Undead sexist cliche: It was only one rape, no big deal

A thought prompted by the case of Shane Piche, a school bus driver who raped a fourteen-year-old girl. Over the prosecutor’s objections, the judge gave Piche probation and Piche won’t be listed in the sex offender registry? How come? Only one victim and no prior arrests.

Even assuming this really was the only girl he raped, so? Raping a fourteen-year-old (or anyone) is a crime. Hard time is the appropriate sentence. But what does “appropriate” have to do with it? Ask Alaska prosecutor Andrew Grannik who accepted Justin Schneider’s plea deal on sexual assault charges, letting him walk with no jail time. Grannik and the judge both warned Schneider this was his “one pass” — he’d better not rape anyone else or they’ll give him a much stiffer talking to!

Or the Baylor University rape case in which the prosecutor struck a plea deal because (allegedly) he said he couldn’t get a conviction for a first-time rapist.

This is not surprising. A lot of people act as if a rapist who isn’t a psycho should be cut some slack. Take Captain Pete Rose of the NYPD who said in 2017 that acquaintance rapes weren’t bad but “f there’s a true stranger rape, a random guy picks up a stranger off the street, those are the troubling ones. That person has, like, no moral standards.” You know, unlike the ethical rapists.

As I’ve said before, it’s this kind of thinking, accumulated and piled up, that creates rape culture.