A woman was allegedly raped during a Facebook livestream and now people are debating about the definition of consent.
In the video above, out of respect for the victim, we have blurred the footage.
A woman who was celebrating her birthday at the Opera Atlanta Nightclub, when what started as a friendly flirtation turned into a nightmare. According to this livestream video and witnesses at the club, the woman was believed to be drugged and raped by a man in the middle of the crowd.
But the most disturbing part of the video was that no one around seemed phased. Subsequent footage has shown the woman’s body was limp during the assault and clubgoers can be heard saying “He f-ed her to sleep”.
The police responded to calls from those who has seen what was happening on the woman’s own livestream. But unfortunately, they did not arrive until an hour after the footage was made. They did however review security footage and concluded that woman was raped.
The footage is sparking a debate online. There are a lot of comments blaming the woman for going to the club alone for drinking and wearing scantily clad clothes. Some comments are even blaming her husband for allowing her to go out and party, which is making a lot of people angry.
The hashtag #JusticeforJasmine was created for those who are backing her up. One user tweeted “ A woman was drugged and raped in the middle of a dance floor in a club whilst on live stream on Facebook, no one helped her, people recorded it, and then people say she wasn’t raped. I just can’t this world is so sick and twisted.”
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Balencia Papa tweeted “The fact tht there’s ppl in the world tht think jus Bc you wear something or Bc you’ve drank a little too much you deserve to be raped on a dance floor in a club is sick asf. & is the reason why so many sick fucks get away with sexual assault, and crazydelani said “Doesn’t matter if she was drunk, if she was wearing something sexy, or if she flirted with him when she said NO that means fucking no. Start teaching boys what no means and stop blaming victims for their predators crimes.”
It is crazy that even after the #MeToo movement, people still want to blame the victim for their choices, rather that the assailant.
Even a commercial from Gilette that challenged men to be better went viral with controversy getting tons of backlash from those on both sides of the argument. But perhaps Gillette’s point doesn’t just apply to men- it applied to all of us.
We can do better.
For all the people standing by in this club and not helping the woman who was getting assaulted…we can do better.
And for those online who are digging up this woman’s details of her private life to defend her assailant…we can do better.
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But what do you think? Would you have said something if you were in that situation? And does this story change your mind about judging victims? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
