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Rochester NOW President's Statement Regarding Guilty
Verdict of Four Men in Gang Rape
November 21, 1998
This latest case of brutal gang rapes, assaults, and degradations
of two teenage girls is a wake-up call to the extent of violence
against women and girls in our community.
The facts in this case show that rape is not a crime of passion.
Rape is a terrorizing act of violence. The fact that the men
videotaped their physical and verbal assaults of these two girls --
which one assumes was done in order to replay and "enjoy" this
violence again and again -- is especially despicable.
Rochester NOW applauds the jury who heard the voices of the two
teenage girls and found the four men guilty. Too often the voices of
girls and women who are raped are not heard.
We hold in high regard the two teenage girls who faced their attackers
in court, even after being threatened by the men with more violence.
They are truly courageous.
The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human
Services reported this week that one in five women in the United
States have been raped or faced an attempted rape. Over half of the
rapes were violent acts done to girls under the age of 17.
This violence towards women and girls is unacceptable.
We call upon the Rochester community to work together to stop this
violence. As a first step, we urge schools to provide self-defense
training for girls and non-violent conflict resolution classes for
boys.
NOW's task force WAVE - Women Against a
Violent Environment - has been working to eliminate violence against
women in the community since 1992.
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