I’ve been writing this post in my head for a month now, and it will probably still be disjointed, and I’m sure I’ll still forget things I want to say. And if you aren’t conversant with the case, none of this might make sense anyway.

I’m not going to rehash or even summarize the story, mostly because I’ve immersed myself in it too much already. If you aren’t familiar with it, you can get the details here. The most comprehensive source was the LocalLeaks blog site, which presented information uncovered by the KnightSec cell of Anonymous, but the site has since been suspended. It seems the federal and Internet powers-that-be are far more concerned with censoring (and possibly prosecuting) the people publicizing this case than they ever were with the students disseminating child pornography, gloating about rape, and broadcasting on social media how they transported a minor across state lines for the purpose of committing a felony.

Some of the Anonymous claims — minus many of the names, details, and legally unprovable allegations on the LocalLeaks site — are reported here, and there’s also a link to the infamous 12-minute video of student Michael Nodianos giggling and joking about the rape. I made it through about two minutes of the video, but I’ve read a transcript, and it’s raw, stomach-curdling, horrifying stuff.

All sorts of facets of this story infuriate me (and a lot of other people), and I’m putting them in a bulleted list because there are too many to list in one sentence:

• the gang rape of a high school girl
• the allegations that these perpetrators have done it before
• the fact that a bunch of the kids at several parties, where the girl was apparently assaulted multiple times, posted photos and tweets, but no one ever thought to call 911
• the way the community is closing ranks around the perps
• the fact that Ohio’s “rape shield” law — which forbids attorneys from introducing a victim’s sexual history, behavior, or attire at trial — apparently doesn’t extend to statements the defense attorneys make to the media, impugning the victim
• the fact that the football coach, who blatantly threatened a New York Times reporter (it’s in this article, which also provides a lengthy rundown of the case), has apparently not been taken to task in any way or forced to resign
• the nauseating motion by one of the defense attorneys — which the judge had the decency to reject — to refer to the girl as “the accuser” rather than “the victim”
• the fact that only two boys have been charged with the rape, that they will be tried as juveniles, and that the kidnapping charges were dropped
• the fact that media consistently state, as if it were an undisputed fact, that the victim was unconscious because she had drunk so much; KnightSec claimed to have uncovered evidence that she actually was given a date-rape drug — even more horrifyingly, by a girl she considered a friend. As far as ability to give consent goes, legally it doesn’t, and shouldn’t, matter why she was incapacitated, only that she was. Unfortunately, public perception seems to be that a girl who drank to the point of passing out is far more complicit in her own rape than a girl given a roofie would be. Apparently, girls are responsible not only for their own alcohol intake but for the actions of boys who also have imbibed extensive amounts of alcohol but evidently cannot be expected to control themselves.

For weeks, I signed every petition and joined every Facebook page that encouraged deeper investigations into the crime, more criminal charges, and consequences for the students involved who apparently didn’t technically commit a crime (although isn’t tweeting a picture of a naked girl disseminating child pornography? How is that not a crime?). Now I’m too discouraged, convinced that none of it is will make a difference.

Dr. Phil, always one to hop on the bandwagon of whatever story is in the headlines, released a show that I rank among the most irresponsible coverage I’ve seen. He featured one of the defense attorneys, a few Steubenville High athletes who weren’t at the parties and whose names I have never seen in conjunction with the case, and the blogger who broke the story, whom he allowed to say approximately half a sentence. He said he wished Michael Nodianos had come on the show, because that video “isn’t who he really is.” He’s young, said Dr. Phil; he was drunk, and this shouldn’t haunt him for the rest of his life. I yelled at the television: “What about the VICTIM? She’s younger, she might not even have been drunk, and this will haunt her for the rest of her life. Michael Nodianos CHOSE to make that video. She did not choose to be raped.”

The things Nodianos said on a video that he knew was being made and posted to the internet will, or at least could, haunt the victim for the rest of her life. He proved himself to be a remorseless asshole, and I don’t care how much he had to drink, you don’t make those kinds of statements unless you’re a soulless cretin who doesn’t deserve inclusion in the human race. I’ve been around a lot of drunken guys, and I only once did I hear anything close to that disturbing (long story; the guy was a loathed acquaintance of a male friend of mine whose presence, for reasons over which we had no control, we had to tolerate for a brief time, and against whom I eventually wrought my own form of semi-sociopathic vengeance). I digress: In my experience most guys, drunk or not, even some who aren’t especially decent people, don’t think rape is funny.

Poor Michael had to drop out of Ohio State this semester because of threats against him, but apparently the school is keeping his scholarship waiting for whenever he chooses to return. One news article claimed that the Facebook group asking OSU to kick him out is unfair because he hasn’t been charged with a crime. Making jokes about a sexual assault of which you apparently have detailed knowledge isn’t a crime? Perhaps not, but he’s proven that he’s a reprehensible excuse for a human being who has no conscience and no empathy. If I or any woman I cared about was a student at Ohio State, I’d be petitioning the school to expel him and filling out transfer applications like crazy as a contingency plan. What woman, and what man who cares about women, would want to be on a campus where they might encounter, have class with, or, heaven forbid, find themselves at a party with this piece of excrement?

Nodianos has drawn attention and outrage because he provided irrefutable, graphic proof of his (lack of) character, if not his complicity. But plenty of other students also deserve to be ostracized, at best, and probably prosecuted. Anonymous released multiple names, phone numbers, street addresses, e-mails, and in some cases parents’ phone numbers and e-mails and occupations. And you know what? I don’t have a problem (maybe I should) with that kind of privacy violation, not when it involves people who violated someone else’s privacy and person in the most brutal and profane of ways.

This is turning into a lengthy tirade, and I haven’t said nearly all I wanted to, so I’m going to conclude for now and continue in a sequel. I’ve disabled comments but may turn them back on for the next post.