14 Year Old Raped, Town Burns Down House for Revenge

[Greenday]

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/10/12...ns-sexual.html

A 14 year old girl went to a party and that's where things got fuzzy for her. She ended up blackout drunk and while drunk, a 17 guy at the party decided that was a good time to have sex with her. His friend also thought it would be a good idea to do the same to her 13 year old friend. A third student decided to videotape it all. Once they were done banging the drunk girls, they dropped the 14 year old off at her front door in the freezing cold, wearing just sweats and a t-shirt. After nearly dying of frostbite, she was taken in for testing and it was confirmed that someone had sex with her the night before. She reported it and the guys were brought up on charges. Justice, right?

Hah, no. The prosecutor dropped the charges claiming there wasn't enough evidence (It was filmed. How is that not enough evidence?). One of the boys just happens to be the grandson of an important local politician. The 17 year old guy was a popular football player. The family was continually harassed. Other students mocked the girl and made fun of her for it. The mother of the girl was fired from her job. It all got so bad, they had to move away. While they were gone and they were waiting for their old house to be sold, it "mysteriously" caught fire and burnt down. And the police/fire department have no idea how it could have started.

On another forum I'm on, we have two idiots trying to claim it was her fault. She clearly wanted it. There's no way corruption was involved in getting the charges dropped. She took advantage of him. The family is just trying to profit off of the situation. What drunk guy wouldn't turn down a blowjob? God damn morons.

[Gravekeeper]

Saw this yesterday, made me stabby. The whole town basically drove them out to protect a rapist. The only upside is Anonymous has caught wind of this and will likely burn the town to the ground and unlike Steubenville, I don't have much sympathy for anyone caught in the crossfire.

[SkullKing]

This is horrible, I honestly have no idea how I would react if I were on their shoes.

This is unthinkable.

[Rageaholic]

I heard about this on another forum.

This is worse than Steubenville. Not only did they rape the girls, but they could have damn well killed them by leaving them out in the cold (not to mention the house fire). Someone should open up a can of whoop ass on the whole town (after the family moves of course).

[smileyeagle1021]

So essentially, the moral of the story is run across a football field naked and we'll expel you, charge you with lewdness, and put you on a lifelong sex offender registry (I'll have to find the link for reference, but that happened to a 15 year old recently)... rape a 14 year old and we'll not only not charge you, but force that bitch who is giving you trouble out of town. God bless America... seriously, at this point nothing but an all powerful being can fix how fucked up we are.

[Sarah Valentine]

After reading this I'm scared and I cry for Lauren's future. I'm also pissed off once again a whole town stands behind a rapist just because he's a football player/popular kid/politicians grandson, but this time they run the victim out of town and burn down her house! I think if it was some average or unpopular "Joe Shmoe" who didn't play sports or do anything and just faded into the background and had no connections he would be in jail, then again maybe not.

[Kelmon]

I'm baffled that apparently no reason had to be given for the case getting dismissed. How is that possible? Especially if the police apparently had ample evidence against the two boys.

However, i hate it that now so many people (including Anonymous, apparently) want to move against the whole town, as if they'd collectively stood behind the (alleged) rapists. It doesn't take a lot of people to burn down a house, or to make threatening calls, or to fire the mother.

If you identify those who acted that way - fine. Move against them if you wish. But if you don't care if innocents are negatively affected by your actions (and yes, that includes saying "the whole town did it!"), you're not really being better than those people.

[s_stabeler]

I don't know- it looks like it's a majority of the town who are against this family. And in a case like this, it's arguable that the silence of any of the supporters of the family is just as damning.

[Andara Bledin]

I wouldn't damn those who are keeping quiet and keeping their heads down.

You don't speak out against a mob when you're in the middle of the mob unless you want to be treated the same as the person they're attacking.

Also, we don't know that those not speaking out aren't doing other, less obvious things, to make this issue known outside the town itself or aren't trying to get out before they tell what they know.

[smileyeagle1021]

I wouldn't damn those who are keeping quiet and keeping their heads down.

.

To quote Martin Luther King Jr., "the only thing more damaging than the words of your opponents is the silence of your friends."
Why shouldn't we damn them for the damage they are causing?

[Gravekeeper]

The prosecutor has reopened the case.

With the bullshit reason that he totally didn't know the victims were willing to testify. He claims the victims invoked the 5th amendment ( ...What? ) and that the family admitted the daughter doesn't always tell the truth ( Which they dispute ).

...So what? You have physical evidence and you have fucking VIDEO of it plus confessions from the attackers. You weaselly little shit. Maybe the next time Grandpa calls you for a political favour over underage rape you'll find some shred of humanity to work with and say no.

[cindybubbles]

To those of you who live in that town and don't approve of what the town did, stand up for the girl or move to a town where you can safely stand up for her.

[Andara Bledin]

To quote Martin Luther King Jr., "the only thing more damaging than the words of your opponents is the silence of your friends."
Why shouldn't we damn them for the damage they are causing?

There is a difference between causing damage and not doing something to prevent someone else from causing damage.

I think requiring that they become martyrs, absent any knowledge at all about them, including whether or not they actually aren't doing anything, is premature and, far too reactionary.

There are a lot of things I do that I wish more people would also do, but that I understand is not an option for everybody. I don't have people depending on me to be there for them such as a child or a parent. I can afford to tell people off for doing stupid shit, as the impact will only affect a handful of other adults. Most of those who know what's going on are likely parents, and for them, the potential cost of blowing the whistle is far, far higher.

[s_stabeler]

There is a saying. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. What were people doing when people were openly mocking the kid who was raped? ( for instance, it said in the article that a girl was wearing a t-shirt saying "Matt: 1, Daisy: 0"- why was she allowed to wear the t-shirt at a dance competition? Why was Daisy's mother fired from her job? (allegedly, the possibility of civil action was causing stress on everyone- oh, and that she might not be able to work sometimes. Um, either that is some form of threat " You'll get beaten up!" or, if time off was needed for court dates, that is what annual leave is for)

in short, while I will admit that not everybody in the town deserves individual punishment for this, the entire town should be ashamed. Particularly:
1) the school- why was more not done to stop the harassment of the family at school? Why was Daisy suspended from the cheerleading squad?
2) the prosecutor- he should be fired. It's absolutely bullshit that the case was dismissed for insufficient evidence- you have a film of the act, which proves statutory rape (since the victim is 14, you merely need to prove that sex was performed. Consent is irrelevant, since Daisy was legally unable to consent) and you had actual confessions. The video backs up the confessions- more or less open and shut case for statutory rape. Especially since there was medical evidence supporting that Daisy hat at least had sex.
3) whoever set the fire- really? the family had been chased out of town. Why burn the house down? Was it supposed to be a financial punishment?

Oh, and the prosecutor's reason for originally dismissing the charges is bullshit even if he's telling the truth, for the exact same reason on both counts- the victims' testimony is actually irrelevant, and indeed, I would imagine a competent prosecutor would have sought to avoid putting Daisy on the stand - to avoid cross-examination issues, if nothing else. So even if Daisy is known to lie most of the time, you have video evidence, plus a confession, plus medical evidence supporting that someone raped her- Um, I don't thin she's lying, dumbass.

[Kelmon]

There is a saying. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. What were people doing when people were openly mocking the kid who was raped? ( for instance, it said in the article that a girl was wearing a t-shirt saying "Matt: 1, Daisy: 0"- why was she allowed to wear the t-shirt at a dance competition? Why was Daisy's mother fired from her job? (allegedly, the possibility of civil action was causing stress on everyone- oh, and that she might not be able to work sometimes. Um, either that is some form of threat " You'll get beaten up!" or, if time off was needed for court dates, that is what annual leave is for)

Well, i guess it's easier to judge some of the townspeople's actions in hindsight, after the (appropriate) media outrage, but we should not forget that a lot of them might not have had full knowledge of what happened - and those siding with the two boys would have been happy to help them fill in the missing information with any sort of lies.
The most problematic thing would probably be that the case against those boys was dismissed, essentially making it seem that they *have* to be innocent, with the girls making false and damning claims to ruin their lives.

In that situation, i can't blame anyone to simply not take sides at all.

However, I fully agree with the remainder of your posting.