Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Gang rape at California high school


Update (10/29/09): See my follow-up post, with news on the arrests of some of the perpetrators, as well as commentary on the supposed racial/racist elements of the incident/story.

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This isn't an easy story to get through. It's sick, it's disgusting, and it's utterly despicable:

Investigators say as many as 20 people were involved in or stood and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a California high school homecoming dance Saturday night.

Police posted a $20,000 reward Tuesday for anyone who comes to them with information that helps arrest and convict those involved in what authorities describe as a 2½-hour assault on the Richmond High School campus in suburban San Francisco.

Two teenage suspects have been jailed, but more arrests, as many as 20 total, are expected, according to a police detective.

Yes, I find this story deeply, deeply disturbing. But it's also one of those stories that arouses my anger to a point of violent outrage. A violent response to a horrible act of violence? Yes, I suppose so. But it isn't easy to remain detached, is it? It probably isn't even human to do so. No, I don't believe in an eye for an eye, or anything like that, but there won't be any justice unless the perpetrators of this act are punished to the full extent of the law. (And one wishes that those who stood by and watched, seemingly aroused, would similarly be punished. Alas, that may not be possible.)

I highly recommend Melissa's post at Shakesville -- read the comments, too. (See also Larisa Alexandrovna at at-Largely and my colleague Kathy Kattenburg at The Moderate Voice.)

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posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at 12:16 AM

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36 Comments:

  • Thanks for the link, Michael. And by the way, I think your reaction of rage to the point of violence is entirely normal, healthy, and appropriate. I feel the same way, exactly the same way. It's a feeling, not behavior, first of all; and secondly I cannot imagine how any decent human being could feel any other way reading that article.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:53 AM  

  • Yes, I agree, it's only human nature to respond with anger, and even with a desire for reciprocal violence. Of course, that's why we have the rule of law, which, hopefully, will be applied strongly here.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 1:58 AM  

  • Fuck the LAW... Castrate each and every one that was involved and watched like little bitches and did nothing to help this girl.Then do a public hanging... Then and only then will stuff like this cease to exist... Sometimes you have to speak a language that they understand!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:29 AM  

  • This is not the school boards fault. This is the fault of the dirty scumbags who raped and beat this girl. I also blame the crazy as hell liberals who have turned the N. Cal area in to a crime riden mecca. They have decided to side with the criminals instead of the law enforcement and this is how it has turned out. Prior to posting this I checked richmonds demographics. here they are from city-data.com. I think it tells the story. Races in Richmond:

    Black (36.1%)
    Hispanic (26.5%)
    White Non-Hispanic (21.2%)
    Other race (13.9%)
    Two or more races (5.3%)
    Chinese (3.3%)
    Filipino (3.1%)
    Other Asian (2.9%)
    American Indian (1.6%)
    Asian Indian (1.2%)
    Japanese (0.9%)
    Korean (0.5%)
    Vietnamese (0.5%)
    Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (0.5%)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:28 PM  

  • It's amazing that there is such a news black out on this story. It's not mentioned on Huffington Post or Drudge yet it's made headlines around the world. Why? Because illegal immigrant anchor babies (Mexicans) gang raped a young, innocent American girl.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:32 PM  

  • Virtually all violent crimes are committed by young males. It's the fault of people who choose to have male children. They should all be heavily fined and the children sent directly to jails. Privately owned and managed jails, of course.

    Of course if we hadn't allowed all those Swedes, Germans, Italians, Poles, Irish, Scots, French, Norwegians, Russians and others into the country and if we hadn't freed the slaves, we'd still be a small East Coast country and California would have remained Spanish and we wouldn't have these problems in the first place.

    It takes a simple mind to see the simplicity in things.

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 3:58 PM  

  • I can't believe all of these ignorant racist comments. Race had nothing to do with it. Stop trying to turn this into something racially motivated you back woods ignorant a**holes.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:25 PM  

  • People only blame race when trying to convince themselves that their precious white daughters and grandaughters are safe.
    Never mind that most rapes happen to white people, by white people, and the victims usually know the attacker. Maybe instead of blaming other races or even more common, blaming the victim, people should be teaching their boy children NOT TO RAPE.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:47 PM  

  • Honestly, a couple of the comments here are revolting. To suggest that this is about race is simply wrong. Rape is rape. And to think that it can be explained as such is, not to put too fine a word on it, racist. I'm not surprised, but I'm still appalled at the ignorance and bigotry.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 8:41 PM  

  • If you are to allow these kind of people to live, they will do this to someone else. Why do we waste our tax dollars on pieces of shit like this.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 9:44 PM  

  • Which POS's do you mean, Lee? Rapists, silent bystanders or the people who grind their axes on every incident to make their neurotic hatreds seem justifiable?

    I'm appalled too, but if you think this is bad, you should try living in the South.

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 9:30 AM  

  • I am amazed at the racist comments posted by some people. An act like this should be condemned at all levels, in every community, race or culture.I was really disturbed when i saw the gang rape news at CNN aired in pakistan and equally disturbed by these racist comments. I think education alone can't make some people civilized...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:42 PM  

  • Can the gang-rape be considered a hate crime? After all, rape isn't a sex crime, but a hate crime! Or are crimes against whites exempt?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:49 PM  

  • I have to agree with some of the comments on here. I am a 40-year-old male who just graduated with a biology degree. There are many species of dog. However, some are faster, some are prone to hip disease, etc. And yet you believe that a person's race has NO influence on their behavior. That's rather naive, don't you think? I live in Charlotte, NC. My daughter's school is 65% Hispanic, 35% Black, and 3.5% white. They teach English as a second language. This city has gone downhill fast. Don't believe me? Try to find a good school or a good doctor in an affordable area. It is mainly Hispanic now. They tried to pass a law that illegals immigrants can go to community college! I am hoping to get my family out of here by next summer. Ironically, I was thinking about moving back to San Francisco. Why is it so wrong and so evil to want to hold on to our heritage or to have my daughter date someone with the same CULTURAL values (i.e. Caucasian.) Because I do not want my daughter eating GOYA and I want to be able to understand what the parents are saying at my daughter's PUBLIC school (i.e. paid for by American tax money), I am an ignorant racist? Since when was it ok for us to start belittling our own culture as unimportant in light of everyone else's values? I wasn't always like this. However, after 40 years of seeing this crap...I think I am justified in wanting my country back.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:10 PM  

  • Argue and analyze all you want people. Race has nothing to do with it. A girl was violently attacked and raped for over 2 hours! WTF?!! Where the hell was any security, police, school staff, parent, anyone with any morality? Thats whats wrong! That poor child suffered horendously at the hands of evil doers! Oh she probably deserved it right? Thats what they will say. That dress was too revealing and the "boys" could'nt help themselves. It was'nt their fault, it was hers. I am so sick of these little fucking evil bastards destroying peoples lives! Don't even try to look all remorsefull you freak demons from hell! You did the worse evil to that girl there is no punishment too great for you! Awful demons. Laugh about it now. What big brave boys you are indeed. Got eveyones attention. Are'nt you the clever ones. "Come see look Mommy! Look what I can do!" The best part of you freaks ran down your Mammas legs! Burn in Hell you bastards! Let Satan have his laugh. He was laughing the whole time you were torturing that little girl. Well, guess what, your next! There is no forgiveness for what you did. Burn in an everlasting firey hell! And oh, by the way, parents... why don't you buy your kid a Superman or Superhero game of some kind. Maybe they will learn to be the good guy instead of the bad guy which is what all those video games are about these days. I live in NH in a small town where 4 boys just cut the head off of a woman with a machette and slit the throat of her 11 year old daughter. Nice huh? Bring back the draft if all these boys have to do for fun is raping and killing! Maybe they will learn some morality. Obviously the parents have failed in teaching them right from wrong.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:37 AM  

  • Bringing back the draft will not help the problem. There are criminals and sociopaths in the military too. And if they go to war, they are free to rape and pillage in other countries as well. Swift, firm justice and victim advocates are what is needed here. We also need to be able to more easily identify this type of predator before he becomes violent, when he is 11, 12, 13 years old. Violence begets violence. We have to try to stop the violence before it starts.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:23 PM  

  • I am from Europe - Caucasian - and this has nothing to do w/ race it's your country’s violence. How easy some of you make this crime a “ race “ crime instead of looking at it as a community. There are criminals in all races. There is a victim here and it’s that poor 15 year old girl, so stop blaming it on race and all your BS, America as many other countries is a multicultural country, accept it and stop complaining about it. – I apologize for any grammatical mistakes – English is not my first language.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:28 PM  

  • In reference to the following comment: "Anonymous said...
    I can't believe all of these ignorant racist comments. Race had nothing to do with it."

    Why shouldn't this be considered a racist act? If the victim of the rape was hispanic, let's say, and the rapists were white, wouldn't everyone label it as a racist act??

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:52 PM  

  • Was this a gang initiation?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:31 PM  

  • I strongly urge you to follow this link: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/29/california.rape.victim.friend/index.html It is a video and article of the victim's friend addressing the school council regarding her feelings of safety and being Caucasian at Richmond High School. FYI: The first four suspects to be arraigned are:
    Ari Abdullah Morales (age 16 - race unknown), Cody Ray Smith (age 15 - Black I believe), Marcelles Peter (age 17 - Black), Manuel Ortega (age 19 - Hispanic), Jose Carlos Montano (age 18 - Hispanic), Victim (age 15 - Caucasian and member of the minority 2% Caucasian student body of Richmond High School.) Finally, some basic math. Richmond High School has approx. 1600 students. Roughly split, that is 800 boys and 800 girls. 2% of 800 is 16. So we have 16 white girls out of 800 girls. For every one white girl, there are 49 girls of other nationalities. In other words, if the rapists RANDOMLY INVITED a girl to join them, there was a much better chance the victim would be Black or Hispanic. My final opinion is that I DO NOT believe that the gang rape was racially motivated (they did that because they are evil little f*cks.) However, their CHOICE of victims WAS racially motivated. They wanted a white girl to humiliate and exploit...not black and not mexican. However, if you still want to insist that race had NOHING to do with it whatsoever....feel free.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:33 AM  

  • By the way, here is a racial demographic breakdown of Richmond High School (for anyone who is interested) There are actually 1774 students (not 1600), but you should still get the basic idea and whites are a 2% minority. Here is the link: http://zipskinny.com/index.php?zip=94804&pagetype=schools

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:42 AM  

  • When I write, as others do, that race had nothing to do with it, what I meant -- and I explain this a bit in the follow-up post that is linked at the top of this post -- is that the perpetrators did not rape because of their race, which is the implication of some commenters, both here and elsewhere.

    Yes, race might very well have played into it in the way you describe, John. (And I do not know one way or the other whether a gang was involved.)

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 2:45 AM  

  • rather than focusing on issues of race that have nothing to do with this. how about focusing on people raising their children better??? way to many people have children that shouldnt and no one seems to value human life they have put more value into materalistic thins! shameful!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:48 PM  

  • This WAS a racial issue. This girl was singled out and raped because she was white. There's the facts. Now try and disprove that to yourself with a bullshit dose of liberal doublespeak. I live in a predominantly white area of southern california, I believe that black and hispanic students hover somewhere around 15-20% of the population in the school district. They are not beaten and raped at school dances. BUT if they were, you fucking bet your asses that it would be a RACIAL issue. Grow the fuck up and open your goddamn eyes.

    By Anonymous moraldecay, at 1:55 AM  

  • The way we raise our children is heavily influenced by our culture and our values, which are heavily influenced by our race. While culture and race are two different things, they are usually so tightly wound together, that they become one and the same. And you must know that certain cultures do not value human life the way we do. When it is acceptable for 10-year-olds to walk around with AK-47 in certain Middle Eastern countries, that is cultural...which is related to race.

    Michael, I see what you are saying and you make a good point that never occurred to me before. After thinking about what you said, I think I realized the problem with these discussions regarding racial issues. Unfortunately, my reply will have to wait till next time. I am supposed to be doing an exam at the moment.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:07 AM  

  • Anything about rape gets a huge readership, doesn't it? Makes you wonder why angry white men think about rape all the time. I'm not saying they're all rapists, but it makes you think.

    "However, their CHOICE of victims WAS racially motivated. They wanted a white girl to humiliate and exploit...not black and not mexican."

    Of course that's based on an interview with them, right? You just know this because you know this, right? I wouldn't want to think you're just voicing your fears or projecting your own proclivities on minorities because you're obsessed with rape and can't deal with it.

    As I said, most crimes like this are perpetrated by young white males, so why aren't you bitching about them? when angry white boys beat the crap out of some poor immigrant - say like your grandparents - you don't say a word, do you? Why are you ignoring all the crimes perpetrated by white males against blacks and Mexicans and others? We know.

    You're as transparent as a window with some very ugly stuff behind it. Too bad someone didn't chase your misbegotten European riff-raff ancestors back to where they came from. There sure as hell was enough screaming and yelling about crime and disease when they showed up, or have you forgotten?

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 8:01 AM  

  • Hey here's an idea...how about raising baby boys differently. Teach them to respect girls and women.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:41 PM  

  • Of course she was raped because of her race!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 8:15 AM  

  • I'd like to amend another commenter's demographic stats above with the following: whites comprise approx. 2% of the student body at Richmond High School (via GreatSchools.com). According to a columnist at the Contra Costa Times (Tammerin something) the victim was white, which one might also have inferred if one has followed the media coverage very closely. And you have to watch closely, because the lib's in the media ain't giving that info away!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:57 PM  

  • To the liberal automata who within seconds announced of learning the perps were non-white: Race has nothing to do with it!

    How the hell do you know?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:00 PM  

  • Race only ever has something to do with it when the attackers are white and the victim is black, even when that gang-rape is a hoax; when this happens (and it almost never truly does) white America is expected to bow its head and reflect on our collective soul.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:04 PM  

  • "As I said, most crimes like this are perpetrated by young white males, so why aren't you bitching about them?"

    Yeah, like the Duke Lacrosse guys. Admit it, you aren't even remotely familiar with the crime statistics concerning aggravated rape are you? Which of course is why you want to talk about cowboys and indians.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:20 PM  

  • I do not know if the suspects singled out the victim because of her race or not. Nor does anyone on this blog. This clearly has to be investigated under federal hate crime statutes - if the evidence supports racial profiling in the selection of the victim, then the perpetrators should be held accountable for the hate crime as well. In any case, the fellows that did this act lack chromosomes / genetic composition of a human being; they are irretrievable and should be terminated.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:42 AM  

  • I was, and still am utterly disgusted by this crime. It makes me sick that just a couple months ago, there was a supposed gang rape of a Hofstra student, and the world was on her side. To then find out that she was a lying coniving individual put the idea of "rape" under the microscope. There is so much speculation that this young girl wanted to be gang-raped by over 8 guys, that she got drunk and voluntarily welcomed the beating and robbery of her belongings and her body. It is a scary thought that the defense will use this as a defense, and that the cowardly bystanders will not come forward with testimony or photos snapped that horrid night. Race should not be an issue in this case, but instead the issue should be why it happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:08 PM  

  • REALIST: people keep saying race has nothing to do with it. Race has everything to do with it. First certain racial groups have higher levels of testosterone than others leading them to higher incidence of impulsive behaviors. minority communties especially blacks have long history of standing by and watching crimes being committed yet doing nothing. Anybody hear of the white boy brutally attacked in Croften, MD while blacks stood around and watched wiht no one providing assistance wiht identification!!! There are countless stories. The sick thing is all the blacks on here saying race had nothing to do with it would be singing another tune if if was a black girl raped by a bunch of white guys. Anyone ever hear of the Duke lacross case, or tawana brawdley or what ever the F her name was. Race has everything to do with it. Look around the world and you will not find an organized self reliant black community free of the extremes of violance and rape. No country that has risen to prominence anywhere in the world. WE have all been victems of slavery and oppression yet the black community can not rise above I ask you why. Race has everything to do with. People ask where was the security? You have a school most likely run by blacks and governed by blacks whoses standards of governing and acceptance of ill behavior are far different for the rest of the country. It was not only those witnessing the rapes who stood by and did nothing. The administration of this school has stood by and allowed piss poor behaviour of its students for years.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 11:02 PM  

  • As I said, you people are all obsessed with rape stories -- we've hit a new record for comments. We don't talk about putting the perps in jail, which we will, we talk instead about convenient extrapolations and misapplied statistics damning the innocent. Face it - you just love it when it happens and you love scapegoats. You want it to be a race crime to justify your own race hatred so you can tell yourselves you're not the scum you really are.

    We don't hear a damned thing when the victims number in the thousands or are not of the sacred white race. We don't hear that nearly all the "minority" students did not rape anyone and never will. We don't hear that Hispanics in the US are Attorneys General, Cabinet members, Governors of States, policemen, celebrities and network news anchors, no, we pick our stories because it's a sport and we can use our anger to cover up what we really are.

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 9:56 AM  

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