the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Nov 22, 2021
A young man in New York, guilty of raping at least four young women, just got a sentence of eight years on probation.
The incidents took place four years ago, when he and the young women were teenagers. By 2019, the criminal charges had already been reduced to lesser ones, and he had been given probation—and broken the terms of his probation subsequently.
The young man was white and from a wealthy background. If he had been poor and from a black or immigrant background, he might still be in prison awaiting a court-appointed lawyer to take him to trial.
One victim of his brutality spoke in court: “I stand before you now asking you to not let this be the end, to not let this rapist walk away from two years’ probation with a clean slate.... I am asking you because you have the ability to save future girls. You have the ability to put this fire out or to let it continue burning.”
In this society, it is accepted that some men can force women to have sex as they choose. And it’s common that white men of wealth rarely get convicted of a crime when they do.