15 year old girl, Gang Raped at homecoming dance

Several had cell phones and used them....

 

 

TO RECORD THE ATTACK.... BUT NOT TO CALL THE fcuking POLICE....

 

 

 

 

Calif. town rattled by alleged rape of girl, 15

 

By TERRY COLLINS (AP) – 2 hours ago

 

RICHMOND, Calif. — The gang rape and beating of a 15-year-old girl on school grounds after her homecoming dance was horrific enough. But even more shocking, police say, was that up to two dozen people watched and did nothing to stop it.

 

The attack over the weekend rattled this crime-ridden city of 120,000 in the San Francisco Bay area, where one police official called it one of the most heinous crimes he has ever seen. Some students have already left the school in response to the attack.

 

"It's not safe there at all," said 16-year-old Jennie Steinberg, whose mother let her transfer out of the school Tuesday. "I'm not going back."

 

The victim, a sophomore, had left the dance and was drinking alcohol in a school courtyard with a group when she was attacked, police said.

 

Two suspects were in custody Monday, but police said as many as seven ranging in age from 15 to mid-20s attacked the girl for more than two hours at a dimly lit area near benches Saturday night. As many as two dozen people saw the rape without notifying police.

 

Officers found the girl semiconscious and naked from the waist down near a picnic table. She remains hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

 

"This was a barbaric act. I still cannot get my head around the fact that numerous people either watched, walked away or participated in her assault," Lt. Mark Gagan said Tuesday. "It's one of the most disturbing crimes in my 15 years as a police officer."

 

Gagan would not comment on rumors that observers took video of the attack on cell phones and may have posted it online.

 

Manuel Ortega, a 19-year-old former student, was arrested after trying to flee the scene. He is being held on $800,000 bail for investigation of rape and robbery. Attempts to reach Ortega at the jail Tuesday were unsuccessful.

 

A 15-year-old student also was booked late Monday on one count of sexual assault, Gagan said.

 

Late Tuesday, SWAT teams were preparing to make more arrests as police are also offering a $20,000 reward they hope will bring more people forward with any information.

 

Even though he said as many as two dozen people were witnesses, Gagan said officials are still trying to determine the exact number of people involved.

 

"I'm confident that the list will expand and at the end of our investigation we will get a clear indication of who was there and who did what," Gagan said.

 

The attack occurred in a city that has dealt with its share of vicious crimes in recent years, and the school recently approved surveillance cameras after a series of violent crimes. In one case a few years back, a student was shot outside the school, ran inside and died in the then-principal's hands, said Marin Trujillo, a spokesman for the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

 

Richmond is an industrialized conclave near the San Francisco Bay that is known as one of the nation's most dangerous cities. In 2007, Richmond had 47 homicides, and the murder rate led the state for cities with populations of 100,000 or more, surpassing Los Angeles and Oakland.

 

That number dropped to 27 in 2008 but has spiked to 44 killings so far this year, amid drug dealing and gang activity that has engulfed the town, Gagan said.

 

Gagan said the girl left the dance and was walking to meet her father for a ride home when a classmate invited her to join a group drinking in the courtyard. The girl had consumed a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said. Gagan said the girl's father tried to call her cell phone, but no one answered.

 

Gagan said police received a tip about a possible assault on campus from a young woman who heard two males bragging about it. She was found nearly an hour after the dance, which more than 400 people attended, had ended.

 

Neil Smelser, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley, said Tuesday that the incident could be categorized as "bystander indifference."

 

"The questions become, 'Why didn't they do something moral to stop an immoral situation? Why didn't they behave morally by calling the police, telling school officials?'" said Smelser, who has written extensively on collective behavior.

 

"It's very likely that they didn't have any emotional or social ties to the victim," Smelser continued. "If they had any linkage to her, then maybe we'd have a different outcome."

 

Trujillo said there were four police officers and 15 school site supervisors monitoring the dance. He said there were no problems during the dance inside the school gym, calling it "a success." He said two site supervisors were allowed to leave because they felt they had enough security inside.

 

But Trujillo called the rape outside on school grounds a "tragic incident."

 

"We wished this had never happened. This was such a heinous crime," Trujillo said. "We are all going to learn from this."

 

Student Joseph Machado, 16, said the mood inside Richmond High School on Tuesday was tense as officers were questioning fellow students. Two squad cars were parked outside the main entrance, and school security teams were patrolling the grounds in golf carts.

 

"Some of my friends were saying, 'What if that happened to me?'" said Machado, whose parents didn't allow him to go to the dance. "This school, this city already has a bad reputation and now this makes it worse."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=8923317

 

 

The police were finally notified of the attack, when onlookers called their friends at a nearby party to tell them about it and to come watch..... Somebody at the party finally notified the police....

 

 

 

Stop the world.... I want off.

I hope the fucker pays for what they did. If I was the father of this girl I would beat the shit out of those guys.

Stop the world.... I want off.

 

That's horrible, no matter what the circumstances/reason, that's just plain horrible. No more posting bad news like this or ban.

 

That's horrible, no matter what the circumstances/reason, that's just plain horrible. No more posting bad news like this or ban.

 

 

 

When I hear of something so outrageous that it shocks my conscious (and Im pretty hard to shock) my first thought is: "Ive got to tell the guys at Lpower."

 

 

Part of it is a catharsis.... You guys help me make sense of some of this stuff.... And when thats impossible (like now) youre the support system....

 

 

I consider you all a weird sort of extended family..... I cant wait to rush off and tell you the good, and the bad.....

When I hear of something so outrageous that it shocks my conscious (and Im pretty hard to shock) my first thought is: "Ive got to tell the guys at Lpower."

 

 

Part of it is a catharsis.... You guys help me make sense of some of this stuff.... And when thats impossible (like now) youre the support system....

 

Absolutely. All jokes aside, I completely agree. I just hate hearing bad news like this. Almost to the point now where I've become so de-sensitized that it sometimes doesn't strike the same chords as it used to. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

Seven + people beat this girl, 2 + raped her, and dozens watched. She will never be the same. I can't imagine what her or her family are going through.

 

 

 

Wow, that's insane. No one even bothered to call the cops, I mean WOW. I can understand I suppose not rushing in to try and help for fear of a lawsuit if you hit some kid who happens to be a minor or something, or with how sue-crazy some people are, the person you "save" might want to sue you, and also you could get your butt kicked, but AT LEAST CALL THE FREAKING POLICE!!

This makes me sick, I hope these guys get raped in prison.

 

This makes me sick, I hope these guys get raped in prison.

 

Three sixteen year-old kids that went to a local high school in my area a year or two ago got high on drugs and went and beat some poor guy to death, three white boys, and they are either headed or are now in the state prison system...they looked scared to death...

It's the issue of no one wanting to be "that person" that ratted the people out. I'm not saying it's valid or smart, but merely the train of thought. If you're bullied or see a bully, and you tell someone, you're "reputation" gets put out, and since popularity and "reputation" are the two considerations used to befriend you in school, if you rat out said bully, you're a snitch and therefore everyone won't want to be you friend.

 

Yes, yes, I know, this wasn't just a bully, these are terrible guys attacking an innocent girl (well...she was drunk at 15....but given the circumstances...) a young girl who was completely raped and everything....and to you, me and everyone on this board who has a brain, we know it's a different and if we see something, ESPECIALLY like this, our phones would have been out and calling cops, and probably we would have tried to help as well if we could.

 

But teens these days are really stupid. Not to mention they were drunk which isn't a good mix. Between this and the other thing I mentioned above, I'm not surprised that no one called the cops. Thankfully someone finally did though.

Sounds like the 1988 Jodie Foster movie "The Accused" (which was a true story about a gang rape at Big Dan's Bar in New Bedford, MA).

What a bunch of animals.

Major moral issues here...big ones...

 

Funny how if this situation was explained 15 years ago...everybody would have been looking for a phone to call for help. In 2009, bystanders used their phones to videotape it...WTF happened!?

 

I want off too, for a while anyways...

speechless

That's tragic.

Makes me sick

Neil Smelser, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley, said Tuesday that the incident could be categorized as "bystander indifference."

 

"Bystander indifference"???? That's part of the problem. Society, media, etc, do not call people's action for what they are. Don't you think this term is a little to mild to describe the actions of the witnesses?

 

They are all fucked up, wicked, evil, disgusting human beings. They make me sick to my fcuking stomach. The witnesses are as guilty and wicked as the rapists. I hope they all burn in hell.

 

If something like this happened to one of my daughters, I would spend every single cent I had to have these people found and...well, you know what....them, their families and every other fucker related to them.

 

This story reminds me of that 1 or 2 year old girl that was being raped in a alley in or around NYC years again. People walking down the street saw what was happening and nobody helped! They just stopped, watched and walked away.....until one REAL MAN saw what was happening and lost his mind....almost killed the rapist with a 2x4 or something that he picked up in the alley.

Richmond = BAD! Very dangerous and VERY racist area

fcuking tragic, so SAD, I almost cry with rage when I hear of shit like this! Being a father of a little girl myself, this is truly one of the Top nightmares a daddy can have.

 

BUT for some reason, I can understand how this would happen. TEENS are the most LOST and IDIOTIC force in our current society (something has to change).

 

Kids are so stupid, that it's more important to hold a drink in their hands and sit back and "party" then it is to drop the booze and break it up. So instead, they start recording it with the cellphone, just like when they record some poor sap getting his ass stomped by 3 jocks after school in the back baseball field.... Same shit. Finally someone came to their senses (or did they?) and the cops came; after hearing about "so-an-so" call to his "bros" to say, "oh my gosh, dude, you gotta get over here and see this, some chick is getting the shit fcuked outta her.......DUH.

 

Although inevitable, I hate the idea of my daughter growing up around "other-people", you just can't control what might happen, because the minds of some teenagers are numb and illogical, fueled on image and the quest to be grown and NOT balanced with restraint and common morals. PARENTS ARE TO BLAME!!!

 

I guess the only thing that may have avoided this was the "Jack-ass" father being on time and demanding that the daughter be waiting INSIDE the prom when he picks her up. I would NEVER have my girl walk ANYWHERE to pick her up. "Stay with adults INSIDE until I get you!!!" And I would be 45min EARLY to the time I say we're meeting. 2 1/2 hours? I would rip the school apart if I showed up and she wasnt there. I would've found her. If they were on the grounds, school courtyard, I would've found her, fcuk that!!! 15yrs old???? PROM??? Please... But I guess it's easier to second guess this to death.

To everyone: BE A STRICT PARENT, YOU WON'T REGRET IT, YOUR KIDS WILL STAY OUT OF TROUBLE, AND WILL GROW-UP WITH COMMON SENSE AND AWARENESS!

Kids are so stupid, that it's more important to hold a drink in their hands and sit back and "party" then it is to drop the booze and break it up. So instead, they start recording it with the cellphone, just like when they record some poor sap getting his ass stomped by 3 jocks after school in the back baseball field.... Same shit.

 

 

You know it's funny you say that because this EXACT thing happened to some guy at my high school, I remember it clearly, I was walking out of the school to go home when suddenly I hear one of the guys going, "OH! OH! OH! HE'S GETTIN' HIS ASS KICKED! HE'S GETTIN' HIS ASS KICKED!" jumping up and down. I look up and sure enough it was like four guys beating on either one or two, I can't quit remember. They might have deserved it even for all I know, but I mean the reactions of the kids were crazy.

I read this story yesterday, absolutely sickening. The article barely does it any justice to how awful this must have been.

 

I can't imagine going on for 2 hours without SOMEONE noticing, or saying something!

 

Stuff like this makes me re-think about having kids in this horrible fucked up place we call earth.

In some defense of the father, I believe the girl left the dance early adn started drinking with these guys. And he came at the end of the dance...although they didnt find her until an hour after. Just an absolutely sickening story. If only they could find every single person involved and any of the bystanders and end them right there. The world is bad enough as is...it really doesnt have anymore room for animals like this....

I consider you all a weird sort of extended family..... I cant wait to rush off and tell you the good, and the bad.....

 

though i'm not nearly as involved (i can't find the word i'm looking for) as you, this is the best online community i've ever found.

 

 

This makes me sick, I hope these guys get raped in prison.

 

Same i hope the police find the people that did this, send them to jail, then make sure they get very "friendly" cell mates. Hopefully the kids will be in a shower a then find out what its like to get gang raped.

 

I feel so sorry for the girl, i can't imagine all she has to live with now. I reallly hope karma gives her the best of a life after this. My condolences are with her

Human garbage.

so what happens to the worthless fucks that stood around and watched? will they have any charges filed on these people? they are every bit as guilty as the ones that did the deed!

 

hardly ever does anything shock me anymore, but holy hell...

Bet she was white and they weren't.

im shocked! karma will catch up to this group of animals.