfect example of how cultural change in an institution can make behaviour like this unacceptable - but guess that should be ignored in favour of indulging hoary old stereotypes about untouchable footballers.

[Mr Bean]

This is pretty fucking odious, but I'd prefer if the website didn't make a host of claims without references. How do I know which claims have a basis and which are just malicious scuttlebutt?

The documentation is there, you have to dig as there's twenty hours of interviews already a few thousand pages of stolen emails between those involved. They don't source it specifically to which tape but if you want to spend the time digging through their archives you can find it.

*Edit
What has been released is the video in question, the documentation of people's reactions several interviews when the national media heard about this (It's not fully blown up yet, check the NYT for more succulent information Thanas linked) and the emails Anonymous stole from the various email accounts involved.

[Block]

Bean I think he's talking about stuff like the accusation that the Sherriff is involved in all sorts of illegal activities and that his brother is a coke dealer. I didn't see any evidence to support that sort of thing, nor was there any evidence to support the claim the local DA tried to kill it since the case HAS been passed up to the Stae level by the local authorities.

[weemadando]

Yeah, clearly a lot of stuff in there is based on "leaks" (which seems to just mean "Someone told us this") which I question the value of.

That said, there certainly seems to be ample evidence of misdeeds all around without going into the tangential and unverified stuff.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

I truly hope people will lose heads over this. If it takes 20-year and life sentences, so be it. I mean players, coaches AND the fucking sheriff? I wonder how much of it was because the girl in question wasn't one of the locals.

[amigocabal]

Yeah, clearly a lot of stuff in there is based on "leaks" (which seems to just mean "Someone told us this") which I question the value of.

That said, there certainly seems to be ample evidence of misdeeds all around without going into the tangential and unverified stuff.

True, but including the tangential and unverified stuff actually makes it harder to discern the truth.

I wonder how much of it was because the girl in question wasn't one of the locals.

I can only hope this does not become a repeat of the Wanetta Gibson case.

[amigocabal]

But hey, they're sportsmen. They can't be held to the same standard as the rest of society.

This is part of a larger phenomenom. for how many years did Lance Armstrong get away with cheating?

[Block]

But hey, they're sportsmen. They can't be held to the same standard as the rest of society.

This is part of a larger phenomenom. for how many years did Lance Armstrong get away with cheating?

The same length of time as most of his team. HGH is legal, just banned by the sports association.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Yeah, Lance Armstrong is a false analogy. After all, the legality and ethics of doping are still hotly debated, and there are no clear answers there. It's not analogous to rape.