I had a fleeting moment of hope that we might make it through the first week of the new year without some great example of man’s inhumanity to man.   Alas, no joy.   I am speaking of Steubenville,   OH,   and the breaking story that has flooded the news about the gang rape of a 16 year old girl.    The picture, as painted now, is pretty ugly.   Football is very important in this small town, as it tends to be in any sports-oriented town.   This, alas, often means that the football players get a pass on a lot of behavior that would put the rest of us under the jail.   We have the same problem here in KnoxPatch, as the University of Tennessee’s team has had players being arrested and (sometimes) convicted for a variety of crimes over the years.   The only positive thing about that is that now, the players are arrested and charged, and often thrown off the team.   Not that many years ago, it was like they were coated with Teflon  – nothing stuck to them.    For example, we had one player whose nickname was “the coke machine”, and, it was NOT because he really loved the product produced in Atlanta! 

      Now, back to Steubenville.    The story, as it stands now, is that there was a big party at the coach’s house a bit ago, and, at the big bar in the “man cave”, were bottles of booze and small plastic cups so anyone could help themselves.   The fact that the folks attending the party were all high school age football players and groupies (both male and female), and, so, had several years to go before they could legally drink apparently did not matter to the coach.    As happens with the young and foolish, a number of the kids there drank too much, including one young lady who had enough to drink that she was unconscious.   Seeing their chance for some “fun”, and, having what few inhibitions they might have had washed away by the booze, at least two members of the team proceeded to rape the unconscious girl.   Now, in the process, it appears that a number of the other kids took videoes of the event with their cell phones, and, ended up tweeting about the ongoing action too.   At first, the events of the night were just something that no one talked about.   When the press started to get wind of this, and, the probability that it was going to be a major story cropped up, evidence was destroyed (Cell phone videoes deleted, tweets removed, youtube videoes deleted, etc).    Then, the social action group, Anonymous got involved,  posting a video that warned “either confess and take responsibility or we will release the evidence”,  Even after this, nothing happened, so, Anonymous posted a fairly sickening video of several young men, presumably members of the team, talking about the rape, and making jokes about it and such.   I suspect that the young lady who had been attacked had not reported the violation because of all the reasons that make rape one of the most under-reported crimes in America, if not the world.   However, with this evidence out there, and some pressure from the press and such, the sheriff was forced to action.    In an interview I saw earlier this evening, he was expressing his frustration over the fact that it was proving to be very hard to find witnesses that were willing to come forwards and tell their story.   It was reported, though, that the authorities have collected a number of cell phones and such, and, recovered a number of video recordings that are likely going to be a problem for the defense of the two men on track to being charged with the rape.   Also, the kids learned a valuable lesson about the internet – in that it was relatively easy for the tweets and videoes posted to it then deleted, to be recovered!   Once again, proof that if one wants a form of immortality, simply put it on the Net…   Information from the authorities is, of course, a bit light, since this “an ongoing investigation”, which is as it should be.   However, it does not look good for the future prospects of the two players and, perhaps, a number of their friends.

     There was a fairly insightful discussion about this event on one of the talking heads programs on CNN.  I do not remember the names of all the contributors, but, one was an outside guest, a psychiatrist who has spent a lot of time working with troubled teens.   The other two pundits were Dr. Drew and CNN’s legal correspondant who they often call upon to discuss matters of law.

     Dr. Drew made a very good point (and I say that in spite of the fact it is one of my favorite beliefs) that the real problem here was, in short, poor parenting.  He pointed out that if kids do not get their values from the parents, they will get them from television, movies, the video games they play, the pornography they sneak out and look at, and  peer pressure.   The values that all the most popular of these media diversions teach are, pretty much, negative.   Other people are treated as objects,  violence is the answer,  the best way to deal with anyone that gets in the way is to shoot them, and, the feelings of others do not matter.   He was clear about his opinion that this was one reason why no one helped the young lady, or tried to stop what was going on, or call for help from an adult.   While he was not as explicit about it as I often am, I believe that it would not be difficult to get him to agree that this is raising  a society of sociopaths, and, in the long run, this will guarantee the destruction of America.

     The psychiatrist discussed some of the common points she had gathered from her interactions with many troubled teens, and, made two good points about this situation.   Perhaps the most important one was about the difficulty the sheriff was having at getting witnesses.  She postulates that the issue is that while there are a large number of people who were there and saw what happened, now they are afraid to come forwards and talk about it because they do not believe they will get any support from the adults in their community, and may actually get in trouble themselves for being there.   I suspect that these feelings were another reason that no one tried to stop the rape.

     Finally, we had a short discussion of the legal aspects of the situation.  Of course, there is no question that one way or another the two men that performed the attack have pretty much destroyed their lives for the next decade or two.   It is going to be very hard to mount a defense of their actions based on a possible previous relationship with the girl, as there is no way that a girl that is so drunk she is unconscious can give consent.   Then, there are the multiple recordings of the event, and, the tweets…  Even if the two guys escape actual criminal convictions, they and their families will be targets of massive civil lawsuits.    It was the lawyer’s opinion though, that most of the people at the party will have no legal repercussions from this.   While it is ethically disgusting for them not to offer aid, it appears that there is no law requiring that they offer aid.   Still, they are going to have to live with the events of that night for the rest of their lives, and, if they have a speck of conscience left, it will bother them for every minute of that time.

     This is an interesting case, too, because of the Internet being so entwined in it.   Not only was the Net the repository of evidence of the crime, it provided easy tools to recover that evidence when attempts were made to conceal it.   Of course, I have to wonder if some of the amasingly stupid human tricks that are posted to youtube might have been a factor in this.  After all, there is a great desire to gain notoriety, and, having a video on youtube that gets millions of hits is one road to that goal.

     One of the residents of Steubenville, while being interviewed for the program, said that it was unfair to judge the town, or any of the rest of the population based on the evil actions of a few members of that society.    I do have some partial agreement with this, but, I would point out that “Football Fever” is not isolated in the team itself.  It spreads out throughout the entire town, and, any citizen there that has endorsed the concept of the team members as being set above society – by tearing up a parking ticket, or not arresting them for drinking ( in public or not ), or giving them a free meal or other gifts because of their team’s success, is, indeed part of the problem.   There is a fine line there, as people with ability and talent should be lauded…it is not so much the gift that is the problem, as it is the attitude that tends to grow that they are special and above the law.

     The role of the coach was discussed a bit too, and, while he may be a fine, upstanding man who is doing the best he can to teach teamwork and good sportsmanship, right now, that is not the picture I have of him.   The fact that he facilitated massive amounts of drinking at a party of underage kids at his house;   That, assuming he was the only chaparone there, was so out of touch that he did not have a clue about what was going on;   and, the fact that he apparently fosters that idea that the Team can do no wrong, does not leave me with a positive image of him.   In addition to these, it was also reported that, when interviewed about the events at the party, his response was to become threatening, and, state that if the reporter did not drop it, then, they would be seriously hurt or killed, and if they did not get it their family would bear the brunt of the attack.    I do not have more than one source for this, but, I have to say that Anderson Cooper’s show has always been a source of good information, backed up by facts gathered through diligent research, so I tend to accept it as truth.   For the coach, a man who is a roll model for the team and the team groupies, to react this way, is terrible.  It re-enforces the attitude that women are objects to be used and abused by the men and boys around them, as they please.   It denegrates them as people, and, it fosters an attitude of being above the law that will, in the long run, cause a significant number of the players to get into serious trouble.

     An interesting facet of this story is the way the Internet is so intertwined in it.   The Net was a bulletin board, where witnesses to the event and its aftermath were able to post tweets, providing an almost real-time discussion of what was happening.   YouTube provided a forum where the recordings of the goings on were posted for public viewing.  And, in what will be a big learning moment for everyone involved, it also provided the ability to retrieve the evidence, even after the kids that posted it tried to delete it.   This should be a strong reminder to all of us of two aspects of the Internet.  First off,  nothing posted there is private.  Secondly, nothing posted there ever goes away…   In addition to this, there is the role that the group Anonymous played in forcing the adults to take notice of, and take action about the party, and the rape.   While it seemed that the town was interested in letting the matter go, Anonymous posted a video that warned “either you do something to bring justice to these people or we will”.  When nothing happened, they dug up and released some of the damning video and tweet evidence.  This was apparently enough to start interest growing and force the authorities to move on the case.

     So, now, a month or two after the party, the wheels of Justice are slowly grinding along.  Evidence is being gathered and a case against two boys is being built.   I hope that the authorities in Steubenville will not look upon these two as sacrificial lambs, to be thrown under the bus to satisfy the hunger for revenge that the mob has.   Rather I hope that they track down all leads, and, charge everyone that deserves it with the appropriate crime.   This is a good example of why parenting is so important.  Thanks to the effects of alcohol and, a bad set of rules to live by, these two boys have destroyed their lives.  It is going to be very hard for their defense to do more than cut a deal to minimize their prison time, as it is nearly impossible to argue with multiple video recordings.  Any chances they had of getting a good job, or having a good place to live may well be gone.  Not only will they end up with a felony conviction that will make it hard for them to get a job at a fast-food place, flipping burgers for minimum wage, but, they will end up on the infamous sex offenders list, which will likely case them to be rejected from many rental places, and, may impact directly on where they may live.   They have also done a terrible thing to the victim.   Even if she seems to be doing well at recoving, she will have this trauma for the rest of her life and will have to work very hard to overcome its effects.  It will impact her attitudes about society in general, and, her interactions with friends and co-workers in a very negative way.