"when we get there, we'll want to rape everything
we set eyes on"
It wasn't that long ago that Spaniards were slaughtering each other in hundreds of thousands. That was going on, under Franco, less than a century ago. It can take generations to climb out of that sort of barbarity.
There's an interesting gang rape trial now underway in Madrid, the heartland of the rightwing monarchist government. It involves the Pamplona "wolf pack" or "La Manada," a group of five guys from Seville who, in 2016, went to the "running of the bulls" with one thing on their minds, raping women.
They're now standing trial for the gang rape of an 18-year old woman, or at least they should be. However, in a tribute to Spanish justice, it's the woman on trial.
That line about raping everything we set eyes on? That was a text that was circulated among the gang mentioning the need to procure date rape drugs and ropes. The trial judge has excluded those messages from the evidence. What the judge did allow into evidence was a private investigator's report into the victim, her social media activities and such. That was part of the defence plan to argue that the gang sex was consensual.
"In this trial, it seems that what is being judged is not the crimes, but this woman's honour," says Amalia Fernández, president of Themis, a Spanish organisation of women jurists.
"We live in a society with patriarchal attitudes. Courts reflect society leading to a double victimisation as in this case. In crimes against women, the victim is turned into a suspect, something that never happens to complainants in other crimes."
Ms Fernández questions how the judge could have considered a private detective's report on the student from Madrid to be of any value in evaluating her level of trauma, while describing the material from the accused's WhatsApp conversations as irrelevant in terms of their "preparations" for the alleged crime.
She also criticises the fact that the accused were not cross-examined until the end of the trial after hearing all the other evidence and the testimony of the alleged victim, an extremely rare exception to the norm in Spanish trials in which defendants are put on the stand first.
...
The men sent WhatsApp messages to friends celebrating the sex act, and promised to share videos they took on their phones. Those videos have been examined by the court frame by frame.
The police report on the videos says that the alleged victim maintains a "passive or neutral" attitude throughout the scene, keeping her eyes closed at all times.
"I just wanted it to finish as soon as possible," she said on the witness stand.
The woman was found in a reportedly distraught state by a couple in the street outside the scene of the alleged crime. She told the court she is still having psychological treatment to deal with trauma from the alleged attack.
11 comments:
general comment; i love your blog and visit daily, but could you please include links to the source articles when you quote from them? i often like to read the full story referenced, as well, in regards to proper attribution it would be appropriate.
thanks.
Hi, Anon. I do try to link these posts and I've now fixed this one. You can also go here;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42149912
Why do men all over the world get away with this? The girl facing SIX men and their brute force. What do people think especially men in law, what that girl is going to do? She is going to keep her life at all costs. It is about time men were made to face three years of continuous training regarding their attitudes toward women and to learn to control their penis. The South African Jude who told an 18 year old girl in Alberta, "you should have kept your knees together" pleading for his job back should never be allowed in a court room ever again. Six months of counseling doesn't get it Mr. Kemp. Men who think it is okay to tell Blond Jokes don't understand why women don't like them. It is where it all begins and shows nothing but disrespect for women. Would you rape your the woman who gave you life?
I didn't know that "men all over the world" do this. I haven't been "all over the world" but I've been to many places over a few decades, lived in some, and I've not known any men like these. Would I rape my mother? Just what darkness lurks in your mind? It would probably be a good idea if you found a way to calm down a bit.
Very interesting, Mound. My husband's job took him to a few different parts of BC and 1966 found us up in northwestern BC. In 1970 he got called for jury duty in Prince Rupert where both Spring and Fall Assizes were held. This would have been in 1971; he got picked and ended up having to sit through 3 rape trials. Like Steve Earle's song about coming home from Viet Nam with a brand new plan - my husband came home with a new attitude after sitting through and paricipating in deciding guilt or innocence of the accused. I can tell you it was not a nice experience as only 1 of the 3 accused was convicted even though they were sure all were guilty. The women,(one was pregnant when she had to testify) were dragged through the mud and his advice to me was "just keep a gun handy when I'm away from home because you'd be better off defending yourself from a murder charge than testifying against a rapist".
Fortunately, Lulymay, we've come a long way in Canadian jurisprudence on sexual assault since 1970. Many women bridle at the mention of the guilt beyond a reasonable doubt standard of proof. I do understand that. I also understand what happens to our law if we abandon that. The redress enacted by the Supreme Court of Canada in recent years goes mainly to shielding the accuser from the worst of the beating up she/he would formerly have had to endure from defence counsel. I don't blame the counsel for that. They were doing their job within the scope of the law as it was then understood. They were obliged to do all of that. It was a relief for many of them when reforms were enacted.
I’m puzzled by your implication that this is a “Spanish” thing. It sounds like your standard rape trial. It could have happened anywhere.
My reply to your blog was not aimed at you, but rather the court room. Remember Kemp made his comments to an 18 year old just two years ago. And you better get up to speed. When many men have to tell blood jokes, sexual innuendo jokes...do please tell me why you think Canada has it all together. Why just last week I wouldn't laugh at a blond joke and the man called me a person without a sense of humor... right? And no, having been there, I will say what needs to be said...you can call my comment a rant....but you are a lawyer aren't you? Now I know where you stand.
Dolly Parton once said: "I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde". Dolly, I love you, but we'll have to disagree on this one, because nothing riles me quite as much as a dumb blonde joke.
They get my goat for two reasons; namely because they're never, ever, actually funny, and secondly because they disguise one of the last "acceptable" forms of prejudice veiled as (poor attempts at) humour, and any resistance seems to be met with the riposte “can’t you take a joke?” And it's not just limited to blondes.
Those with red hair can be subjected to horrific levels of abuse, as an unofficial Kick a Ginger Kid Day left ginger schoolchildren cut and bruised recently, alongside the baseless assumption they're irritable and quick-tempered. Model Lily Cole has spoken out how she was bullied at school for her hair colour, saying that “red hair is an issue, particularly in this country”.
Cole is not wrong - this country does have a real problem with prejudice surrounding hair colour. She says teachers often turn a blind eye to hair colour-based bullying because it lacks the stigma surrounding other forms of prejudice such as racism. In 2009 hedge fund millionaire Mark Lowe said he found it "inconceivable" that a female employee could be offended by jokes about dumb blondes as she attempted to sue him for sex discrimination. Jordan Wimmer may have lost her case against her former boss, but her actions go to show such "banter" is no laughing matter.
The actual joke here is that some people insist on trotting out these lame stereotypes considering more than a third of women in the UK are believed to regularly dye their hair, with dye being used an estimated 100m times each year in Britain alone. Apparently one in six women have been dying their hair for so long, they can’t even remember its natural colour. So given that faking hair colour has become so prominent, why are we still using these same tired analogies?
And I happen to be a red head and was subjected to the above comments about red heads.
Well, Anon, you certainly fashion yourself omniscient, claiming as you do to know where I stand. My mistake. Yet you're pegging something as innocuous as a "blonde joke" to a vicious sexual act, gang rape. That's overheated, hyperbole. If pointing that out indicates where I stand, well so be it. Thanks for playing.
That is your opinion.
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