White Privilege, White Power. John R. K. Howard Is Not Guilty Of Rape

Back in October of 2015, out in Dietrich, Idaho, three white high school football players attacked and sexually assaulted a black, mentally disabled teammate. One of the rapists, John R. K. Howard used a coat hanger to sexually assault the student who was being held down by Howard’s friends.

Last week Howard was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge, a felony count of injury to a child, and will be sentenced to two to three years of probation and, maybe, about 300 hours of community service.

For raping a student with a coat hanger.

And not only will rapist John R. K. Howard avoid prison, he could see his conviction dismissed if he completes probation without violations or committing new crimes. In addition, since he submitted an Alford plea, which means that even though he entered a guilty plea in criminal court, Howard does not admit to the crime and maintains his innocence.

He says he’s guilty, but maintains his innocence? Only in America ... Deputy Attorney General Casey Hammer’s explanation is almost as crazy as the act itself and of Howard’s deal. While he does say Howard’s behavior was “egregious” and caused the victim “a lot of suffering,” Hammer says it was not a sex crime:

“We don’t believe it’s appropriate for Mr. Howard to suffer the consequences of a sex offender, but he still needs to be held accountable.”

It’s the “probation and an expunged record” kind of accountability, but here are the facts ...

Before this incident, John R. K. Howard has been accused of dry humping, or simulating anal sex, with several of the younger players on the team.

After befriending this young boy, John R. K. Howard taught him to sing the lyrics to a song called “Notorious KKK” by someone called Moon Man:

“Moon man, Moon man, can’t you see S***s and ni**ers need to hang from trees”

He also stripped the boy of his clothes on a team trip and he may have been the one who drew a school bus on a chalkboard with the victim depicted as sitting at the back.

In August 2015, the Dietrich High School football team went to a camp where, it’s ALLEGED, members of the team were pitted against each other in boxing matches at night.

Howard was pitted against his future victim. The victim was wearing boxing gloves while Howard, bare handed, knocked the victim unconscious while team members stood around shouting racial epithets.

Then, in October 2015, the victim, under the pretense of receiving a hug from a teammate, was bent over and had a coat hanger inserted into his rectum by Tanner Ward [right]—an unnamed 16-year-old football player was also arrested in the case.

John R. K. Howard then “kicked the hanger multiple times, either embedding it into the rectum of (victim), or embedding it further.”

But he’s neither guilty of a hate crime, nor guilty of a sex crime because, well, he’s a white football player in Idaho and the victim was a black student with la learning disability.

The victim’s parents have filed a $10 million lawsuit against the district due to the bullying, saying nothing was done to protect the victim who was suffering from “mental disorders including learning disabilities.”

How does this happen? I mean, the student was raped with a coat hanger, right? And one student admitted to shoving the coat hanger into the rectum of the boy and then watched as Howard kicked it in further. How this results in innocence is beyond me.

How is he not guilty of rape? Of a sex crime? Of a hate crime? How does a Deputy Attorney General, like Casey Hammer, not see that this young white man was escalating from taunting the kid, berating the kid, beating up the kid, to raping the kid?

Oh, white. Football. Idaho.

Racism is alive and well and protecting rapists but not the victims.

Daily Kos