Occasionally, this blog addresses issues that aren’t directly related to the NDY mainstays of life and death issues facing people with disabilities.
This is one of those times. As Dick Sobsey wrote said in an email to me, this news out of South Korea fits in the “truly vile” category. That means it calls for attention and action.
Briefly, four men have been convicted of repeatedly raping a sixteen-year old with developmental disabilities. The convicted are three of her uncles and her grandfather. News reports suggest the sexual assaults started when the girl was nine years old.
The four men have all been given suspended sentences.
But that isn’t the worst of it.
The judge’s rationale for giving them suspended sentences is that they’ll be needed to continue to provide care for the girl.
In case my wording wasn’t clear, the men are to be free to go home and continue to provide the “support” they’ve given this girl in the past.
The good news is that thousands of Koreans have responded with outrage and calls to impeach the judge.
Dick Sobsey at ICAD is trying to add a little international heat by having readers register their own feelings in a poll on the ICAD blog.
Please go there now and register your opinion on this issue – and read the links on the blog for more comprehensive discussion and news coverage. –Stephen Drake
Did you read the original article? It said that the judge noted that “they had raised her through hard economic times.”
It instantly reminded me of the misuse of compassion that is so blatant in that autism-blaming article in the Denver Post.
As if, taking care of someone else automatically gives you “hero” status that has a nullifying effect on the atrocities you commit.