iheartscotch: This sounds like a little from column A and a little from column B. I imagine she got a little wild. For Fark's sake; she's got tats at 17. Then there's this whole other situation. I could see where, if she was raped; she'd want to hurt herself, hince, the tattoos.

On the other hand; her parents could have found out that she participated in a sex act know as "the Ghostbusters" and she said rape so she wouldn't be grounded till judgement day.

/ I don't know which is right; and neither will anyone else, this side of the afterlife

// my sympathies to the family

After all, people making false accusations of rape are TOTALLY gonna kill themselves over it!

Bullshiat we don't know which is right. The girl made a poor choice to get drunk (particularly at that age). But that is irrelevant. The men who raped her are, 100%, at fault for raping her.

Just forget about the rape altogether. No one should be harassed so relentlessly by a bunch of ignorant sadists about anything. Nothing makes it ok.

Profoundly sick society we live in.

There are at least three misogynist blame-the-victim assholes in this thread who need to DIAF, literally.

I am not joking.

/this thread almost makes me ashamed to be male

Maul555: I am confused.  WTF is rape culture?  I am pretty sure its a thing that only exists in the dark recesses of a fetish niche...    Why are people blaming a "rape culture" for this shiat?  There is no such thing as a widespread "rape culture" in this country, or anywhere in the western world for that matter.  We don't blame a "murder culture" for murder because that's farking stupid.  This rape culture bullshiat is equally as stupid here.  In india or the middle east this is actually a thing, but don't try to tag my people with this crap.

/end rant

Rape culture is a term used to describe both de facto and de jure instantiations of a particular cluster of mindsets that seek to eliminate, dismiss, or ignore the fundamental rights of women to be able to be the ultimate decider in who she sleeps with and when. It is not unique to the United States. It runs the gamut of laws that have said that married women cannot be considered to have ever been raped by her husband, in spite of her protests, to cultural and subcultural ideas that suggest the way a woman was dressed or her past sexual history should be primary factors in considering whether or not to consider a particular instance a rape or not. It includes the view held by some that under any circumstances men are owed sex by women for any of the following: being nice to them, paying for dinner on a date, not having molested or raped them when they were drunk in the past, etc. Rape culture is a mindset that argues if she cannot say no, say for being too intoxicated - as was attempted by the defense attorney in the Steubenville trial - than she wasn't raped. Rape culture will argue simultaneously that if a rape accuser did not fight off her attacker she wasn't really raped AND that she is responsible for an assault becoming a rape for having tried to fight her attacker off, thus making her attacker more enraged and exculpating him for his reactions. It is a mindset that is more concerned about the consequences of the less than 2% of instances of false accusations of rape than the 20% of women who are raped at least once in their lifetime (of which approximately 2% will ever see their attacker end up in prison). Rape culture considers it more important for men to be able to have sexual gratification than for women to have autonomous control over her body. And, in doing so, in addition to the complete and utter contempt it has for women, it degrades men by removing from men the capacity to be in control of our bodies, of our sexual urges. It is very real, and not every aspect of it is clear-cut. And we all need to open our eyes to this dark aspect of our societies.

Nidiot: It mostly only ever comes down to her word vs his.

I accuse you of raping a goat. How much evidence should I have to present before someone takes my word over yours over your alleged guilt?

/  Innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent.
//  As for how much evidence, beyond reasonable doubt is the standard.

namatad: Can we STOP CALLING IT ALLEGED?
It was not an alleged rape. it was a RAPE.
She reported that she was raped to the police.
Period.

The people who raped her would best be called unconvicted rapists.
By calling it alleged, we continue to blame the victim apply the legal standards which have defined civilisation for centuries.

It's unfortunate, but even in rape we can't allow the word of one person to circumvent due process. Calling people "unconvicted rapists" solely on another person's word is a very, very slippery slope.

There isn't a hint of victim blaming to this.

J. Frank Parnell: Just forget about the rape altogether. No one should be harassed so relentlessly by a bunch of ignorant sadists about anything. Nothing makes it ok.

Profoundly sick society we live in.

I know in a lot of cases it is not possible to retaliate, but the way we've set up our "no bullying policies" very often leaves people defenseless -- they literally cannot fight back.

I got bullied a lot when I was young (I was ahead age-wise in class and always the smallest guy), at the beginning of the ole "Bullies are just insecure people, you just need to learn how to deal with them!" phase in the educational system.  Fortunately, I took my grandfather's advice and publicly beat the hell out of one of them before the "You get suspended from school for defending yourself" rules went into effect.  And surprise: no more bullying.  Wish I would have done it a few years earlier.

On the plus side, most of the bullies actually grew up, and it's not so surprising when you talk to them as adults and learn that they almost all had horribly awful parents.

It's beyond the time when vigilantism should make a appearance...maybe 4 corpses hanging from trees would make rapists and bullies have second thoughts

It'd be a damn shame if the rapists, the asshole who took the pictures and the asshole(s) who thought it would be "funny" to post them online (assuming they're different people) were identified and outed by Anonymous.

Especially if that resulted in them receiving some nasty (but non-fatal) beatings.

Yep. Real shame, that.

BarkingUnicorn: Abacus9: BarkingUnicorn: Abacus9: BarkingUnicorn: Abacus9: Flakeloaf: Hi guys, sorry I'm late. Traffic was a biatch.

Abacus9: 100 Watt Walrus: Look, there's a lot of this going on in this thread. You have no clue what the police did or did not do. It's possible they dropped the ball. It's also possible that there wasn't enough evidence to arrest anyone.

The pictures should be evidence enough because: She's underage, and drunk. Two different ways she can't legally consent. Plus, distributing the photos is also a crime.

Fifteen isn't underage if the other guys are close in age and aren't otherwise responsible for her, and nobody can prove how drunk she was.

True, but it still means she can't legally consent. As for how drunk she was, there is a picture of her throwing up. That's drunk enough.

"I don't believe it. You can prove it to me and I still won't believe it."  Scott Adams.

You're hopeless.

What do you mean? You haven't proven anything. The pictures show her drunk. You're the one who doesn't want to believe the evidence.

Show me the picture.  I've read that it shows her having sex and vomiting.  My ex did that without being drunk.

From what I've read, she is clearly impaired in the picture.

LOL!  Hopeless.  Stay out of law and lawmaking, for everyone's sakes.

There's plenty of evidence that a rape occured, let it be settled in a court of law. If the court determines there's not enough proof, fine. The police purposely avoided arresting these boys. They didn't even care about the illegal pictures. That alone should tell you there something strange going on. But I'm the hopeless one. Riiight.

ZeroCorpse: Whatever her level of involvement/guilt/etc. in her assault, the fact is that IT WAS AN ASSAULT because she never consented (and indeed, legally, couldn't consent), and it was followed by particularly sadistic bullying that did grievous harm.

She might not have been an angel of a teenager, but she didn't deserve to be slut-shamed to death.

THIS THIS THIS THIS OH MY farkING GOD SO MUCH THIS.

It's no stretch for me to imagine what this girl was going through (and let's just not go into why). She'd been shamelessly violated, and instead of support and reassurance she got abuse and bullying and vilification. She was 17 years old, too young to really understand that things get better, and had no reason to believe that her life would ever be anything more than an ongoing barrage of abuse and misery. She coped however she could -- and for those of you lacking tattoos, let me tell you, they can be a powerful affirmation of self, of strength, of individuality -- but in the end it wasn't good enough. She didn't have the strength to go on.

NOBODY deserves what this girl went through. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an unspeakable waste of consciousness.  I won't wish the same on you because I wouldn't wish that on anybody, but I will tell you that you need to seriously re-examine your humanity, because you are missing a critical element.

Ah, always count on the Good Old Boy's Club RCMP to fark up another case/let the perpetrators get away/minimize victims of sex crimes.

They have enough problems dealing with their own sexually harassing and assaulting their female members, why would they bother to investigate a civilian case?

Alonjar: So i just read her tweets instagram etc, and I can now inform you that she had a cocaine abuse problem.

For anyone that doesnt know, cocaine causes intense fits of depression and mood swings, in addition to a hundred other things.

So... theres your problem.

/Also every single picture is tagged with #drunk #stoned or talking about popping pain killers. So... she wasnt right in the head.

So. Farking. What.

If anything, the fact that she may have been mentally unbalanced makes it even worse. WTF is wrong with you?

Bontesla: NewportBarGuy: I want to say "Why didn't her parents take her off the net (no internet no cell phone)?", but reality set in. What a f*cking horrible thing.

I hope the assholes die of ass cancer, slowly.

I'm rooting for the Anonymous.

Same

Maul555: I am confused.  WTF is rape culture?  I am pretty sure its a thing that only exists in the dark recesses of a fetish niche...    Why are people blaming a "rape culture" for this shiat?  There is no such thing as a widespread "rape culture" in this country, or anywhere in the western world for that matter.  We don't blame a "murder culture" for murder because that's farking stupid.  This rape culture bullshiat is equally as stupid here.  In india or the middle east this is actually a thing, but don't try to tag my people with this crap.

/end rant

Rape culture is where the heinous act itself is condoned rather than condemned. Where we're free to defend rapists and blame the victim. Were a victim can be hounded out of his/her own society because of a damaged "reputation". A female Private can accuse a Sergeant of rape and be awarded with dishonorable discharge while he stays in a position of authority where he can perpetrate the crime again with little to no consequence. A teenage girl is allowed to be called a slut and adults do little to nothing about it until she ODs on pills. It's insidious and it bleeds through every level of society because we allow perpetrators to think that it's ok.

Phinn: She rides the cock carousel like a champ, goes full attention-whore, gets tatted up, drinks like a sailor and dresses like a cheap prostitute.

Then she wonders why no one wants her except for use as a fark-hole.

Even though you're clearly a straight bullshiat troll, everything we say and do has consequences.

You'll end up paying for that cruel comment.  When something bad happens to you I hope you think back on just how awful what you said was and remember you had it coming.

/good luck

It's been a few years since I read it, but didn't "The Godfather" start like that? A man's daughter is raped, the rapists walk due to the crappy legal system and the aggrieved father (an old world fellow who had an old world sense of honor) appealed to Don Corleone for justice.

The rapists didn't make it.

/I love a happy book.

As a father of two little girls, I can say without a doubt, that if this was my little girl, I would be in jail now. And all four of those boys would be maimed for life. Death would be too easy for these monsters.

What would be hard would be figuring out how to live without their cock and balls.

I'm not being an ITG here. If someone put my daughter through what these monsters did, then God help them, because they would not get any mercy from me.

Abacus9: No, but they could have investigated. The attackers are guilty of at least three different crimes here, and the police did nothing.

Look, there's a lot of this going on in this thread. You have no clue what the police did or did not do. It's possible they dropped the ball. It's also possible that there wasn't enough evidence to arrest anyone. Nobody here has seen the pictures. Nobody here has even seen a first-hand account of the events.

Given what little we do know, it seems extremely likely this girl was raped. We do know she was bullied afterwards. We know very little else.

But not one person in this thread knows how the cops handled the investigation, or how they reached their conclusions regarding arrest and prosecution. Anyone presuming they did something wrong, just because nobody with peripheral responsibility for this girl's death has been arrested, is spouting off purely from emotion.

As justified as those emotions may be, they are probably not a valid basis for prosecution under Canadian sexual crime laws.

The biggest problem here is the bullies, who made a bad situation worse on purpose and out of spite. If you need somewhere to direct your anger, try focusing on them.

BarkingUnicorn: There's the "age of consent" thing to consider in this case.  Then there's the "Romeo & Juliet" thing to consider:  it's not statutory rape if it's "young love" and both parties ages are within some arbitrary number of years of each other.  Then there's Canadian law to consider, and I have no clue what it is.

Google suggests that the age of consent in Canada is 16, with an exemption for 14 and 15 year olds. So if she and the person with whom she had sex were both 15, age of consent would not appear to be an issue, though consent would.

However ... a young woman in great distress has killed herself. Whatever the law, whatever the actions, whoever the actors, that distress was real, and terribly, terribly sad.

There can be many reasons the original rape case wasn't prosecuted.  Lack of evidence, conflicting stories, any number of reasons that the prosecutor decided that there wasn't enough to get a conviction.  Add to it these were minors involved and any punishment even if there was a conviction would have been muted.  As far as child pornography charges for the pictures, we don't know what the pictures depicted.   Her passed out with clothes, or with her private parts covered may not qualify as child pornography under the statute. Remember this is Canadian law and it operates under its own rules and interpretations that may or may not conform to your understanding of the law in your jurisdiction. Sexual assault type cases are very difficult even assuming you have physical evidence which we don't know was present in this case.  It is very difficult and unfair to nit pick at the decisions police and prosecutors made when we don't have all the evidence and investigation materials available.

Now what happened after the case didn't proceed just shows the cruelty and lack of social standards in society.  Thats not to say it directly led to her suicide as a unprosecuted sexual assault could have severely damaged her psyche as much as the bullying.  Add to it we don't know the parental relationships or any other support from friends and family and there could be numerous reasons she decided to end her life. Ultimately, nothing can be done to bring her back and it is difficult to say this outcome wouldn't have happened if one or two circumstances were different.  Suicides can and do happen for reason that only the person who commits knows.  Certainly her troubled life made it easier to choose this outcome and it is always sad to see it happen.

BarkingUnicorn: Almost Everybody Poops: miss diminutive: "An investigation into an earlier sexual assault was completed, and in consultation with the Crown, there was insufficient evidence to lay charges," MacRae said.

So there's apparently picture evidence of the crime being distributed by the offenders and the Crown doesn't have enough evidence to charge them?

Also, maybe I'm already out of touch with today's youth, but who bullies a girl who's been a victim of rape? Seriously? I know I did some pretty hurtful things in my biatchy teenage days, but something like this would have never crossed my mind. I honestly don't understand.

Anyway, my heart breaks for this girl.

Seriously, this.

It appears to be a lack of empathy and stigma on part of law enforcement.  But this shiat should not stand.

I wish a thousand butt-hole surfers to penetrate the rapists asses while covered in knives and arugula.

WTF did LE do wrong?  Do you seriously expect them to waterboard confessions out of four boys just because a girl accused them?  WTF is wrong with you people?

I would assume the PHOTOS THEY TOOK WHILE RAPING HER would be enough evidence, but that's just me.

orbister: What benefits do you see in legal action against 15 year old girls who send naked pictures of themselves to their boyfriends?

None whatsoever.

Luckily, the consensual between-us young couple mischief tends to be cellphone-transmitted or done at home (given that one must have a place to pose for one's naked pics,) which means I don't typically find it. The really nasty bullying-related smut tends to get onto Facebook or similar sooner or later, which means that any kid accessing or sharing it on the school network...yeah, they get caught. (And yes, we've elected to leave a channel of school wi-fi with all the social media unblocked for the sheer purpose of having a digital trail in case cyberbullying gets nasty.)

Basically, to send a bawdy or salacious picture to one, evidently trusted person via a relatively-secure method? I'll almost never find that unless I am deliberately looking for it, and luckily, I'm not, because I was a teenage girl myself once and these things do happen. To email-blast or Tweet a picture to several people for the purpose of humiliating a peer? Yeah. That, I am going to find, because that I am looking for.

It also helps that for some inexplicable reason, at least some of the worthy subjects in my educational kingdom like me and will just up and tell me shiat is going down, who is involved in the shiat and where to find proof. I don't actually have to look that hard at all, not since I became the adviser to the Gay-Straight Alliance and the A/V Club. Geeklings, LGBTs and Allies defend other kids to trusted adults even if it means narc-ing on a popular kid, provided that adult is geeky enough to be able to conceal their sources. Popular kids are using Facebook to plan an underage drinking party at a venue to which they drive? Geek kid tells Ms. Spidey and everyone just assumes Ms. Spidey is geek-princess enough to have found that mess on her own, thus solving the problem and protecting Geek-kid informant. That, and my best informants are not actually geeks.

They are popular kids for whom the social wheel is in a downturn who want payback. All I have to do to know everything is let teenage girls be the unspayed min-pin/Chihuahua mixes they inevitably are at some point or another. Someone always tells.

And yes, there is a certain 'confessional' aspect to tech support. If a young dude and a young lady are IM-ing one another in a perhaps risque way over an insecure channel such as the shiatty desktop messaging client in the math lab, mine is not to judge or even to keep reading -and no, you would not want to, not since No Child Left Behind gutted spelling and grammar education.

Worst I'll do in the event of clearly consensual, clearly unlikely-to-get-out-or-cause-harm risque-ness is to A. lock the user out so they have to come get a password change, which I write out onto little cards with the Internet Rules and Etiquette printed on, so that's a reminder, B. put out a deliberately, tantalizingly vague reminder to everyone, roughly along the lines of "remember how we assigned '1984' to y'all? Yeah, livin' the dream, try and keep it SFW up in here," (which usually keeps them too busy biatching incoherently about The Man and calling the teachers Gestapo to bully one another,) and C. refill the deep, opaque bowls of free condoms in my office, because Ms. Spidey is chill like that and Maggie Sanger's homegirls are up to the elbows in quite enough bad-choices already.

My office is rad and cleverly designed to be a place where my subjects can bring their tech and non-tech woes. I have beanbag chairs, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots for 'Peaceful Dispute Resolution' between two kids, stress balls, a Velcro dartboard, a punching dummy for teen-rage and as soon as they move me to a bigger one I swear to Christ I am putting a pinball machine in there. I keep Wonka products in bowl one on my desk, condoms in bowl two, dental dams and lube packets in bowl three and the brightly-colored bowl contains chocolate and other candies which May Contain Nuts. (LGBT kids and nut-allergics are also among my beloved subjects.) I rotate the bowls like three-card monte every day, they're deep and opaque and I make a point never to notice from which bowl anyone, student, teacher or staff, helps themselves.

Shoot, I've been known to grab a little something from every bowl in full view of a student and then announce that I'm stepping out to meet my husband for lunch and will see them in study hall before locking my PC and turning on the antiquated pager they insist I use when going off-site, because the mission statement says we have to Set a Good Example. It's gotten some shocked looks, but once you do that in front of an embryo frat-boy and get a fist-bump of 'I hear that,' you are clearly a trusted, nonjudgmental and reasonable adult to whom kids can turn with their after-school-special problems, and that is what they are paying me to be. I'm what happens when college RAs grow up.

On the one hand, I've become everything I hated when I was 15. But I've also become everything I ever wanted to be by 18, which is to say, a silent defender of the innocent and helpful friend to all who lives by 'an it harm none, do what thou will.' Like a kind of chill version of Oracle, without the whole fridging or shot-by-the-Joker thing, which is completely whack. Unless I fail to protect some kid who then pulls a Columbine and gets me, I get to be a superhero in a skirt. Soon as I finish this Master's in counseling, I'll get a pay raise, be officially on-staff as opposed to a contractor, and I think I'll be able to deduct the condoms and candy then as a work expense.

Maul555: KatjaMouse: Maul555: I am confused.  WTF is rape culture?  I am pretty sure its a thing that only exists in the dark recesses of a fetish niche...    Why are people blaming a "rape culture" for this shiat?  There is no such thing as a widespread "rape culture" in this country, or anywhere in the western world for that matter.  We don't blame a "murder culture" for murder because that's farking stupid.  This rape culture bullshiat is equally as stupid here.  In india or the middle east this is actually a thing, but don't try to tag my people with this crap.

/end rant

Rape culture is where the heinous act itself is condoned rather than condemned. Where we're free to defend rapists and blame the victim. Were a victim can be hounded out of his/her own society because of a damaged "reputation". A female Private can accuse a Sergeant of rape and be awarded with dishonorable discharge while he stays in a position of authority where he can perpetrate the crime again with little to no consequence. A teenage girl is allowed to be called a slut and adults do little to nothing about it until she ODs on pills. It's insidious and it bleeds through every level of society because we allow perpetrators to think that it's ok.

/me looks around

So no widespread rape culture in the western world then... Thanks....

You don't get out of your cave very much, do you? It's incredibly prevalent, particularly in colleges and high schools.

Popcorn Johnny: Unrealistic Decoy: This is very sad. My home town of Halifax is a shameful place sometimes. The school, the RCMP (Canadian nation police), the kids involved, their parents, and the justice system have all failed this girl and her family. Here are a whole bunch of things I don't get:

What I don't get is how you feel your in a position to pass judgement on another person when you have no idea what happened. Care to explain how it is that you know more than the people who conducted the investigation?

What's sickening to me about all this is how many of you are willing to send people to prison without proof of a crime being committed.

 That's what court is for. I don't think anyone wants to put them in prison without a trial.

doglover: Back in the day, the initial RCMP investigation would have been 4 homicides of teenage boys and no one would have seen anything.

If that had been my daughter, the bodies never would've been found.

Nobody will fark with my kids. Period.

i have a business trip to Halifax coming up. We should organize a Fark vigilante mob to go visit these 4 rapist bastards (once Anonymous reveals their identities) and impress upon them the importance of respecting women, not raping them.

Phinn: She clearly had some bad ideas about how the world works. Those bad ideas led to her being raped

You're an absolute horror of a human being.

BohemianGraham: Really? It's her mother's fault now? Also, if you had a child who was being bullied, you'd pack up everything and move as far away as possible, regardless of financial cost?

Wouldn't you? If not, why the fark not? Is your financial standing that much more important than the life of your own flesh and blood, especially in the face of this kind of abuse and persecution, no matter what kind of psychological problems she was facing before the attack?

I sure as shiat would move as far away as I could if this was my daughter. I'd ask for help from friends, family, employer(s) -- everyone I knew and had a good relationship with to help fund the move if necessary.

But no, mommy didn't do enough. Everyone else failed her. I'm sure mommy loved her, but there is such a thing as benign neglect, and love does not mean allowing her to do whatever she wants because she says she hates you if you don't.

Some people here think she was raped.  Others think she was a drug addicted slut.  I think she was a drug addicted slut that got blacked out and raped, but there's probably not enough evidence to prove guilt.  And yes, the "alleged" attackers probably  deserve to DIAF.

jxc: Photos with tongue ring, tattoos, bongs and booze = sweet innocent teenage girl
One photo no one has seen = horrible teenage boys who must be put down in the most horrible way
Strange days....

You know what.  I get that Fark is pretty anti-tattoo/piercing.  I've known that for a long time and I just ignore it.  However this type of ignorance is just flat out despicable.

For a lot of people, especially young people, modifying their bodies is a way to claim ownership of it.  This is especially true for teens who have experienced some form of trauma.  After going through an experience that robbed them of their dignity and self worth, getting a tattoo or piercing is a way to reclaim their sense of self.

So before you label this girl as a slut because she's pierced and tattooed, take a minute to think that maybe she got these modifications after her assault.  Then take another minute to realize you think it's ok to blame the victim of rape for her attack.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/04/10/ns-rehtaeh - suicide-reaction-todd.html  - FYI, her mother wants all the vigilantes to stop.

Also, nice to know Fark is still full of pathetic people trying to look cool on the internet, and that people deserve horrendous things to happen to them because of the way they look.

Also, look at the report card and what the dates are on it, 11-12. The events began in 2011, so maybe, just maybe, her grades might have been affected by the constant harassment and bullying she was experiencing.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: oh stfu.

straight-A student whose favourite subject was science.

Ummm except this image of her report card she posted on Twitter is the exact opposite of that. Note: ZERO credits earned

FTA "Multiple Anonymous-affiliated OP accounts are already trying to find and publish the identities of the four men involved with Rehtaeh's rape."

I really, truly hope they find out who these bastards are.
Anonymous, do your worst. You have my support.

Flagg99: 8% is a pretty high number to me. I'm actually shocked it's that high, I only have my real-life experience to go on, and that's basically a number lower than 8%. 8% of accusations, based on the number of crimes reported, would likely be hundreds if they cover just a single country (depending on which), no?

There are two things to note, however. The first is that reports are different than accusations. "I was raped" is a report. "That man raped me" is an accusation. As a parallel, you file a police report when you are involved in an accident and the other person flees the scene, even if you didn't get the license plate number or anything. That doesn't mean you have accused any particular person for the police to investigate, just that you have a report - which can come in handy later but legally doesn't do jack or sh*t to the person who t-boned your car. The second note is that "unfounded" does not mean "false." In legal contexts, to the best of my knowledge, "unfounded" certainly includes false reports, but also reports that cannot be followed up. If, for instance, a woman files a report that says she was raped but does not (or can not?) provide any details such as where or when or what was else was going on at the time (e.g. a party, a date, walking home, etc.) then that gets filed as "unfounded". There are no details, nothing for police to go on. But it doesn't mean it's a false report, much less a false accusation. False accusations account for approximately 2% of all accusations. But it does imply that 98% of accusations are not false (not "true", just "not false"), which makes the approximately 10% of rape cases that result in a trial/confession and the 2% of cases that result in any jail time (the vast majority of which are for less time than possession of cannabis convictions, mind you) for the accused much more abhorrent.

I am speaking to US statistics, by the way. Things are potentially different in Canada, UK, Australia, etc. etc.

It's absolutely horrible that this girl killed herself, but too many of the "facts" in this case are being reported by the victim's mother.  I can't take them at face value.

vygramul: Flagg99: I'm all for doing a second investigation in this case even. I just don't want to break out the pitchforks just yet.

I guess I'm more victim-focused in that this girl, when alive, should not have had her experience diminished, much less mocked. Always treat an accuser as if they are 100% right. That's not to say the criminal justice system should treat the accused as guilty before they even start investigating. But she should be cared for and protected by everyone.

I'm not sure what the incidence is of suicide is among false rape accusers, but I bet the incidence of victims whose communities abandoned them is high.

Lets be fair - the police didn't mock her. Kids at her school did. And I'm all for eliminating that, but that's an issue with teens and bullying. No one said they didn't treat her as 100% right, but they investigated, the "photo evidence" didn't even qualify as illegal, and there was no evidence of rape.

Frankly I say charge the worst offenders who were bullying her with harassment, as has been done in Canada before.

I am not a violent person by nature, but it's shiat like this that makes me want to go all Al Capone on the 4 pieces of walking fecal matter that would do this as well as anyone involved in bullying this poor girl ...

// I want them DEAD, I want their families DEAD, I want their homes burned to the GROUND ...

vygramul: Go into a high school classroom that hasn't had the benefit of an actual discussion about something like this and ask the question if it's ok for a boy to fondle a girl who is passed out.

It would also be interesting to ask how many girls would think it acceptable to fondle a boy who was passed out.

You'll be dismayed at how many people answer in the affirmative. Ask how many think it's ok for a guy to rape a girl if he feels he "led him on". Ask how many think it's ok if the guy is just really, really horny. You want to hate humanity? You want to feel like you need a bath? Go do that.

I have no doubt that the answers would be depressing, and I also have no doubt that you wouldn't find as much divergence between the boys' answers and the girls' answers.

But.

You're talking about teenagers, coming to terms with raging hormones and a whole new sphere of experience. Yes, they are likely to have worrying, upsetting or simply naïve views. But that's part of being a teenager. They have worrying, upsetting or simply naïve views about everything. About drinks, drugs, relationships, politics, race, religion - about anything involving an opinion. And they are in school, where we can educate them. We can teach them that sex isn't just about sticking A into B, but that it's a part of human relationships and indivisible from other emotions. We can point out that for all the publicity given to the hookup culture, it leaves young women in particular feeling as used, cheated and exploited as it did forty years ago when it was called "free love".

Untutored human views on sex are depressing, but untutored human views on everything are depressing. That's why "Lord of the Flies" is still relevant today.

BarkingUnicorn: namatad: gonzoduke: Wait, that was a different article on the same story.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nova-scotia-teen-kills- he rself-after-being-raped-bullied-online/article10940600/

"just days after the alleged rape. "

Can we STOP CALLING IT ALLEGED?
It was not an alleged rape. it was a RAPE.
She reported that she was raped to the police.
Period.

The people who raped her would best be called unconvicted rapists.
By calling it alleged, we continue to blame the victim.

I find your disrespect for fundamental human rights disturbing.

THIS.

I wish I had the option to downrate the original poster.

It is alleged because it has not been proven.

The "photos" were deemed not to be a criminal matter which likely means they show only that the girl was in the company of the boys in question but no nudity/sexual content. There wasn't enough evidence to charge them meaning DNA samples could not be obtained, or that they gave statements saying the sexual was consensual and there was no evidence obtained to the contrary (eye-witness accounts, defensive wounds, etc.).

I feel terrible for this girl but we have due process for a reason. I personally know a girl who made a false rape claim. Why? She was caught by a friend cheating on her boyfriend, so she claimed it was rape. The friend was my then-GF, and she dragged this girl to the police station to make a statement, because my then-GF fully believed the friend's story. So this girl files a statement saying "So and so forced me to have sex with him."

Days later she's bragging!! to friends about how she got away with cheating by filing a false report. This got back to my GF who confronted her and the girl admitted it. Lucky for her the police never filed charges because it was he-said she-said, and no one ever ratted her pathetic ass out for filing a false police report. My GF would have had the guy been charged because she felt responsible, but since it was dropped she did that one last favour for the friend, and no longer keeps in touch with her.

Not to say this is common, but it happens, and it's why we use the word "alleged" until a trial is held and the outcome (guilty or not) is determined.

Langdon_777: Prison is not necessary, just names and pics - that way the mob can deal with it.

Ah yes, the Duke Lacrosse theory. How did that work out for you?

Because it didn't so well for the people whose lives got ruined by farkers like you.

Lorelle: It REALLY makes me sick knowing that other females also attacked her after the fact.

Teenage girls are the least compassionate creatures on the planet. Even honey badger steers clear. Teenage boys are right behind them. I think it's some kind of mixture of ignorance and hormones.

I think partly it's because the don't want to think it could happen to them, so they have to come up with some way in their heads that the victim did something to bring it on herself.

tmcottle: Egoy3k: tmcottle: I hope these little shiatheads get arrested and they become someones little biatch for the rest of their farking lives!

Two wrongs don't make a right and wishing for prison rape is one of the more vile cliches of Fark. You aren't helping, not even a little. Rape is unacceptable in any circumstance.

Okay, if it was my daughter.........I would kill the shiatheads!

Sure and I wouldn't blame you I would feel the same way.

I would also fully support you being convicted of first degree murder.

Giant Clown Shoe: Phinn: She rides the cock carousel like a champ, goes full attention-whore, gets tatted up, drinks like a sailor and dresses like a cheap prostitute.

Then she wonders why no one wants her except for use as a fark-hole.

Even though you're clearly a straight bullshiat troll, everything we say and do has consequences.

You'll end up paying for that cruel comment.  When something bad happens to you I hope you think back on just how awful what you said was and remember you had it coming.

/good luck

Thanks for the well-wishes, but I suspect you completely missed my point.

I think it's really sad that she killed herself.  But it didn't happen in a vacuum.  She wasn't sitting in her bedroom, quietly studying her beloved science textbook when a mad, bearded lunatic stranger crept in through her window, kidnapped her and raped her under a bridge.

She clearly had some bad ideas about how the world works.  Those bad ideas led to her being raped (if it was rape) and her suicide that followed.

One of the contributing factors here was therefore this set of ideas that led her to behave this way.  But, for some reason, NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO QUESTION THESE IDEAS.

You probably don't even see what I'm talking about.  But let's change the context.  Imagine that psychedelic drugs were not illegal.  Let's say that there were a broad cultural movement that repeatedly encouraged adolescent males to believe that a really great way to act is the Vagabond Lifestyle -- they are told that, to be really happy and fulfilled as a young man today, they need to divest themselves of all their material possessions, get deeply involved in psychedelic drug use, hang out with other drug users, and listen to all kinds of weird music in seedy places.  One of the key elements of this lifestyle is to have no fixed address, and to float on the seas of chance.  Ah, freedom!  Ah, spontaneity!  Who could dispute the value of these things?  This is what it means to be a man!

But let's say that people start to notice that this type of behavior leads to some young men finding themselves deeply unhappy later in life.  They miss out on marriage, having kids, meaningful careers they otherwise would have had, and being generally rejected by the kind of women that they would prefer that like them in return.

And, let's say that for a substantial number of them, their lives end up far worse - these men end up more than with just a vague, gnawing sense of life-dissatisfaction.  Some of them end up living in cardboard boxes, and sucking cock in dark alleys for a dollar just to get enough to eat.  And every now and then, the guys who suck cock for money get the crap kicked out of them and their shoes get stolen.

How would you react to this situation?  Is it a crime that the Vagabond Lifestyle devotee, poor unfortunate young man that he is, got his ribs kicked in and shoes stolen?  Yes, of course.  He's a victim here.

But, somewhere along the way, someone might stop to ask how all these young men are getting into that situation in the first place.  Especially if this unfortunate life story were a pattern that seemed to occur a lot.

What would people say about the cultural movement that promoted this Vagabond Lifestyle?  Would it be socially permissible to criticize it?  Would people be shamed into silence if they DARED to point out that there is a rather OBVIOUS connection between ending up alone and dissatisfied, or even worse (destitute, sucking cock, and a victim of brutal crimes just to take your shoes)?

Or would it be OK with you if someone were to come along and say, "Hey, there's a direct correlation between the Vagabond Lifestyle and ending up with nothing, and also increasing your risk of being victimized."?

I don't blame this young girl.

I blame her parents, and all of the other people in her life (many of whom she didn't even know, i.e., those who controlled her media consumption) who repeatedly taught her that getting tatted up, dressing like a street whore, chasing cock, and getting sot drunk around a bunch of horny teenagers is a good idea.

Someone might have taken her aside at some point and said, "There's a direct correlation between your lifestyle and ending up dissatisfied with how other people treat you -- they will tend to think of you only as a warm hole, at best, and at worst, an unwilling warm hole when you aren't in a position to resist."

But, apparently, I'm not allowed to say these things.

Sorry but the RCMP isn't perfect but they generally reserve the space under the rug for hiding their own internal misconducts, and for not defending rapists. If they say there isn't sufficient evidence for a conviction then there probably isn't and a trial wouldn't accomplish anything other than waste taxpayer money.

This is a sad story but there is literally nothing else that the legal system can do. That doesn't mean the legal system is broken, the system is designed to err on the side of caution when it comes to convictions. This is a universally held concept within the western world and it exists for many very good reasons. I don't like rape any more than anybody else but as terrible as it sounds I'd rather have these rapists and a hundred more walk away from their crimes than one innocent person be convicted of rape.

/I'm probably going to be farkied as a rapist now
//oh well.

vygramul: One of her pics:

Which one did she go with? Oh, right.

Alonjar: Every time you take a picture with your cell phone, the phone encodes hidden data in the image file to identify who took the picture and where via gps coordinates.

The EXIF data on my phone says when the picture was taken (well, when the camera thought it was taken, which is not necessarily the same thing) and what type of device was used to take it. It doesn't say where, perhaps because I have location information set off, and it doesn't say on what particular device it was taken. So there is no way, as far as I can see, of linking a particular picture to my phone and therefore to me.

She rides the cock carousel like a champ, goes full attention-whore, gets tatted up, drinks like a sailor and dresses like a cheap prostitute.

Then she wonders why no one wants her except for use as a fark-hole.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: oh stfu.

straight-A student whose favourite subject was science.

And that proves....what exactly?  Did you happen to see the pics she posted of bongs, her drinking and showing off all the tattoos?  Perhaps you think speculation on situations like this only applies to poor students who, dare I say it, are minorities.  But you just go ahead and believe everything you hear.  I'm not saying she wasn't raped, I'm just speculating on other scenarios based on what I see because you see, none of us know what happened.

precious_crotchflake: you and Popcorn Johnny should really hook up. Each of you is about as good as the other's going to get.

Again, just go on and believe everything you read without question.  It's people not willing to question anything that scares me most.  You may think I'm all messed up and that's cool.  Meanwhile I'll make sure to pay attention to what my kids are doing and making damn sure that my 15 year old daughter isn't sporting tattoos and disappearing all night to get drunk with her friends.

Excuse me while I go take care of my kids now.  Forum fun time is over, time to be a dad.  What are you doing?

Gyrfalcon: Lsherm: doglover: Bucky Katt: Why are the rapists not in jail?

Due process, most likely. I bet those photos weren't as slam dunk as we'd like to think. Terrible story.

A photo is an instant in time, so even if it showed her having sex with someone, it's possible there wasn't any way to deduce consent or not from it.  Since it sounds like the attackers were also underage, that further complicates matters.

Terrible story all around, and at the very least I hope it gets spread around so other girls get some help before it comes to this.  Being a teenager was bad enough in the early 80's, I can't imagine my worst moments being played out on social media.  It's awful to think about.

Generally speaking, if you're underage you cannot consent, because if you're underage, you cannot consent. And even if the other party is underage, neither of you can consent, so it's not that complicated, as there was no consent. Because since both of them were underage, there was no consent. Primarily because they could not consent.

I'm not sure why everyone is having so much trouble with this concept.

Age of consent doesn't work that way in Canada.

miscreant: Mid_mo_mad_man: I wouldn't be surpised if thats the truth. Parents were most likely clueless to how she lived. They let her ink up and dress like a slut and bad things happened. Boo hoo

Wow, you're the very definition of blame the victim.

He's showing little compassion, but contributory negligence is a real thing.  If you had actuaries make risk assessments on your everyday life, you can be sure the things you do to your body and the way you dress would affect those assessments

Gyrfalcon: Lorelle: Popcorn Johnny: Sorry, you don't convict someone of rape based on the word of one person and a photo or two.

When you're so drunk that you're throwing up, it's clear that you are NOT in any condition to give consent to having sex, or to make any rational decision, for that matter.

If you're underage, you cannot consent. If you're underage, you cannot consent. Oh, and if you're underage, you cannot consent. But in case there was any question, there are other laws that say if you're underage, you cannot consent.

And in re this: Why are 4men who raped a 15 yr old + distributed photographic evidence of their crime walking free today?

Why are her classmates who gang-raped her again by slut-shaming her also walking around free today? I hope every single one of them feels like the rotten turd on a snake's belly that they are right now.

It's instinctive behavior that derives from when we were arboreal primates with a tribal social structure.  Adolescent primates need to establish their place in the social hierarchy in order to ensure access to food/water and mates.  Lowering the status of others is one way of elevating one's own relative status.  Biologically speaking, teenagers are supposed to be bullying each other.  Of course, because we are rational beings we recognize that it's wrong.  But that realization doesn't usually come until well after we are through our teenage years.  So even though you can talk to a teenager about why bullying is wrong and we ought to do something about it, they will cheerfully agree with you and then turn around and go slut-shame some girl for getting raped by the varsity lacrosse team.  They simply can't recognize that their behavior is wrong because of the irresistible instinct to lower the status of their social rivals.  That's why you hear things like "she deserved it" and "she should have known what she was getting into."  Those are attempts to deflect the rational realization that what they instinctively desire to do is wrong.

Study just about any species of primate that has a tribal social structure.  Watch how the adolescents behave.  Then apply that to what you see in any high school in America.  Until educators understand the evolutionary and biological imperative to bully, they'll never be able to "solve" the bullying problem.

Mid_mo_mad_man: I wouldn't be surpised if thats the truth. Parents were most likely clueless to how she lived. They let her ink up and dress like a slut and bad things happened. Boo hoo

Wow, you're the very definition of blame the victim.

Threads like this make me wonder if all the sex comedies from the 90s, where alcohol is jokingly declared to be the most important part of the human mating ritual, will one day evoke as much revulsion and horror in polite society as 1920s racial humor does.

/it was a different time
//a time when any guy could get laid, if he could get his date drunk enough

ARedthorn: A lot of people here seem to be wondering how there was 'insufficient evidence...'

I can answer that question pretty easily, actually.

Let's assume for a second that there was a rape- it did happen, no consent.
That's easy enough- not just underage, but drunk... the entirety of the western world has laws preventing someone from being held to a contract signed while visibly intoxicated or under duress precisely because they're incapable of consenting... I see that as precedent for the same limitations on consent here.
If I sign a contract drunk, I can later get out of the contract by saying I didn't understand what was going on. If the photos (and any personal account or witness statement) confirm she was as far gone as I'd suspect here... even if she gave something that got taken as consent... she has a legal right to retract that consent once sober, in theory. [Word of warning to guys here- if she's buzzed, you're probably ok... wasted... even a yes is shaky, so just... don't.]

If the photo didn't include the boy's face, we very quickly have a problem.
She was drunk- she may not be able to identify the boys accurately (or accurately enough).
Even if the photo has identifying features (distinguishing birthmark or summat), they'd at least need a specific accusation against the correct individual to compel him to show it for comparison.
If it doesn't... well. We have a problem because we have a victim, but no way to identify the suspect beyond the hazy memories of a drunken, traumatic event.

As for the photo(s?)... they went viral- at a certain point, well before viral, it becomes impossible to trace them back to a source.
And bloody difficult to charge everyone who ever shared it with a count of child pornography, simply because there aren't enough handcuffs to go around.

Evidence may abound, but it's also all useless evidence unless a suspect comes forward and confesses, or someone close to the event is able to identify him/them.

Police have to let crimes they KNOW happened slide all the time because they are literally unable to pursue them... they lack a victim willing to prosecute, or legally usable evidence, or even a good suspect... or once in a while, they have all of the above, but lack the resources to do anything about it.

How dare you let logic and facts interfere with a good lynch mob

Nidiot: In all honesty I'd rather things were done properly via the law. What is their official statement? We just don't have evidence to convict the rapists, or, we don't have evidence that the rape claim is legitimate in the first place? Aren't false accusations also an offence?

It's not a dichotomy between "true claim" and "false claim". Someone might honestly believe she was raped while there is not enough evidence for the legal system - which can't go solely by belief - to determine that a rape happened. When that happens it's very bad for the victim but it's difficult to see how to change things without making things worse for society. No easy answers, I'm afraid.

Nidiot: orbister: Nidiot: If they don't, eventually average citizens might be pissed off enough to bring about what they see as justice their own way.

Ironically, of course, that is exactly what happened in this case. Don't assume that average citizens will always be on your side.

Valid point.

In all honesty I'd rather things were done properly via the law. What is their official statement? We just don't have evidence to convict the rapists, or, we don't have evidence that the rape claim is legitimate in the first place? Aren't false accusations also an offence? So since there is no mention of her being charged with making a false accusation, personally I'm thinking these are guys getting away with rape.

Wrong on both counts, I'm afraid. "We don't have enough evidence" could mean "there was no rape", "there was a rape but we can't prove it" or "we don't know what the hell happened". They don't say more to protect the privacy of the victim and the accused.

While technically a false accusation of rape is Public Mischief, NOBODY would even start to produce the brain chemicals necessary to begin approaching thinking about the idea of maybe bringing that to a Crown, because if that discouraged even one victim from reporting a rape she wasn't sure she could prove then whatever time this false accuser served wouldn't be worth it. That sort of thing is usually handled in civil court.

MythDragon: Seriously? We are only allowed to watch male-only gay porn? Otherwise we think rape is 'okay'? WTF is that author smoking?

Some years ago I read an article in Spare Rib, a now defunct British feminist magazine, which claimed that straight porn was bad because it degraded women but that gay porn was even worse because it rejected women altogether. Overdiligent application of theory can lead to some very odd places.

ZoSo_the_Crowe: FTA: "Rape culture"

Hoo boy there's a great trolling buzzword.

http://evebitfirst.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/a-man-is-a-rape-supporte r- if/

From the list:
He watches pornography in which women are depicted

Seriously? We are only allowed to watch male-only gay porn? Otherwise we think rape is 'okay'? WTF is that author smoking?

Once again, I am disturbed by what the world has become.  Normally I'm against bullying of any type, but part of me hopes that Anon cyber bullies the crap out of the bullies.  Just desserts and all.

Vigilanteism arises when people do not see justice being meted out via the usual legal methods. It may be true that there was not enough evidence in this case for a conviction. However, a sense of fairness is a strong human trait. So when people who appear to have committed an awful, harmful crime, appear to be just getting away without even a slap on the wrist, it is quite natural for the baying for blood to occur amongst the general population. Maybe Law Enforcement needs to look a bit harder at cases rather than put things in the 'too hard' basket, say 'tough shiat' to the victim and head out for lunch. If they don't, eventually average citizens might be pissed off enough to bring about what they see as justice their own way.

One can hope anyway.

BarkingUnicorn: "The family said they were told the photographs were not a criminal issue even though Rehtaeh was underage."

I guess Canadian law needs to be changed.

So that every fifteen year old who sexts her boyfriend can be charged with child porn offences and put on the register for life?

doglover:
Back in the day, the initial RCMP investigation would have been 4 homicides of teenage boys and no one would have seen anything grill the girl until she admitted she had sex once or twice before and write the whole thing off as a false accusation by a slutty little tramp.

Let's be honest, cops have been blowing off legitimate rape cases for a long time.

Nope. I think girls with tongue rings, tattoos and fondness for booze and pot have every right to express themselves anyway they like and that their appearance should have no bearing on the facts of the case. I also think the news media should portray the girl as she so desperately wanted to be seen.

Using out of date photos helps no one and only encourages "she had it coming" attitudes when more recent photos emerge.

Photos with tongue ring, tattoos, bongs and booze = sweet innocent teenage girl
One photo no one has seen = horrible teenage boys who must be put down in the most horrible way
Strange days....

A lot of people here seem to be wondering how there was 'insufficient evidence...'

I can answer that question pretty easily, actually.

Let's assume for a second that there was a rape- it did happen, no consent.
That's easy enough- not just underage, but drunk... the entirety of the western world has laws preventing someone from being held to a contract signed while visibly intoxicated or under duress precisely because they're incapable of consenting... I see that as precedent for the same limitations on consent here.
If I sign a contract drunk, I can later get out of the contract by saying I didn't understand what was going on. If the photos (and any personal account or witness statement) confirm she was as far gone as I'd suspect here... even if she gave something that got taken as consent... she has a legal right to retract that consent once sober, in theory. [Word of warning to guys here- if she's buzzed, you're probably ok... wasted... even a yes is shaky, so just... don't.]

If the photo didn't include the boy's face, we very quickly have a problem.
She was drunk- she may not be able to identify the boys accurately (or accurately enough).
Even if the photo has identifying features (distinguishing birthmark or summat), they'd at least need a specific accusation against the correct individual to compel him to show it for comparison.
If it doesn't... well. We have a problem because we have a victim, but no way to identify the suspect beyond the hazy memories of a drunken, traumatic event.

As for the photo(s?)... they went viral- at a certain point, well before viral, it becomes impossible to trace them back to a source.
And bloody difficult to charge everyone who ever shared it with a count of child pornography, simply because there aren't enough handcuffs to go around.

Evidence may abound, but it's also all useless evidence unless a suspect comes forward and confesses, or someone close to the event is able to identify him/them.

Police have to let crimes they KNOW happened slide all the time because they are literally unable to pursue them... they lack a victim willing to prosecute, or legally usable evidence, or even a good suspect... or once in a while, they have all of the above, but lack the resources to do anything about it.

BarkingUnicorn: Warlordtrooper: Why does the drunk means you can't give consent only apply to women?

We're the guys also drunk? If they were wouldn't that mean thy also couldn't give consent?

Not to being penetrated.  Rape laws (a subset of "sexual assault" laws) involve penetration of the sexual, oral, or "elimination" orifices, "however slight."

Also, "drunk" is insufficient; you must be so drunk that an ordinary (including "sober") observer would reasonably conclude that you are incapable of making rational decisions.

Ah ok. So basically pissed drunk.

Its sad that the rapists aren't being charged but it's better then convicting somebody without a level of evidence that is beyond reasonable doubt

Why does the drunk means you can't give consent only apply to women?

We're the guys also drunk? If they were wouldn't that mean thy also couldn't give consent?

Rehtaeh?

She never stood a chance.

Nidiot: It mostly only ever comes down to her word vs his. Judging by some of the responses here, her word carries less value than that of the alleged rapist/s.

Why should it carry more? How do you decide in general whose word in a court of law is going to be worth more than someone else's?

It's a fundamental principle of Scots law that corroboration is needed, and cases of one person's word against another's can't proceed. Corroboration, by the way, can be forensic, photographs or other evidence; it doesn't have to be another witness.

Nidiot: I'd like to know what some people would regard as sufficient evidence before you'd accept a girl's claim of being raped?

Most of Fark's pro-rape contingent wouldn't accept it if the guy held a national press conference to announce that he can't get it up unless there's rape involved. They don't believe that there's even such a thing as rape (and are trolls - mostly the troll thing, really).

cornfedokie: I don't like the "too drunk to make a choice" line of prosicution. It sounds to much like the morning after "wtf did I do?" Fix ... if a rational choice can't be made while drunk could the defense use this as well? How about a drunken theft?

A drunken theft is different because you may be drunk but it's during the commission of a crime, which there is no excuse for. In the case of rape, the victim isn't committing a crime.

I'd like to know what some people would regard as sufficient evidence before you'd accept a girl's claim of being raped?

In general there is not going to be a room full of witnesses, video recordings or the like. It mostly only ever comes down to her word vs his. Judging by some of the responses here, her word carries less value than that of the alleged rapist/s.

I don't like the "too drunk to make a choice" line of prosicution. It sounds to much like the morning after "wtf did I do?" Fix ... if a rational choice can't be made while drunk could the defense use this as well? How about a drunken theft? Or can you make a legal descision if really really tired? No means no and yes means no if I change my mind later. That being said I feel for the young lady and our teenage years are a hell of a crucible and no one escapes unscathed.

msupf: Popcorn Johnny: Sorry, you don't convict someone of rape based on the word of one person and a photo or two.

so, if presented with the picture of a girl obviously inebriated or impaired, possibly displaying pain, being sexually violated, and testimony from that girl that it was not consensual, you'd immediately call bullshiat on her?

Dumbass

Have you even SEEN college porn these days?  You just described most dorm room videos.

Gyrfalcon: If you're underage, you cannot consent. If you're underage, you cannot consent. Oh, and if you're underage, you cannot consent. But in case there was any question, there are other laws that say if you're underage, you cannot consent.

Does that apply to underage boys as well?

MBK: That's what rape culture is about, when you blame the victim for being a victim instead of blaming the violators of raping.

F*ck you.

In view of the content of the first of those sentences, how appropriate do you think it was to use a metaphor of sexual assault in the second. That, friend, is your rape culture, right there.

Bontesla: I'm rooting for the Anonymous.

Yeah, because if anyone stands for restrictions on internet freedom, it's that bunch of losers

BarkingUnicorn: Almost Everybody Poops: BarkingUnicorn: Almost Everybody Poops: BarkingUnicorn: Almost Everybody Poops: miss diminutive: "An investigation into an earlier sexual assault was completed, and in consultation with the Crown, there was insufficient evidence to lay charges," MacRae said.

So there's apparently picture evidence of the crime being distributed by the offenders and the Crown doesn't have enough evidence to charge them?

Also, maybe I'm already out of touch with today's youth, but who bullies a girl who's been a victim of rape? Seriously? I know I did some pretty hurtful things in my biatchy teenage days, but something like this would have never crossed my mind. I honestly don't understand.

Anyway, my heart breaks for this girl.

Seriously, this.

It appears to be a lack of empathy and stigma on part of law enforcement.  But this shiat should not stand.

I wish a thousand butt-hole surfers to penetrate the rapists asses while covered in knives and arugula.

WTF did LE do wrong?  Do you seriously expect them to waterboard confessions out of four boys just because a girl accused them?  WTF is wrong with you people?

I would assume the PHOTOS THEY TOOK WHILE RAPING HER would be enough evidence, but that's just me.

Well, apparently something was insufficient about those photos (another article says one was circulated, showing her "having sex with one of the boys").  Boy unidentifiable in pic.  Nobody would talk.  So we're back to waterboarding, right?

So because the boy was unidentifiable she wasn't raped?

I have no idea if she was raped and neither do you.  IDK Canadian law.  I assume the RCMP and prosecutors do.  I don't see any reason to suspect they ignored Canadian law or failed to do their jobs.  So ask again, WTF did LE do wrong?

I can't say what they did wrong, and yes it possible it was consensual sex that was distributed which is why she felt ashamed.

I guess my real outrage is that a girl took her own life because she was harassed constantly.  Regardless of whether or not she was raped, there does seem to be some double-standard that when girls have sex they're "sluts" and when guys have sex their "players".  It's a social stigma that still exists, and it leads to these kind of results, which are tragic.

Again, my initial reaction against LE was obviously emotional, I just don't understand how this crap can still happen.

puffy999: Half of the American population has committed a rape, per the modern definition.



/and an asshole

FitzShivering: I know in a lot of cases it is not possible to retaliate, but the way we've set up our "no bullying policies" very often leaves people defenseless -- they literally cannot fight back.

There are other ways to get individual bullies to leave you alone. And violence is not really an option for girls. For guys it's probably the most direct route, though.

But when groups get going it's a whole other dynamic. Social stigma, slander, and all that. Everyone feeding on the suffering they're causing someone. I really do think it's something learned from growing up in our current society. Adults are maybe just more subtle or discrete about it.

Barfmaker: Holy shiat...that's outrageously sad.

And yeah, here we are where Anonymous is now our real-life Batman equivalent.

That's the way I see it, too. Without knowing the facts, it seems there's a lot to be said by defenders of the law and defenders of victims. And in ways, they're both right. To come down too heavily on the side of the law in every case like this can, I think, perpetuate the idea that it was just a bunch of stupid boys being boys. To come down too heavily on the side of the victim can also lead to disregard for the law in pursuing what is "right".

I haven't been following this story, but it doesn't seem like there's really enough information given in the two articles I've read for me to come down on one side or the other. I'm glad it's not my call.

Lorelle: Popcorn Johnny: Sorry, you don't convict someone of rape based on the word of one person and a photo or two.

When you're so drunk that you're throwing up, it's clear that you are NOT in any condition to give consent to having sex, or to make any rational decision, for that matter.

While I don't condone taking advantage of someone that is wasted the booze thing doesn't hold much ground alone.

Drive a car? It's your fault. Get in an altercation? It's your fault, etc etc. Pretty much every scenario will end up with it being your fault because being inebriated doesn't give you immunity from your actions (except for "had sex"). Possibly rape, possibly a little too friendly with other party goers. She stayed silent until she was outed to her classmates as a slut, it's easy to toss around the rape word at that point as a last ditch effort to save face.

FitzShivering: BarkingUnicorn: FitzShivering: Jim_Callahan: Pictures taken of the rape of an underage girl and redistributed by the accusers but the police found there was insufficient evidence to lay charges?

I suspect there's a lot to this story that's not being shared by the article, there.  My money is on "the pictures didn't actually depict the crime and the parent is just trying to mitigate their own guilt over not responding to bullying by making shiat up" at minimum.

Depends where you live.  My gut is that you are probably correct, but there are places where depending on the people involved, the girl (specifically on rape) is going to get stonewalled and encourage to "re-remember" what happened.

But, yes, as it stands, the story does sound rather odd.

The pic that made the rounds was described in another article as one that "depicted the girl having sex with one of the boys."

IDK Canada's statutory rape or child porn laws.  In the U. S., that would be enough for both.  Seems the cops could have found out who was farking her and who took the pic.  Yet prosecutors decided not to pursue charges long before the girl killed herself.

You're probably right.  I haven't seen the pic (nor do I want to), so don't know what it actually contained and what they should have decided.  I imagine most of us are probably on the same page that if it showed something certain, the police should have done something, and if it didn't, then it is just a shiatty situation all around.

I think what's more disturbing is how the community treated her.  From what it sounds like the only consolation she had was from her family, and she was shunned pretty much everywhere else. I'm sure she had a few friends, but it seems apparent there was a culture of shame around her that she was subjected to constantly.

It's especially awful when one so young commits suicide. To deal with a temporary problem with a permanent solution. Of course, the fog of depression doesn't give that kind of clarity. The signs can also be hard to distinguish from normal adolescent mood swings and teens can be secretive about what they get up to.  I just hate seeing lives cut short like this. It happens far too much.

wildcardjack: okay... 17 year old with tats...  what's up with that?

PTSD is a helluva thing.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: Almost Everybody Poops: BarkingUnicorn: Almost Everybody Poops: miss diminutive: "An investigation into an earlier sexual assault was completed, and in consultation with the Crown, there was insufficient evidence to lay charges," MacRae said.

So there's apparently picture evidence of the crime being distributed by the offenders and the Crown doesn't have enough evidence to charge them?

Also, maybe I'm already out of touch with today's youth, but who bullies a girl who's been a victim of rape? Seriously? I know I did some pretty hurtful things in my biatchy teenage days, but something like this would have never crossed my mind. I honestly don't understand.

Anyway, my heart breaks for this girl.

Seriously, this.

It appears to be a lack of empathy and stigma on part of law enforcement.  But this shiat should not stand.

I wish a thousand butt-hole surfers to penetrate the rapists asses while covered in knives and arugula.

WTF did LE do wrong?  Do you seriously expect them to waterboard confessions out of four boys just because a girl accused them?  WTF is wrong with you people?

I would assume the PHOTOS THEY TOOK WHILE RAPING HER would be enough evidence, but that's just me.

Have you seen the photos?

Of course not, I'm going on what TFA said: "One of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh's school and community where it quickly went viral".

iheartscotch: LordJiro: iheartscotch: 

I'm not saying she made false allegations; I'm saying that there are legitimate alternative theories. Possibly compelling enough that the prosecutor felt that they couldn't get a conviction. Maybe they can't prove that the suspects were involved.


That's an easy one -- it's very hard to deal with suicide cases in court, because there are almost always comorbidity with other things that can be drummed up as a defense.  A history of depression or any depression or anxiety medication can be used to show instability that "decreases the likelihood" that a particular event was the direct cause of the suicide (even if the comorbid systems were caused by the direct event!).

Got to go through this with a family member who got hurt in an industrial accident.  It wasn't that anyone actually disagreed that his being, for all intents and purposes, essentially ruined for life was due to the accident, but because he had taken anti-depressants before, there was a "pre-existing condition" which diminished the responsibility of the business for the consequences of the accident.

Pictures taken of the rape of an underage girl and redistributed by the accusers but the police found there was insufficient evidence to lay charges?

I suspect there's a lot to this story that's not being shared by the article, there.  My money is on "the pictures didn't actually depict the crime and the parent is just trying to mitigate their own guilt over not responding to bullying by making shiat up" at minimum.

The best way to eliminate school shootings and decrease teen suicides is to make bullying a capital crime, preferably with public executions.

Lorelle: doglover: Teenage girls are the least compassionate creatures on the planet. Even honey badger steers clear. Teenage boys are right behind them. I think it's some kind of mixture of ignorance and hormones.

Some are. I was bullied a lot in junior high and high school, mostly by other girls. In jr. high it was female gang members, in h.s. it was stuck-up, biatchy female socs.

/eventually got revenge on the latter
//enjoyed it immensely