Jarrard Tarrant, a redshirt freshman football player at Georgia Tech, is accused of raping a woman at an off-campus party. This is an interesting case that, in my opinion and knowing the system, won't go anywhere. Of course, the alleged victim seems traumatized, as well she should be. I applaud her for coming forward, even though she hesitated because she "did not want him getting kicked off the team". What is that about? I fear the defense attorney will use that against her, after all, they will make a case (rightfully so) that a rape victim wouldn't care about such things.
I don't know - read the reports and tell me what you all think. Sports team rape is an epidemic of massive proportions - college campuses throw money and women at these guys and there is a sense of entitlement that is bred within teams, especially with the bigger sports at the schools with bigger endowments. That said, good for her for making the report.
2 comments:
Well, to be fair, there is some evidence that could point to a false report.
1. Like you said, a rape victim wouldn't care about "him getting kicked off the team".
2. It was at a party, so alchohol was likely involved, perhaps she was ashamed of drunkenly sleeping with him?
3. Perhaps she consumed too much alchohol at the party and doesn't remember consenting to sex?
However, there is the fact that the victim looks traumatized by the event.
Anyway, i'm not saying that she's some lying b*tch, i'm just pointing out some facts that support his story.
I only think #1 points to "false report" or at least very confused victim. Sometimes, we ascribe logical thinking to rape survivors and that shouldn't be. When something that devastating occurs, who are we to judge the things they say? That said, it struck me as odd and certainly winnable by the defense.
The definition of rape includes incapacitation of the victim or inability to give consent - so "ashamed of drunkenly sleeping with him" could indeed have been rape by legal definition, i.e., having sex with an unconscious person? That's rape.
In my case, I knowingly imbibed some alcohol (and boy, don't people love to point out that I deserved what I got because of two drinks!), but that doesn't mean I wanted to be raped - aged 17, a virgin, a stranger - nope, sorry, not for me. The defense attorney called it "ungentlemanly" and "thoughtless sexual encounter". Please! You don't wake up full of blood and bruises, wrapped naked in a sheet and tossed on an old sofa when you have consensual sex. Also, my drink was altered. I only recall one rape. It has come out there were 2 more perpetrators - I have, mercifully, no memory of the gang rape, only the rape at the hands of Beebe, although I had a sense of others and was sufficiently injured to think so; so much so I brought it up in the Court.
Anyone who drinks too much and "doesn't remember" having sex forced upon them is not necessarily making a false report, either. These girls are normally the ones who don't report - girls who drank a little too much, were indeed raped, but are ashamed to say so. I think this girl, who actually went to the trouble of reporting, may have something, rife with issues though it may be. I don't know what to think.
The prosecution will never try it.
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