Readers React:  Brock Turner’s case is a bad reason to decry ‘rape accusation culture’

To the editor: Meghan Daum is correct that way campus sexual assault is handled is flawed. But to include the Brock Turner case in a discussion of “rape accusation culture” is unfair. (“The dangerous irony of rape accusation culture,” Opinion, June 9)

Turner’s crime is unambiguous: He dragged the unconscious victim, a visitor to Stanford, behind a dumpster and violently assaulted her. Bystanders halted the attack, subdued Turner and reported his crime.

This case isn’t about campus committees punishing microaggressions. Turner’s victim is right to feel grievously harmed and violated, and the legal system failed to hold her rapist accountable for his crime.

Perhaps no felony should be handled by campus representatives for whom decriminalizing campus crime is always a temptation. And perhaps the media —Rolling Stone magazine comes to mind — should be more careful. But it is wrong to include victims of violent assault in a discussion of faux victims.

Jo Perry, Studio City

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To the editor: Daum should have written about “rape accusation culture” long ago as it became obvious to the public. But to describe it as if it’s a mitigating factor in Turner’s case is irresponsible.

I read her column several times and became more infuriated with her using space in The Times to do anything other than excoriate Turner’s lenient sentence of six months in county jail plus probation and registering as a sex offender. Her column motivated me to redouble my efforts to support the petition to remove the judge that allowed privilege to trump justice.

Don Danks, Newport Beach

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To the editor: What other crime gets the benefit of such pretzel-twisting logic? Maybe Daum was striving for fairness, but she ended up insulting rape victims and giving rape apologists another backlash tool.

Rape is not sex gone wrong or a win-lose game played between college students. It’s a heinous crime, period.

Bonnie Sloane, Los Angeles

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