Four Arraigned in Richmond Gang-Rape

This story says they're charged, but a later story say they were arraigned today.

Three minors — 15, 16 and 17 — are each charged with felony rape with a foreign object. The charges all carry an enhancement that they acted in concert, which could make them eligible for life in prison if found true, Deputy District Attorney Dara Cashman said.

The 16-year-old also has been charged with robbery. Cashman charged a fourth suspect, 19-year-old Manuel Ortega, with robbery, assault causing great bodily injury, rape in concert and an enhancement that also makes him eligible for life in prison.

The youths were charged as adults "because this crime speaks to a high degree of callousness and viciousness," said Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Dan Cabral, head of the office's juvenile division

Cashman and Richmond police detectives said Wednesday that they expect to make more arrests in the case. A fifth suspect arrested Tuesday night, 21-year-old Salvador Rodriguez, remains in custody but has not been charged.

Here's a dumb opinion piece by, I guess, a local columnist:

They laughed. They snapped pictures. For two hours, they took turns beating and raping a drunk, defenseless girl. Fine Saturday night fun.

The details of the brutal gang rape outside the Richmond High School homecoming dance last weekend chill my soul. The 15-year-old was lured to a "party" by a "friend" only to find out she was to be the evening's entertainment. Dozens of people wandered by and thought it was funny.

I wonder what sort of twisted young people would get their kicks out of participating in such an attack. I wonder what kind of callous young people would stand by and watch, or see what was going on and hurry away, but never try to stop it or even call police. Surely they must have precious women in their lives. Mothers, sisters, grandmothers. Yet no one cared what happened to the victim, who had to be airlifted to a hospital in critical condition. How could young people be so cruel and inhuman?

One of the young women who called the cops as soon as they heard about the attack tried to offer an explanation: "They think it's cool," she told our reporter. "They weren't raised to respect girls."

They weren't raised to respect girls.

Is that it?

We do not, as a society, respect girls. We teach them from birth that sexy is cute, sexy is beautiful, sexy is the way to get attention. From baby shirts that say "Hot Chick" to preschool dance classes where little girls learn to bump and grind, there's no escaping it. By the time they're in middle school, girls know that sexy gets more attention from boys than brainy or athletic or tough.

And it goes on like that, eventually mentioning video games or something.

Look, I understand women's horror at this. I happen to share it. But, just to be accurate about this, one is underinclusive when one says these thugs did not "respect women."

They did not respect humans, period. They are animals lacking the most basic empathetic spark that typically restrains human beings from beating or raping each other brutally -- the empathy that makes such monstrous behavior difficult to even contemplate, let alone perform.

For two hours.

In front of an apparently entertained crowd.

On Twitter, Greg Pollowitz says "Death penalty for all of them, including the spectators." I agree. And I know there's no law to get to such just punishment, but then, as they say, no jury in the world would convict you.

The problem isn't that we're raising boys who don't respect girls. Or, rather, that is a problem too, but not really the problem here. Yes, they targeted her because, as a girl, she had what they wanted. But it's hard to imagine that a vulnerable, lone man who had something they wanted -- including simple humanity that they could shatter for their jollies (stuff like this is, as they say, also about dominance and pure cruelty rather than sex alone) -- would get better treatment from these vermin.

"Respecting women" is a lesson they need to learn. But that's kind of nuance they could only appreciate after a long lesson in Why it's a bad thing to prey upon human beings as if you're brutish jackals.

Actually, the hell with learning. Kill them in prison. And yeah, rape them in prison. With my blessing.

We have monsters in our society and no one much seems to care.

One local article notes that "interest in the case in cyberspace" is high.

In cyberspace? Um, why not in the leftwing media? Is this story somehow not interesting enough?

We know why. It's not that this story doesn't have national policy implications. The trouble for the leftwing media is that it obviously, incandescently does have national policy implications about which they wish to keep silent. As it's impolite.

Well, the crime rate among blacks and Latinos is viciously high. Lives are shattered, and snuffed out, every day because of this.

Can we perhaps get over our political correctness and treat this as a problem, maybe?

I don't know if spotlighting the problem would help. As I mentioned in my previous post*, the Kitty Genovese murder shocked the country out of complacency about crime, and cowardice in the face of crime.

But for that to happen, people have to know about it.

* Which I put into draft because some idiot decided it was the perfect time to let loose a torrent of racial animus. I would appreciate if this does not happen again.

posted by Ace at 06:09 PM

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