Rape, part two
{1} There is a core of participants on the Democratic Underground who have a solid grasp of 1960s/early ’70s trivia, including little-known or long-forgotten stuff about The Beatles. (And that includes some post-breakup information.) While younger folks may associate music videos with MTV, we older people know that the Beatles made some outstanding ones, too. John and Yoko did as well; more, they made some thought-provoking non-musical videos.
I’m not sure how many here will recall that John & Yoko produced a short film titled, “Rape, part two” (also known as “Rape”). Probably a few have actually seen it. After starting on a pleasant note, it made a deep and disturbing statement.
{2} I’ve told parts of this before in other discussions on this forum: 14 years ago, a racist hate gang attacked my nephew, a high school student who took his basketball team to win a state title. He had a lot of local and state-wide media attention, which the gang resenting going to a person with brown skin. Various gang members would come from another town, to watch my nephew’s team, and would call him “porch monkey” and things like that.
In time, it went from attempted insults at sporting events, to incidents where my nephew received threats. Progress has been made on “racial” issues in this country during my lifetime, but there is still a lot of hatred out there. Eventually, a group of five young men found my nephew in an isolated spot, and attacked him. My nephew “won” that day, in the sense that the leader of the group was hospitalized, two others were injured, and the other two ran as fast as they could when my nephew was not only fighting back, but getting the best of it.
About a month later, as he and a friend were leaving a canoe regatta at night, the full gang of 17 young men attacked them from behind, knocking them unconscious with rocks or bottles, then administering savage beatings. A lady who witnessed the assault described it as being “like a pack of wolves attacking.” They left my nephew for dead.
I know that some of the police, and one assistant DA, wanted to prosecute the crime as an “attempted murder.” But that didn’t happen. Long story short: the gang leader ended up getting fined $50 for having an open beer in public at the time of the assault.
The assault took place on the Friday night of the Memorial Day weekend. I remember on Tuesday morning at work, talking with my supervisor’s supervisor at the mental health clinic. She told me to feel free to deal with the situation, including making phones calls from work to police, prosecutors, and others, as well as taking time off as needed. Then she said, “The process that your nephew will be going through is almost the same as a rape victim.”
{3} A few of the gang members were still in high school; some were in college; and some others were a bit older, and employed in their community. But when the group that came to court every week, to support my nephew and his friend, and to demand justice be done, some members of one of the NAACP branches noticed something curious. Virtually all of the gang had, at some time or another, attending one of the non-violent dispute resolution workshops the NAACP brought to their high school. It’s not, of course, that their program was lacking in value -- but these fellows didn’t think the laws of a civil society applied to them. And, as I’ve noted, the local court tended to agree with them on that.
My nephew and I would discuss the assault quite a bit over the next year or so. I never questioned the way he was dressed that night, or why he opted to have brown skin. But I did talk about the importance of being aware of your surroundings -- including being aware of the nature of others in the area. That’s not to say that my nephew and his friend did anything “wrong” in walking by themselves to their car, which was parked in a large, unlighted field. But they had seen some of the gang were at the regatta hours earlier. Maybe if they had walked to their cars with a larger group of friends …..maybe ….. maybe.
I have sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews. And I know a lot of their friends. I have talked to these young people about a wide range of topics, over the years. These include some of the unpleasant realities of today: there are packs of wolves, and lone wolves, who do not adhere to the same code of conduct that we do. They can come in either sex; any color; rich or poor; young or old; and even wearing the garbs of authority. They have no more conscience than does a dog mad with rabies; thus, they can sit through a class or a lecture or a workshop on anything and everything from rape to assault and murder, and never think it applies to them.
Again, this does not lessen the value of classes, lectures, or workshops. They are important. Yet -- also again -- the wolves do not think the laws of a civilized society apply to them …..and far too often, despite the efforts of the good cops and prosecutors, the wolves in the legal system do not protect the innocent victims of violent crime.
It would be great if it wasn’t that way. But it is. And that being so, good people do need to be awake and aware of their surroundings, and all that involves.
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