Do We Move On? Can We? Should We?

This story has me kind of stymied, so let’s start at the beginning ...

Back on August 12, 2012, several people, including two high school football players, Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond, raped a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio.

Shortly after midnight, the girl, heavily intoxicated, left a party with four football players and went to a second party where the victim vomited and appeared "out of it." The same group left that party and headed to another home. During the car ride, the victim’s shirt was removed and Trent Mays digitally penetrated the her vagina and exposed her breasts while his friends filmed and photographed her.

Once reaching the house, the players took the victim to the basement where Mays attempted to orally rape the victim by forcing his penis into her mouth. She was stripped naked and the second accused, Ma'lik Richmond, also digitally penetrated the victim's vagina while she was photographed. Three witnesses to the crime took those photos back to the second party and shared them with friends.

In the days following the rapes, Trent Mays tried to orchestrate a cover-up, telling a friend, 'Just say she came to your house and passed out,' and pleading with the victim not to press charges. But Ohio investigators confiscated and analyzed 15 cellphones and two tablets, collecting hundreds of text messages and photos and videos from dozens of students.

During the trial, the victim testified in court that she had no memory of the six-hour period in which the rapes occurred, except for a brief time in which she was vomiting on the street. She said she woke up the next morning naked in a basement with Mays, Richmond and another teenage boy, missing her underwear, flip-flops, phone and earrings.

The evidence presented in court consisted of hundreds of texts and cellphone pictures taken by more than a dozen people at the parties and afterwards traded with others and posted to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

On March 17, 2013, Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were convicted of rape after the judge found they had used their fingers to digitally penetrate the victim's vagina and that it was impossible for the victim to have given consent. Ma'lik Richmond received a minimum sentence of one year for penetrating the girl while she was unconscious, while Trent Mays was given a minimum two year sentence for penetrating the girl while she was unconscious and disseminating pornographic pictures of her. Ma'lik Richmond was released from detention on January 5, 2014 and this story is about him ...

In 2016, Ma’lik Richmond transferred to Youngstown State and tried to resurrect his football career.  YSU head coach Bo Pelini knew about Richmond’s transfer, and met with him in person after YSU’s 2015 season ended. Richmond made the team as a walk-on, and was slated to appear for the Penguins until a student circulated a petition demanding that YSU prohibit Richmond from playing for the team. More than 10,000 people signed the petition, and YSU officials then announced that Ma’lik Richmond would be allowed to stay on the team for practices and other team activities, but would not be allowed to play for the Penguins during the 2016-2017 season.

Richmond—who says his transfer to football powerhouse Youngstown State had nothing to do with football—sued the school for denying him the opportunity to potentially advance his professional football career and this month his lawyers and the school reached a settlement that will reinstate Ma’lik Richmond to the team.

“What is most important is that Ma’lik moves on. This is a case about Ma’lik being given all the opportunities afforded a student of good standing.”—Susan Stone, Richmond’s attorney

But what about ethics? Most colleges and universities hold their student athletes to higher levels of accountability than typical students; breaking even the smallest of team rules can result in disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal from the team. And while college athletics departments have a spotty track record for handling instances of sexual assault, players have been cut from rosters all the time for getting into legal trouble. But what about the legal trouble that occurs before the student joins a team?

During court hearings, Richmond’s legal team argued that YSU had “hurt [his] football career prospects by curtailing his exposure to professional scouts at the peak of his abilities,” and that the university was “contractually obligated” to let Richmond play; this claim is absurd because no college athlete, anywhere, any time, is guaranteed a spot on a team’s roster. Still, Richmond won his case and will be allowed to play on the team, so here’s the question: when do we forgive, if that’s even the right word, and move on?

While many, myself included, think Richmond’s sentence for rape was far too light, it was the sentence given to him, and he served it. And so, do we continue to punish him for the rest of his life for a crime, albeit a sexual assault, he committed as a teenager? When do we move on? Do we move on?

I lean toward ‘Yes.’ Richmond did the crime, he did his time, he paid his debt, hoewever light that might have been; but then I think about the victim. She’ll carry this with her forever, and then, perhaps, one day she might absentmindedly be clicking though the channels on her TV and come across a professional football game and see one of her rapists playing, being celebrated for his athleticism, and making, no doubt, quite a good living off the sport.

And I lean toward ‘No.’ Have we done her a disservice? Have we once again subjected her to more victimization?

I want to think we could, and this isn’t the right word, forgive, the crime of a teenager and let him, or her, live their lives as they choose, but then I think about the life-long emotional scars on that victim and wonder if we should ever, in any way shape or form, forgive a convicted convicted rapist.

Like I said, I’m stymied. Do we continue, for the rest of his life, to punish Ma'lik Richmond for his crime and deny him the right to earn a living doing what he loves? Or, do we stand with the victim, for always, and tell this young man that all he is, and all he will ever be is a convicted rapist?

What do you think?

Random Musings

The first season of FX’s Feud: Bette & Joan hasn’t even started yet—it’s this Sunday, March 5, set your DVRs—but that hasn’t stopped FX from ordering a second season from creator Ryan Murphy.

And season two’s feud? Feud: Charles & Diana! No word on whether this will be the whole marriage, or just the final few years.

But still, since they can’t do Feud: Hillary & Donald, this is the next best thing.

San Francisco has never been a city to shy away from saying what it feels and, well, now this ...

Beginning on February 23rd, and continuing on, San Francisco City Hall will light up with the colors of the transgender flag—pink, white, and light blue—in response to _____’s roll back of protections for transgender students.

I think it looks gorgeous.

So, I was watching GMA this week and they were set to announce the latest contestants on Dancing With The ‘Hey, Didn’t You Used To Be Somebody?’ Stars. And amazingly enough one person who was ALLEGED to have been asked said, “Oh hell no.”

Hillary Clinton. Seriously. They asked Hillary Clinton to appear on their bumbling show.

I mean, who did they think she was: Rick Perry?

In Good LGBT News ... Arizona Wildcats recruit My-King Johnson will become the first openly gay football scholarship player in the NCAA.

King had verbally committed to UCLA before flipping to Arizona possibly, and I don’t know if this is for sure, but possibly because, when he told UA assistant coach Vince Amey about his orientation, Amey said:

“We want you to be a Wildcat.”

And that was what Johnson wanted to hear, and now he’s become a trailblazer of sorts:

“I do feel like when I say that, it can put a target on my back, but whatever.”

Exactly.

Good luck My-King ... ooh, that sounds kinda odd!

So Bates Motel is back for its final season and Mother is dead and Norman’s lost his mind and bodies are piling up at the motel.

And Rihanna is set to play the Janet Leigh role—stabbed in the shower, you know—as the season, and series ends but ...

First we have Austin Nichols, as the husband of a woman, a live woman, that Norman thinks looks suspiciously like Mother.

And Austin might not be such a good guy, but he is deliciously, evilly hot ... Carry on.

Damn it. A week or so ago American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy was on Watch What Happens Live and suggested that the next season of the fright-fest might be the scariest ever because it was going to be based on the election last fall of _____.

Talk about horror! But now Murphy is saying he might have been a wee bit drunk when he said that and walked that idea back:

“The themes of ‘American Horror Story’ have always been allegories. You will not see [Donald] Trump and [Hillary] Clinton as characters on the show.”

He did mention, though, that AHS favorite, Sarah Paulson, would make a perfect Minister of Propaganda and AlternativeFactoid.

While I might have enjoyed a horror version of that horrible election, the idea of reliving that mess for a few months might have been too much even for me.

I love this story ... did you know that when you donate to Planned Parenthood you receive a Thank You letter? And if you donate in someone else’s name they receive a Thank You note? That happened last year when thousand s of folks donated to the cause in the name of Mike Pence and he received thousands of Thank You’s.

And now folks have been donating to Planned Parenthood in the name of Greg Locke, the pastor of something called Global Vision Bible Church and poor Greg has gone off on Facebook ...

‘SINCE PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS TAKING HUNDREDS OF DONATIONS IN MY NAME, I’LL REPOST THIS VIDEO. THIS IS ONE FIGHT I WILL NOT BACK DOWN FROM.”

Easy on the all-caps, Cowboy! Who do you think you are, the president?

Locke is anti-gay, anti-women’s right, anti-choice, anti-transgender, and even went last year posting videos denouncing Target’s gender-neutral bathroom policy.

Locke is also known as a “pervert hunter” though he might not be so good at that because just three years ago he hired a youth pastor who was later arrested on multiple counts of raping a thirteen-year-old girl.

So, if you wish to donate to PP, do it in Greg Locke’s name. Thank you.

So that picture ... of Kellyanne Conway, propped up on the couch in the Oval office looking like a stuffed, dumbassed lapdog, after taking a picture of Hair Furor with representatives from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

What a display of disrespect from the C U Next Tuesday except .... Kellyanne is the victim, y’all:

“I was very busy today and didn’t follow a lot of [the controversy] but I know there are a couple of reports at least showing what happened. And what happened is we had the largest gathering of men and women to date in the Oval Office for a picture. I was being asked to take a picture in a crowded room with the press behind us. I was asked to take a certain angle and was doing exactly that. I certainly meant no disrespect, I didn’t mean to have my feet on the couch. It is venomous, it is vicious, it bothers my children to be frank with you. I have 24/7 Secret Service protection because people do wish us harm and people should take that very seriously. I’m not a victim at all but people should take very seriously the import of their words when I meant no disrespect. This came from a journalist that is not happy that Donald Trump is the President. But I just want people to focus on the great work of the HBCU presidents and how honored we were to have them here.”

Um, Kellyanne, you remarkably dip-shitted tool? No one questions the angle at which you took the picture, but we are wondering why you propped your foul ass on the couch like one of the Queen’s prized Corgi’s and then, after the photo, played tag the picture on Facebook while still sitting on the couch like a dog.

Show some respect in the last days you have in this job. You are an embarrassment. You knew you were being photographed because you said you were in front of a slew of photographers. Seriously, bitch, and I mean that in the most disrespectful way possible, is there one topic about which you will not lie?

That’s a rhetorical question.

Now get off the couch and get back in your kennel.