Why is it that sexual crimes, particularly against young women, are often viewed with gasps of outrage and cries for justice, yet punished by the equivalent of a slap on the wrist?

Take for example the Austrian motherfucker who incarcerated and raped his daughter for 24 years, fathered all of her 7 children, kept three of those children imprisoned underground all of their lives, while separating the other surviving three from their mother and foisting them on his wife/their grandmother. He pleads guilty to incest, he gets up to one year in prison.

Yes, you read right, one year.

If convicted of rape, he could get up to 15 years, and up to 20 years if convicted of “enslavement.” He could get up to life (however many years a life sentence may be in Austria) if convicted of homicide in the case of the baby he put in the incinerator shortly after birth.

But raping his daughter continuously, impregnating her with her own half siblings? That only gets up to one year.

At least the sick bastard changed his plea to guilty of all charges but dammit, what if he hadn’t? what if there wasn’t enough hard evidence to convict him?

One year? Seriously?

That’s so fucked up, I don’t have words.

I am always sad when heroes turn out to be clay puppets.

Behold Reverend James L. Bevel.

From the Enclycopaedia of World’s Biography:

Bevel was certainly one of the most influential, though least known, civil rights activists. Martin Luther King, Jr., would not have achieved many of his successes had it not been for men and women like James and Diane Bevel. As one of King’s most effective front-men and as a dedicated worker who believed in direct-action, Bevel was a dynamic symbol of the new generation of leaders which included Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, C.T. Vivian, Hosea Williams, and many others of both local and national prominence. Although not as well-known as some of these, Bevel’s civil rights record did not go unnoticed. In 1963 he received the Peace Award from the War Resisters League and in 1965 was awarded the prestigious Rosa Parks Award by the SCLC.

(There is also a wikipedia article on him, of course)

But what became of this righteous fighter for the rights of the disenfranchised? (more…)