The other reason for Brock Turner’s short sentence

[KamaAina]

Bear in mind this is not from The Onion.

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/The-other-reason-for-Brock-Turner-s-short-7974315.php

Now that Brock Turner has become the despised symbol for campus sexual assault in America, the narrative has sprung up that he got a very light sentence because of his status as a privileged white male athlete.

That's true, but another powerful dynamic was at work in the courtroom — Turner's obvious softness.

Prosecutor Alaleh Kianerci was so worried about the jury sympathizing with the former Stanford student she felt it necessary to say as she began closing arguments, "There's an elephant in the room. It's hard to look at Brock Turner and not feel badly for him. Brock Turner may not look like a typical rapist, but he is the quintessential face of campus sexual assault."...

He'll likely serve only three months at Elmwood jail in Milpitas, with the standard 50 percent off for good behavior. Jail authorities have him in protective custody in a single cell. Given the obvious danger from much tougher fellow inmates, they could have faced another huge lawsuit if they put him in general population.

Cry me a river! So all any old rapist has to do to get a slap on the wrist is to have plastic surgery to make him look "soft"?!

[Orrex]

1. Clearly the unconscious rape victim was asking for it.

A soft boy like poor l'il Brock couldn't possibly rape anyone! He's a swimmer, after all!

[cwydro]

2. Softness may have helped, but whiteness is what is key here.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. As numerous studies have demonstrated

Blackness is rarely perceived as soft. Even relatively young black children are perceived as hardened and relatively impervious to pain. There is no disentangling perceptions of Turners softness from his whiteness. They are of a racist piece.

[niyad]

3. I am going to be ill.

[mainstreetonce]

4. He's a championship swimmer. His muscles are anything but soft.

Don't let his face fool anyone ,he is as dangerous a man twice his size.

[maxsolomon]

5. The article is speculative, but it could have played into the Judge's thought process.

it seems like it did. after all, the prosecutor went right at the issue.

I've said this before on DU: Prison Rape, or even assault, is not supposed to be part of the punishment for any crime, no matter how heinous. Gaining control over the internal violence of prisons would remove this concern from sentencing considerations.

[smirkymonkey]

6. "It's hard to look at Brock Turner and not feel badly for him."

Are you effing kidding me?? I look at him and just want to punch the shit out of him. What kind of sociopath feels sorry for a guy like that?