This just in from WNYC New York: a New Jersey judge has just sentenced former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi to a probationary sentence that includes 30 days in jail, along with three years’ probation, mandatory counseling, 300 hours of community service, and a $10,000 probation fee.
Judge Glenn Berman, who could have sentenced Ravi to up to ten years in jail, called his actions “cold, calculated and methodically conceived.” He also noted that through the entire ordeal, Ravi had not apologized even once for spying on and cyberbullying Tyler Clementi, his gay roommate, who subsequently committed suicide by jumping off of the George Washington Bridge. The New York Times notes that Berman spent several minutes reprimanding Ravi at the hearing, making the light sentence even more puzzling.
Joe over at Joe.My.God writes that Berman cited Ravi’s lack of a prior arrest record and the unlikeness that he will re-offend as a reason for the short sentence.
Does a 30-day jail sentence even qualify as a “slap on the wrist?” I’m aghast. I agree with Garden State Equality Chair Steven Goldstein, who said in a statement:
We opposed throwing the book at Dharun Ravi. We have spoken out against giving him the maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and against deporting him. That would have been vengeance beyond punishment and beyond sending a message to the rest of society.
But we have similarly rejected the other extreme that Ravi should have gotten no jail time at all, and today’s sentencing is closer to that extreme than the other. This was not merely a childhood prank gone awry. This was not a crime without bias.
In my opinion, justice was not served in this sentence. What kind of message does this send to LGBT youth — and the bullies who torment them — across the country?
I know very little about criminal sentencing, but 30 days (even with time off) seems like a substantial sentence to me. If Ravi is going to be scapegoated to represent all anti-gay bullies, how many days or months would be an sufficient?
Here’s what is tough for me on this: I believe the punishment needs to reflect the direct harm Ravi inflicted on Clementi, but should not be more severe than if Clementi’s suicide had been prevented.
One of the experiences that guides me on this is losing a partner to suicide a long time back, and wanting to blame people who had abandoned him for his death. I came out of that recognizing the harm my partner experienced, but also that the factors contributing to his death ran deeper and were much more complex.
When it comes to messages LGBT youth might take, I’ve been concerned about vulnerable youth taking a message from the Ravi trial that dying by suicide might achieve some greater good — punishing their abusers.
That speaks to my general concern, for which I don’t have easy answers: How to recognize and honor loved ones lost to suicide without suggesting to vulnerable youth and adults that their death could make them famous and make life better for others who are suffering.
And on the anniversary of the White Night riots, no less. Justice for LGBT persons has now been starved twice on this date.
Over and over again, the issue of hate crimes, or bias related abuse gets lost in the level of perpetrator to victim. The complaint is that gay lives are more valuable than say, a robbery victim.
That isn’t the motive behind hate crimes laws. The motive is exactly what happened with this sentencing. That the juries, the judge and sometimes investigators WILL be derelict in adjudication after the fact.
A robbery victim, a victim of defamation or assault, is SYMPATHETIC and will garner the extent of punishment coming to them.
Gay people are made an exception when their pain, their worth, are all over again treated as unworthy or unsympathetic to receive the SAME justice.
Ravi’s mother is pleading and moaning and weeping in court as if he is SO burdened by this!
WTF?!
Selfish woman. No wonder he turned out the way he did.
And apparently Tyler’s life and the loss to the world and his family means so little to the judge, Ravi received a slap on the wrist.
THAT is the outrage, and the proof why hate crimes laws must assure the right sentencing that has some meaning and consequences.