Last week in Cobb County Georgia, eighteen young men were to begin trial. The charges among others – statutory rape, forcible rape of a minor, and aggravated child molestation. The men – late teens, twenties. The girl – a then thirteen, now sixteen, year old with developmental disabilities. The act – sex over a ten-hour period. The men – claimed it was consensual. Their evidence – a ten minute video tape which “showed” the girl “not resisting”, although there were two instances where it appeared she was “being forced” and wanted “to go home.” In addition the defense promised to present witnesses to verify the girl gave blow jobs in the neighborhood “so she would be liked.” She liked being liked.
In the end – no trial. All eighteen defendants pled guilty to various charges. And off to jail they go.
Rape is a hideous crime. It has nothing to do with sex. But as sex is the most intimate act two people can do, the use of such act against one’s consent is a violent and violating misuse of power.
It’s a he said, she said – with both parties credibility of character on display.
Whether in this case it was consensual or forcible is a legal issue that the plea-bargained decided.
But there is a much much bigger moral and ethical issue here – What the heckie were grown men doing having sex with a thirteen year old girl?
I don’t care if she gave it out for free.
I don’t care if she gave the best blow jobs in the neighborhood.
I don’t care if she looked, walked, and talked like Halle Berry.
I don’t care if the men had not had sex for so long dead mama cass looked good.
I DON’T CARE.
You do not have sex with a thirteen-year-old girl. Even if you are a thirteen year old boy.
Repeat.
YOU DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL.
Okay, some people blame her family. They knew she was developmentally disabled. They knew she was old enough to get sexually active. They even may have know her ‘hood reputation. They should have watched her. Kept her locked up.
I DON’T CARE.
YOU DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL.
I don’t know the girl’s IQ. Maybe she did understand. Maybe she did enjoy having sex. I’m told it can be very pleasurable. Maybe she only wanted to go home because she was afraid she’d been out so long she would get in trouble.
I DON’T CARE.
YOU DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL.
A few calls were made to try to understand what would make men, late teens and twenties, have sex with a thirteen-year-old girl. From the grown men, hands down – there is no reasonable explanation. From the young men (late teens, early twenties) everything was heard from – “I don’t know, maybe they just wanted some” to “Maybe she was cute.” In other words, no reasonable explanation was found. BECAUSE THERE IS NONE.
YOU DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL.
And why couldn’t the young men just say that? Knowing them, I don’t see any of them ever forcing a girl to have sex, let along having sex with a thirteen-year-old girl. But where was their outrage? Grown folks had it. They were thinking of their babies. Why not the young? It could have been their sister.
Maybe the young don’t like talking sex with grown ups. It’s a locker room, then bar, thing.
Maybe they’re still trying to find who they are sexually.
Maybe it really wasn’t a big deal subject to them. They didn’t do it. They don’t know her. So why should they care?
That’s scary.
Obviously the “Idiot 18” didn’t care. Until the trial was in their face not one stepped up to the plate and said – “I was wrong. What I did was wrong. I get it. I really get it.
Hopefully this was being said behind closed doors and their original no remorse was a legal strategy.
So maybe my young men were sickened by this act and thought so behind their closed doors.
When someone does something that is just too off the wall for justification, I remind myself that this person was somebody’s mama’s child. And at some point this child was born innocent.
It takes a village to raise a child.
What does it take to raise an idiot?
Where is the responsibility?
Should they be responsible? Some papers still think Monica was a victim. They’re about the same age. Uh huh.
There has been a lot of raping going on – and it’s not just physical.
Think about that for a while.
These men will have many years in prison to think about what they did.
I hope they get it.
I hear in prison, rapists get it.
I hope we get it if we haven’t got it already.
Somebody needs to get this –
YOU DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL.
Don’t contemplate it. Don’t act on. Just don’t. Do anything.
YOU DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL.
