In response to Brock Turner's reputation being pummeled by an immense wave of fervent criticism, an Internet troll has sparked even greater controversy by creating the Facebook page "Brock Turner Family Support." Turner's attorney confirmed in an email that the family did not create it, but nevertheless, its posts expose some of society's darkest corners.
The page's infuriating content has effectively one-upped the letter Turner's father addressed to the judge at the beginning of the trial, dismissing his son's sexual assault of an unconscious woman behind a dumpster as "20 minutes of action." Adding salt to the wounds of sexual assault survivors, posts on the page compare Turner's crime to "failing to drive in the winning run in your little league game" and shame the victim for choosing to protect her identity amidst the lasting trauma.
The page's title implies that this troll wants Turner to know he's not alone. This reasoning is mind-boggling for a few reasons. Firstly, it took months for law enforcement to release a mug shot to replace his high school yearbook photo that was being circulated nationwide. Secondly, Turner breezed through the justice system relatively unscathed, taking into consideration the fact he could have faced a maximum sentence of 14 years. Instead, he's spending a mere two to six months in jail, not prison, and being registered for life as a sex offender. Though it's going to surely take a hit to the allegedly bright future Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sees for him, it could have been much worse.
There are several posts on the page that are overall awful. In her letter, the victim stated that her boyfriend didn't know what had happened until she called him. The author of this page concluded that one of the men who rescued her was a "jealous boyfriend." Or perhaps the troll just made it up.
The author of this page also shames an innocent woman for being sexually assaulted, implying that she somehow provoked Turner to take her behind a dumpster and penetrate her to the point she had physical wounds. This isn't the first time "promiscuity" has been mentioned to dismiss Turner's actions as harmless.
But let's not forget, this is what trolls do best: rile everybody up and stir the pot. Even so, the page features a slew of claims that Turner is the real victim, indicating there's still a long way to go before sexual assault is taken more seriously by society as a whole. A list of "hardships" clearly attempts to convince people that Turner is the real victim. He's just not. And it's unlikely that this troll will coerce the rest of the nation into thinking otherwise.
