Up-Date on Richmond High Gang Rape: Police arrest five suspects

[Hepburn]

California police arrest five suspects in Homecoming gang rape case

• As many as 10 people attacked 15-year-old girl
• Officers promise more arrests

Police in California have arrested five boys and young men in the gang rape, beating and robbery of a 15-year-old student outside a high school dance last weekend.

In a crime that shocked America, as many as 10 people ranging in age from 15 to their early 20s, attacked the girl in a dark lot outside Richmond High School on Saturday, taking turns assaulting her as others looked on and took photographs. Officers are canvassing the high school and have promised more arrests.

"Many of the students feel like these people who committed such an awful crime are still amongst them in class," Richmond police lieutenant Mark Gagan said.

Police said that during the school's Saturday homecoming dance, an autumn event at US high schools to promote school spirit, a teen the girl knew lured her away to a drinking party near the school building. The lot was unlit and lacked surveillance cameras. The girl was quickly overcome by alcohol and the attack began. Police say as many as two dozen people either witnessed the attack or knew what was occurring and did nothing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/28/california-...

Get 'em all and charge those under 18 years as adults. If they are old enough to rape ~~ they are old enough to stand charged as adults.

This is just a disgusting situation that this would happen and people would stand around do nothing AND take pictures of the events.

[alp227]

1. Richmond IS ghetto

I live in the Bay Area, and locally this case has gotten HUGE attention. The ghetto code? "Rat and be gone like rat-a-tat-tat!" This is why high schools must keep every attendee in the building during dances!

[Hepburn]

2. I can under those circumstances understand why someone would not...

...come forward and help at the scene or be seen talking to LE.

But to stand there AND take photos??? That is sick and I don't give a shit what kind of area where this happened. Taking pics of a gang rape is beyond sick.

JMHO

[joeybee12]

3. I lived in SF in 1982, and even back then you knew Richmond was

a problem area, poor and violent.

[leanderj]

9. Richmond also had a very racist past:

http://www.richmondmuseumofhistory.org/pdf/MIRROR_Fall_...

The Klan maintained a very public presence there, with public marches, well into the 1980s. For some reason, Richmond served as a type of headquarters for the KKK in Northern California - the same way industrial Fontana was a meeting place for the KKK in Southern California.

[EFerrari]

23. The John Birch Society still had an office on San Pablo in 1984

when we were living in Berkeley. It was right at the Berkeley/Albany border.

[leanderj]

4. The bystander effect:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/28/california.gang.rap... /

It's a theory that has played out in lynchings, college riots and white-collar crimes. Under the bystander effect, experts say that the larger the number of people involved in a situation, the less will get done. "If you are in a crowd and you look and see that everyone is doing nothing, then doing nothing becomes the norm." explains Drew Carberry, a director at the National Council on Crime Prevention. Carberry said witnesses can be less likely to report a crime because they reinforce each other with the notion that reporting the crime isn't necessary. Or, he says, witnesses may think another person in the crowd already reported the incident. The responsibility among the group becomes diffused.

This detached mentality can be especially pervasive among youth, who are too young to comprehend what victimization means, said Salvatore Didato, an organizational psychologist in New York. When a teenager -- or anyone -- -doesn't have a personal bond to the victim, they are less likely to help out. Experts say sometimes bystanders see the victim as less important than the person committing the crime, who appears to wield power. "The victim to them is a non-person," Didato said.

But in California, it's illegal for a witnessed crime involving children to go unreported. The Sherrice Iverson Child Victim Protection Act passed in 1999 makes it a misdemeanor to fail to report a crime against a child. However, the bill only applies to victims 14 or younger. The victim in the California gang-rape case was 15...

Richmond Police Department officials said some of the witnesses in the California gang rape ended up participating in the sexual assaults.

[SIMPLYB1980]

5. +100

[rubberducky]

6. The court needs to send a very strong message. This poor young lady will never be the same person.

It just seems so unbelievable to me that people could have walked by this without coming to her aid or at the very least contacting authorities.

[Hepburn]

8. That is soooooo hard for me to understand...

...and then to add they thought it OK to take pictures of her being raped and brutalized?



I can only see taking pictures to turn over to LE to nail the perps...other than that... sick, really sick.

[Echo In Light]

7. Good news. Condolences to the victim and her family

[fascisthunter]

10. that poor girl with those memories for life

that really really bothers me.

[Hepburn]

11. I also hope that she is not physically scarred for life either.

There are issues if AIDS, etc., as well as permanent damage to her body that could prevent childbearing in later years.

This is so sad...

[defendandprotect]

12. We need to know what's going on in these male minds . . .

that suggest to them that rape is their expression of human sexuality?

I think it's about domination of females?

And who's teaching this?

[Hepburn]

13. IMO....

...it has to do with what seems to be the "cheapening" of life. Nothing is worth anything anymore. So to some, it would seem to use this young lady and abuse her and then throw her away is just SSDD in their lives.

Frankly, I cannot imagine de-valuating life to that point...but obviously some can and have done so.

[defendandprotect]

15. The rise of the right does cheapen everyone's lives, but especially women and children . . .

[Darth_Kitten]

16. I doubt the perpetrators give a rat's fig about politics....

[defendandprotect]

19. The tone is set by the right when they are in control . . . respect for women isn't high ...

on their list --

as you might have also noticed from organized patriarchal religion?

[Captain Hilts]

17. So does shit like 'popular' music. nt

[defendandprotect]

20. dupe

[Berry Cool]

18. They're learning it from a lot of things around them.

Males are learning that if they want sex, they can't count on females to hand it over, so they need to find a weak, insecure girl, debilitate her and outnumber her. Get her drunk, and then everyone can have a turn. And why feel guilty, because she was dumb enough to go off with whoever lured her, and dumb enough to get drunk.

That's the attitude they learn. Set a trap, and any victim who walks into it is fair game. Not only that, but those who don't participate can just have fun watching and recording for posterity.

It's very sad. But really, the only "new" twist to it is the video aspect--the fact that today it's so easy to take pictures of this stuff. Boys and men have been taking advantage of vulnerable girls since time immemorial. It's high time it stopped.

[defendandprotect]

22. Blackwater is saying rape can't be prosecuted . . . that's the right wing message . . .

enslavement of young females and males into sex trade . . .
much of it coming thru US!

Dependency/addiction to internet porn which makes whores of all women --

[reggie the dog]

14. I knew the photos would do the bastards in

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. +10