why are "grown men" leading "immature" males to have sex with a person known to be mentally disabled?
In this particular case the victim herself was not mentally disabled but rather legally unable to consent to sex (among other things). In the wake of the story being picked up by the NYT, a group, Color of Change along with a few gullible negroes and various so called feminists launched an internet tirade against the NY Times for "blaming the victim" for her rape and propping up a "rape culture". As is the usual case with people with an ideological axe to grind, be it racial or gender, the failure to do things such as research, read and think didn't stop any of them from trying to make an example of the NY Times. The last time I looked, upwards of 20,000 people signed the online petition. Clearly the dunce cap is large. Let's look at why these people are full of the proverbial shit.
Firstly, anyone who was paying attention to the story would have known that the original report on this incident came out of a relatively small paper out of Texas. It was then picked up by other outlets as far away as England and including the NY Times. In the Times and the UK's Daily Mail, we see that much of the articles were direct copies from the original Texas article, therefore even if there was a claim of blaming the victim, it would have to be directed at the original report which served as the meat of all the other "reports". It is not as if the NY Times sent a reporter to Texas to find out what happened and wrote an original piece based on that. The failure of both Alternet, Color of Change and others to even point that out is a failure of large proportions.
The second issue, the issue at hand, is that Color of Change, New Black Man, etc. have determined that reporting on the behavior of an 11 year old minor was not only irrelevant, but amounts to blaming the victim for her victimization. This faulty logic says that any reporting of all the circumstances of a situation amounts to blaming the victim, even if the victim's own behavior had a direct contribution to the situation at hand. Furthermore; this faulty logic assumes that those who do discuss the total circumstances of a particular case think it has any bearing on the legal issue at hand. It does not and we do not think so. In this case these issues of circumstances are entirely relevant to the social issue of what happened, even though, legally it does not.
Let me give an example of how the logic works. Say a person walks into an busy intersection with their headphones deafening them to oncoming traffic while they are looking intently at their cell phone reading or sending a text message. Say that they walked straight into the path of a vehicle traveling 15 MPH over the posted speed limit. Would anyone in their right mind come to the conclusion that the accident was the complete fault of the driver of the vehicle? No. It is clear that the pedestrian was not paying attention to what he was doing and therefore placed himself in danger of being struck by a vehicle. Legally though, because the driver of the vehicle was speeding, he will be held responsible for that. They may sue in civil court and it will likely be found that both parties were negligent. That the pedestrian was negligent does not erase the fact that the driver was also negligent or vice-versa. Such logic seems to be tossed out the window when the subject is a female though.
The major, pre-victimization point here is that an 11 year old girl was hanging out on the street unsupervised. The so called "feminists" would have you think that to ask the obvious question as to why an 11 year old child of any gender is simply hanging out on the side of the street, away from home, apparently going nowhere and doing nothing is a problem. Forget the rape that occurred. Would anyone be claiming "rape culture" if this young child had been grabbed off the street and killed? What if she had simply been kidnapped and held for ransom? What if she had been kidnapped and removed from the country? Would anyone seriously question a news report that contained the fact that a child was left on the street unsupervised, doing nothing, going nowhere and who got into a vehicle with people who were not relatives and without permission from the parents? I. didn't. think. so.
Lets face the facts that no sane parent, not even these so called "feminists" would ever teach their children to hang out on the side of the street doing nothing in a "notorious part of town". Nor would a single one of these so called feminists tell their 11 year old child to hop onto a car with a group of men, all at least 8 years older than them to just "hang out". This is not a case of an adult woman making a choice to do whatever she felt like, dressed however she felt like, to hop in the car with anyone she felt like to do whatever she felt like and being raped. In such a case where she was and who she chose to hang out with are completely her business. This does not apply with an 11 year old child whom adults are legally required to keep as safe as possible.
Due to these factors it is clear that in terms of the entire story, the actions of this child and perhaps the failure of the parents to adequately address their child's habit of acting out sexually is entirely relevant. You don't have to like it, but that is the case. Legally her actions are irrelevant to the prosecution of the males in question. Since having sex with a minor is illegal regardless of what she may have consented to even if there was no duress. Those males who coerced her into sexual activity and who invited their "friends" to engage in sexual activity with her are entirely responsible for any and every part they had in the situation. As do the persons who disseminated the videos produced during the gang rape. And no one I know, not even the NY Times is arguing otherwise. This is journalism and not legal proceedings.
The last charge leveled at the NY Times is that they somehow made the boys seem more sympathetic. Seriously.
Because describing the actions they engaged in is sympathetic. Saying that some are "star athletes" is sympathetic, rather than say an implied commentary on the sense of entitlement that some athletes have. Or perhaps saying that one boy was the son of a school board member. I'll be honest and say that I thought that made up for it and that I never thought "hey this fool definitely should have known better." Nope. I was very sympathetic for those jocks and sons of board members. You know what else endeared me to the boys. The fact that some of them have criminal records. Before I read that I was completely willing to say that they were just being set up and it was all the 11 year-old's fault. Oh and to top it all off, the calling the family of the girl and threatening them. Total sympathy there. Who wouldn't have warm fuzzy thoughts about the friends and family of rapists who threaten the family of the child they raped.
If you took anything in the above paragraph seriously. You have a problem. Anyway it is clear from objectively reading the articles and applying common sense that the NY Times owes nobody an apology. If anything, those attempting to slander the NY Times over this "issue" owe the NY Times.
