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Dancing into dancer: The warning from Richmond
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When a woman dresses up for a dance, she wants to be attractive. Yes, she wants to be sexy, but she also doesn't want the negative attention and she doesn't expect to be gang-raped. That's what happened last weekend in Richmond, California. A 15-year-old girl had gone to a homecoming dance, wandered out, met a friend and he took her to a private party--one with drinking.
There is that old thought that a woman or girl drunk is fair game for whomever may want to use her and for whatever he might want to use her for. In the Richmond case, it was young boys and men engaging in beating and gang rape.
If you think it can be blamed on the poverty of the area, the culture or ethnicity or the generation of the participants, I think you'd be wrong. I'd say, remember New Bedford in 1983. That case inspired a movie, starring Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis. I'd say, remember another movie, the 1989 "Casualties of War" with Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn. I'd say remember De Anza College in 2007. In the De Anza case, the victim was a 17-year-old girl at a party. Three female soccer players came to her aid.
For over two hours, no one helped the girl in Richmond. She was at a dance. She left at 9:30 p.m. She meant to call her father. Before she could, someone she knew invited her to another spot where people were having a private party, drinking. Although she was a minor, people gave her alcohol and she drank too much. She was raped while semiconscious by as many as seven people. Others beat her. Some took photographs. So far, six people have been charged.
What kind of people would do this? People we know because there are people out there who still believe it is acceptable to take advantage of women when they are drunk or otherwise incapacitated. There are people who will still blame the victim. Sometimes you don't know who your real friends are until you are sick or defenseless. In her case, that knowledge came too late.
When you're out at a Halloween party, the possibility of something going wrong is something to keep in the back of your mind. Any time you go out dancing, be careful what you drink because even if you're with friends or people you know, even if you're not alone, you can be raped. That is the warning from New Bedford, from De Anza and now, from Richmond.
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