Two months ago a 20-year-old woman named Leslie Rasmussen from
Ohio was one of 39 people asked by a judge to write a character reference for
someone she knew who was going to
trial. The instructions were fairly
clear. "Per the request of the court, I was asked to write this statement
in an effort to shed light on his character as I knew it to be during my
childhood, adolescence, and young
adulthood when I interacted with him as a classmate and friend."
Seems pretty straightforward,
right? Just write about what he was like back when she knew him. No prob.
WRONG!! Big problem. You see, the person
she was asked to write about was someone being vilified now in the media; it
was convicted
Stanford racist Brock Turner. Now that he’d been found guilty and sentenced
to six months in jail, the case was on everyone’s lips. Some felt he should receive
leniency, considering he had no previous record for anything and was the big
swimming jock on campus, while others felt he should be punished to the fullest
extent of the law, regardless of the lack of a police record or the lack of
physical violence in his crime. It was a heated debate, and because she wrote what the court asked her to write,
Ms. Rasmussen had landed squarely in the cross hairs of a lot of the public.
Now, I have questions, first off
being why was her letter released to the media in the first place? The trial
was barely over, and not only her letter but Turner’s father’s letter to the
court pleading for leniency for his son were both released to social media,
which began to tear them both to pieces. Why were these letters not
confidential? Then, what happened to the letters of all the other people who
were asked to write a character assessment? Why was hers singled out?
Leslie
Rasmussen plays drums in a band called Good English with her sisters. They have
released two albums and WERE all set
to tour this summer. Not anymore, and
this is the thing that gets me. The band
was set to play a venue on June 11th, and were immediately cancelled
after hearing about the letter on social media!! They didn’t even confirm the
truth of the matter, or try to find out if the details were exaggerated, they
just immediately cancelled the band’s appearance! Their reason? "We will
not tolerate the support of rape culture.”!!!
The company responsible for the band's publicity label, Behind the
Curtains Media, also decided to cut ties with the group, and their reason was
the same. AND, all the band's social media accounts were closed!
Now, here’s the problem I see with
that. While anyone has the right to do business with anyone they wish, it was
Leslie Rasmussen the old friend of Turner’s who wrote the letter, not Leslie
Rasmussen the drummer for Good English!! It might have been different if she
were the out front lead singer who was always making headlines, but that wasn’t
the case; I’m quite sure that a lot of people didn’t even know who she was when
the band played! She’s a 20 year old girl who was asked by the court to write
about someone she went to school with, and that’s what she did! Why is the
entire band being punished for that? No, it’s more than being punished; the band has
been castigated almost out of existence for something that THE BAND had nothing
to do with! We’re not talking about Pussy Riot here (read
story) where all the members were involved; this was something that one
person did all by herself. They had contracts with this band and cancelled them! They’ve taken away
their livelihood for goodness’ sake, for something one person did…. I just can’t
stand it!
Here is what has everyone so up in
arms against her and the band:
In her letter to the court,
Rasmussen calls Turner "respectful and caring, talented, and smart enough
to know better.” “It’s pretty frustrating to see the light that people are
putting him in now. It used to be 'swim star' and now it's like he is the face
of rape on campuses," she wrote.
But it was her perceived excuse
for his actions that spurred public indignation.
"I don't think it's fair to
base the fate of the next 10+ years of his life on the decision of a girl who
doesn't remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against
him," her letter read. "I think it is disgusting and I am so sick of
hearing that these young men are monsters when really, you are throwing barely
twenty-somethings into these camp-like university environments, supporting
partying, and then your mind is blown when things get out of hand."
Wow. Okay, so what she said may
not have been what most people wanted to hear; as a matter of fact, some of it
sounds like what a defense attorney would say when trying to get him off. To me
personally though I don’t think it sounds like she “supports a rape culture”,
it sounds more like a young girl who doesn’t understand how her friend could be
so hated and vilified when he never seemed to be like that. She sounds like a
college student who has seen cases like this where the guy was never accused of
rape, and she can’t understand why someone she knows IS. Still, what she said
is no reason to cut the band off from its livelihood and punish them for what
she said in a letter that should have (IMO) remained confidential anyway. And
that’s basically it, to all those who have jumped on the bandwagon and want to
see Good English crucified because of its association with Leslie Rasmussen,
step back a minute and think; don’t you have a friend or two whose opinions you
would not want known if you could be convicted by association with them? We all
do. Give Good English a break. No matter how you feel about what their drummer
wrote, it was just the drummer who signed that letter.
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