Failed Justice in the Heart of Silicon Valley — Santa Clara County

Growing up in Santa Clara County, I can honestly tell you gives some of us, I admit, a superiority complex. We give the impression that bad things rarely happen here. It is the heart of Silicon Valley. The birthplace of technology. Social Justice isn’t even on the radar. We’ve got bigger fish to fry like leading the world in technological advancement! Right? Looking back through the eyes of an adult, and also as a survivor of sexual assault myself-in Santa Clara County-I see how I was so wrong!

Yesterday, I got caught up in the media storm of the Stanford Rape case. The crime perpetrated by the clean cut 22 year old Stanford University athlete, Brock Turner who was convicted in March 2016 of raping a young woman in January of 2015. A judge had handed down a light sentence of only six months in jail. Another case of white privilege getting you everywhere your Signature Visa card gets you these days. A friend and mentor in social justice read the letter of the victim to me. Following every thought written so eloquently by the victim, conjured up resident anger inside of my soul.

Rape happened again in an affluent community I call home.

After reading the victim’s letter, my friend and I tossed legal arguments back and forth about what the right course of action should be now that Brock Turner was convicted by the jury and sentenced by the insensitive, and in my estimation, corrupt, Judge Aaron Persky. It’s been…