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Brace yourselves. This one is hard to watch. Mainly because they're so young. Because they shouldn't have to be doing this. However, we cannot commend high school student Kami Baker (friend of the 15-year-old gang rape victim/survivor) enough for blasting Richmond school officials for lack of safety, lack of forethought, and lack of above average job skills.
Describing her friend as a churchgoer who struggled to fit in at school, the victim arrived alone to the Richmond High School homecoming dance in a "gorgeous in a sparkling purple dress and faux diamond baubles." After having fun at the dance, she had no idea the horror waiting for her at Richmond High School.
"This story has disrupted the school's morale greatly, including my own. I am friends with the girl," Baker told school officials. "When I started here, I felt extremely unsafe and so did she, due to the lack of police officers and security officers."
SFist commenter kmsinsf, who contacted the school to "see if there was somewhere to donate for the victim's treatment or college fund or something...and to send well wishes," posted the following information for those of you who want to do something. You can mail it to: Richmond High School, c/o Assault Victim, 1250 23rd Street Richmond, CA 94804 (checks made to: Richmond High Student Fund)
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Intense.
AP, Honors, Ivy League outreach...this girl is likely more qualified to run the school than the principal.
Watching this video, I feel so very old. I remember there never being a constant need for police (or even security) officers at my high school.
p.s. contributions for a victim's fund are certainly well intended, but given that a lot of the justified anger falls upon the school's (e.g. the Assistant Principals) mismanagement of what happened, could/should the school administration be trusted to collect checks on behalf of the victim??
Clearly the school has failed to protect its students. No student, regardless of color, should fear for their safety.
In the time it takes to watch this video and read this post, at least one woman will have been raped in the U.S. and approximately twelve will have been battered (source: Amnesty International USA).
While I am cautiously hopeful about the vast media coverage of this particular rape, it needs to be noted again and again that rape and violence against women is a social state of emergency in this country. These are not freak, isolated incidents.
Our communities, our schools, our country and our peer-groups need to deal with this problem NOW.
Congratulations to these young women for speaking out. Silence is no longer our luxury.
Well, apparently race IS an issue in the brutal Richmond Gang rape.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/30/MNLE1ACE6J.DTL
Peter's cousin Monquasha Peter of Richmond burst into tears upon seeing him, and her mother, Monica Peter, dabbed her eyes.
Peter's family accused prosecutors of having racial motives. Peter is the only black suspect named in the case. Smith is white, and the other suspects are Latino.
Peter "didn't have anything to do with this," his aunt said. "He said everyone was just walking past, and he just kept moving when he saw something was going on.
"He's a good kid with no criminal record who likes to play soccer," she said. "I am going to prove his innocence.
"My nephew is scared," she added. "He is the one they've arrested who is black, and if they give my nephew a life sentence, I will sue Richmond. There is no way in hell I will see my nephew blamed in this because he is black."
***
Wow.
How’s that for compassion? She’s didn’t say a single word about the victim or what a horrible crime this was.
She didn’t offer any prayers.
She just lashed out, accused us all of being racist, and defended her son’s behavior that (at the bare minimum) as a witness to a horrible crime in progress like that and not even call the cops.
Great job, Mom. Great job, Aunt. No wonder you both raised a sociopath.
Don’t tell me that everyone of those kids didn't have their own cell phone or access to a phone. Anyone of those people come have made an anonymous call to 911 to save that girl and not worry about incurring the wrath of the mob/gang mentality.
But why would they? They came for the show.
Great job, Mom. Thanks again for reproducing.
Also, that response is typical of people of that race that subscribe to that culture of entitlement. It’s that culture that thinks they are owed something because the color of their skin. It’s that culture that thinks that they should never be held accountable for their actions. And when someone does challenge that culture and hold them responsible what is their first response? Cry racism.
Great job, Monquasha. God bless you too.
Also, you can find the myspace page for one of the accused rapists over here
http://www.myspace.com/164735721
Some of the comments after the attack are pretty disgusting and reflective of that dead-end thug culture that everyone loves to emulate. Shocking that you even have females rushing to defend this guy and blame the victim.
It looks like someone; probably his girlfriend is maintaining the site since the last logon was yesterday.
Cody Ray Smith of San Pablo is listed as the youngest at age 15 in most news accounts. His myspace lists his age at 19 and, if you want to believe it, he claims that he is a single proud parent.
Myspace is about as accurate as wikipedia, but if this guy does already have a kid and is spending his free time gang raping other girls then that just adds another level of sickness to this story.
C’mon New World Order. Get your sterilization eugenics program online. We have demons roaming the planet and they’re reproducing like cockroaches.