Austin 13-year-old raped as men recorded, cheered

[The Straight Story]

AUSTIN -- As many as 10 men allegedly took turns sexually assaulting a 13-year-old runaway Texas girl in an apartment where some cheered and filmed the attacks with their cellphone cameras, according to court records released Thursday.

Austin police answered a call to the Avalon Palms apartment complex at Rundberg and Northgate.

Detectives say the girl ran away from her group home, Settlement Home for Children, on June 30, and got into a car with three strangers.

According to an arrest affidavit, they took her inside an apartment and raped her. She says a group of 10 men cheered and filmed the assault with cellphones. Then, each one took turns assaulting her. It lasted from 10 p.m. into the early morning hours the following day.

She says the men then dumped her off on the side of the road.

Some neighbors say they're not surprised about the incident with all the gang and drug activity in the area.


http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/216152631.html

[Le Taz Hot]

1. I want to know

in what sick, motherfuckin' culture is this OK? It must be because 10 men thought raping and kidnapping of a 13-year-old was OK enough to cheer and film it. I want to know in what culture this is acceptable.

[WinkyDink]

2. We'll find out, when the trial verdicts come in. Let's see how long these vile men get.

[Le Taz Hot]

6. I mean,

what thought processes occur in these people's mind wherein all decency, sense of right and wrong, compassion and empathy is non-existent? How do you become that way? Peer pressure? I know it's not overall male culture because there's THE VAST MAJORITY OF MALES would never think this is OK. Is it gang culture? Is it youth culture where women are nothing but "bitches and hos?" Honestly, I can't wrap my head around being so sick and twisted that this behavior, in the 21st century, is acceptable.

[City Lights]

15. I'm right there with you, Le Taz Hot.

[Puzzledtraveller]

4. Ours

[geek tragedy]

5. All of them. Not to be facetious, but rape culture is hardly unique

to the US or a region of the US--it's global.

[Le Taz Hot]

10. That's too simple of an answer

and it doesn't get into the 'why.' In some cultures religion plays a part (Middle East where women are chattel). Gang culture? Quite possibly as women are, again, chattel. Youth culture where women are "bitches and ho's?" "Rape culture" is too broad of a term and doesn't break it down into elements that can be understood.

[geek tragedy]

11. In general, the higher the status of women, the less that men think they

can get away with this.

[Dreamer Tatum]

7. I don't blame cultures. I blame people.

Namely, the people who allegedly raped the girl.

[Le Taz Hot]

13. One rapist is one thing,

but there is most definitely a culture wherein it has become sport to gang rape young women. Whether it be Austin or Steubenville, it has become acceptable. It didn't used to be acceptable, at least not on this scale in this country. I'm not saying gang rape never happened, of course it did, but not to this magnitude and NEVER did others think it was so OK that they cheered it on and actually filmed it.

I know these are rhetorical questions more suited for sociological and anthropological experts but I sure would like to see a good read on this to try and understand what the hell happened.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. If it was "acceptable," it wouldn't be news

and no one from Steubenville would be in any trouble.

I don't know why groups of men sometimes find it acceptable to rape a woman. But "group of men" neither
implies nor is implied by "culture."

I suspect the particulars will come out and the smoke will clear, and we will find that several people need to be
jailed forever.

[gollygee]

9. Ours

this isn't that different from Steubenville, and it happens in high schools and universities around the world.

[morningfog]

3. Sick.

[Javaman]

8. oh man...

this is took place about a mile from my home. And the settlement home is about a 1/2 from my house.

poor kid.



that's a really crappy area. Austin, supposedly, had infused one million dollars into the area to increase police patrols and curb the drugs. It started only a few months ago.

personally, I haven't seen any difference yet.

[edhopper]

12. And if she is pregnant because of it

the proud Texas Government want to stop he from having an abortion.

[Quantess]

16. At first I thought this was an old story.

The same thing happened a couple of years ago, also some suburb in Texas. A troubled teen and a whole bunch of grown men gang raping her.