Dharun Ravi Trial - The Myth and The Facts

[Neel D]

Dharun Ravi Trial - The Myth and The Facts


In September of 2010 two Rutgers University freshman students Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei secretly recorded a sexual encounter between another freshman student Tyler Clementi and another man. Tyler Clementi was Dharun's roommate at the dormitory. Then the recording was posted on the internet for the whole world to see. Tyler who was not out as gay was humiliated by the sex tape that everybody saw and took his own life by jumping off the George Washington bridge.

The above was the narrative that was spread by the media and the LGBT community and was believed to be true by the American public for nearly a year and a half.

And then came the article written by Ian Parker in the New Yorker magazine on February 6, 2012. This article told the real story. Most of the real story. And the rest of the facts have come out since, trickling little at a time. Many articles and editorials have now been written on this case. You have to read a lot of them to find out the facts. Finding the truth is never easy. But spreading a simplistic story about Good Vs Evil is very easy.

Dharun was slapped with 15 counts of criminal charges by the State of New Jersey and it contained 35 sub-counts of criminal charges. Charges included invasion of privacy, tampering with evidence, witness tampering and biggest of all the bias intimidation charge which is a hate crime and has very harsh punishment. The jury convicted him on all 15 main counts including the hate crime charge and acquitted him on some sub-counts. Sentencing is scheduled for May 21, 2012. The judge can sentence Dharun for up to 10 years in prison followed by an automatic deportation to India. Dharun was 18 at the time of the incident and he is now 20 years old. The LGBT rights movement is not satisfied with just the convictions. They want to see Dharun get a harsh punishment. So they are still out campaigning for it with more new lies.

To find out the facts of this case I have provided links to some very good articles, in my opinion. Please read them and find out for yourself. The New Yorker article is a must-read and should be read first.


The New Yorker article by Ian Parker - The Story of a Suicide
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...fa_fact_parker

Burden of Proof, Analysis by Chris Cuomo, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/rutgers-tri...4#.T293mdWEnBQ

Mark DiIonno, Star-Ledger Columnist interviews Dharun after the verdict
http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/...harun_rav.html

Mark DiIonno, Star-Ledger Columnist on why Ravi did not take the plea deal
http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/...onviction.html

Mark DiIonno, Star-Ledger Columnist on the muddled law
http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/...slation_e.html

Star-Ledger Column by John Farmer Jr., Dean of Rutgers School of Law-Newark
http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/20...ows_viral.html

The New York Times Op-Ed by Emily Bazelon
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/op...=2&ref=opinion

A hateless hate crime - Jacob Sullum for Reason Magazine
http://reason.com/archives/2012/03/2...ess-hate-crime

Punishing people for others' suicide (Techdirt.com)
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...-mistake.shtml

CNN Op-Ed by Paul Butler
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/17/opinio...iref=allsearch

The Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi we will never know - Richard Kim for The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/blog/166902...ill-never-know

[venkkiram]

I signed the petition to favor Dharun Ravi!

[scorpio]

I signed the petition to favor Dharun Ravi!

Link to the petition pls.

[venkkiram]

Link to the petition pls.

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...paign=shorturl

If they can collect more than 25000 signatures before mid-April, then the White House will respond to the petition. (You just need to give your name and email address at the white house website to create an a/c first).

[rajraj]

venkkiram,
That petition won't have any effect on the sentence. Obviously you have not understood how the system works here. The Executive branch(White House) does not interfere with the judiciary. This is not India where the Chief Minister threatens and bribes to get off facing justice. A few months back some Indians tried that (appealing to Obama,Clinton and others) to let them off the hook in tax evasion- not reporting foreign bank accounts to the IRS. HSBC was the culprit in encouraging such accounts. Nothing happened. The White House,Clinton and others let the law take its course. That is how it should be. You should also know how president Nixon was forced out for his men breaking into Democrats campaign office. You should also know how three Illinois governors were sentenced to jail for wrong doing. The governors did not interfere with the judiciary. They appeared in courts without resorting to postponement as one lady did in Tamilnadu. The last governor to be sentenced asked for $50K to appointing a replecement for Obama in the senate. In India ministers pilfer millions of dollars and are yet to be tried in the court. In the US nobody is above the law. In India you are above the law if you have money and power. Of late I am seeing more criminal activites in the NRI community. Several physicians have been caught cheating Medicare and have been punished. These are physicians earning well. Yet, greed has blinded them into committing fraud.

Simply put, a number of NRIs want American dollars and not American laws and values. Sad!

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...paign=shorturl

If they can collect more than 25000 signatures before mid-April, then the White House will respond to the petition. (You just need to give your name and email address at the white house website to create an a/c first).

[Neel D]

Dilbert,

It was the same liberal media (in cahoots with LGBT rights groups) that spread the false narrative for a year and a half and demanded Dharun's head. It is not the conservative media that worked, ever, with the LGBT rights groups.

[rajraj]

I just checked the website. They have collected about 13000 signatures so far. That is after about a month. They need 25000 by April 15th, according to the website. There are more than two million Indians here. I leave it to your own interpretation!

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...paign=shorturl

If they can collect more than 25000 signatures before mid-April, then the White House will respond to the petition. (You just need to give your name and email address at the white house website to create an a/c first).

[rajraj]

The petition expired because they could not collect enough (25000) signatures by the middle of April. Considering that the state of New Jersey has close to 200000 or more Asian Indians, it is strange! Obviously the hype about 'trial by media', 'conspiracy by gay/lesbian groups', 'sentenced to 10 years' fiction, discrimination by country of origin, TV show appearence, interview by a jurnalist etc did not sway even 25000 to sign the petition. Looks like there is more to this case than what was reported by the media.

Again, I will leave it to your own interpretation!

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...paign=shorturl

If they can collect more than 25000 signatures before mid-April, then the White House will respond to the petition.

[Neel D]

The petition expired because they could not collect enough (25000) signatures by the middle of April. Considering that the state of New Jersey has close to 200000 or more Asian Indians, it is strange! Obviously the hype about 'trial by media', 'conspiracy by gay/lesbian groups', 'sentenced to 10 years' fiction, discrimination by country of origin, TV show appearence, interview by a jurnalist etc did not sway even 25000 to sign the petition. Looks like there is more to this case than what was reported by the media.

Again, I will leave it to your own interpretation!

I posted the vivekajyoti blog to answer your question about the lack of enthusiasm for the petition. But you chose to undermine the blog by pointing out the blogger's misunderstanding (or mistyping) about 10 year sentencing. So, I will post an excerpt from the blog for those who may have not read the blog as a result of your undermining.

But it is also a tragedy of other sorts. It showed how we Indian Americans who sit in the comfort of our lives and do not participate in larger causes, never realize that things can happen to us. For large part Indian Americans were silent, they did not bother about it. The family did not know what it is to seek timely support of the community because they are typical family who lived their own life with little participation in larger causes for community. As some in the program pointed out, we live a selfish life by flocking by thousands to the stupid shows of Indian movie stars, we shower money into expensive garbas and festivals for our children, we continuous party in our little circle, busy pursuing our own career goals and academic and other goals of our children, never participate or contribute to any larger cause, hardly participate and volunteer in our children schools programs, hoping nothing will come to pass and the system will take care of it if necessary. But things do not work that way, not in a true and complex democracy as ours.

Looks like there is more to this case than what was reported by the media.

What do you think that is?

[Dilbert]

I signed the petition to favor Dharun Ravi!

why? because this guy was another cunning Indian who wants to outsmart the system by not taking plea bargain because his lawyer said so than anything else??

He is another Casey Anthony ! hope this time around justice is served ! He made a F*ed up decision of spying on someone..which became the ONE OF THE REASON for someone's life.
He better pays for it.