The town of Maryville is on notice: Expect Anonymous because you have wronged two young girls.
Anonymous is not impressed that the town of Maryville, Missouri let the grandson of a GOP state official, a high school football star, go free after a 14-year-old girl named Daisy was allegedly raped on January 8, 2012.
Daisy’s 13-year-old friend was also allegedly raped by another young man. Police procured audio/video confessions from the alleged rapists after Daisy was found bruised, unconscious and frozen outside of her home, and felt confident that they had a case that would result in prosecutions.
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But two months later, the felony charges were dropped. A petition suggested that Republican former state representative Rex Barnett, Grandfather to the high school football star and alleged rapists, “may have influenced Sheriff Darren White and prosecutor Robert Rice. It states that Rex Barnett serves on at least one committee with Sheriff White and has called on Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster to investigate.”
According to the Kansas Star, Rex Barnett “served 32 years with the Missouri Highway Patrol’s Troop … He also has political ties to prosecutor Rice. Barnett’s granddaughter worked as a volunteer on the campaign of U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, who also employs Rice’s sister as an aide in constituent services.”
Dugan Arnett writing for the Kansas City Star broke the “nightmare” down:
The low temperature in the area that day was listed at 22 degrees, and the teen had spent roughly three hours outside, wearing only a T-shirt and sweatpants. Her hair was frozen. Scattered across an adjacent lot were her daughter’s purse, shoes and cellphone.
The attack had also been captured on an iPhone and shared. But Daisy and her family were harassed so much that they had to flee the town. Their home was burned to the ground.
The saddest part of all of this is when a community turns their back on its young, harassing them for being assaulted and violated, all too often the victims blame themselves.
And Daisy is now cutting her precious self, because she has been taught that she is worthless:
Daisy Coleman, now 16, has had a particularly tough time. The girl who used to be an athlete and dancer, who won local beauty pageants, is now cutting herself. And there have been several suicide attempts.
But most sane people do not agree with the town of Maryville. Daisy is not the worthless one. Daisy and her friend deserved to be valued and protected. And that’s why….
Anonymous is here. Someone will stand up for these girls and their right to justice.
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFCrZSPw7Uc
Their statement:
We are #OpMaryville.
Two young girls have been raped in the town of Maryville, Missouri. Another high school football star, the grandson of a Missouri state official, has walked free. The people of Maryville turned their backs on these victims and one family has been forced to flee the town. After they left, their house was burned to the ground.
On January 8th, a 14-year-old girl named Daisy and her 13-year-old friend were both raped in Maryville. Evidence of this assault was captured on film. Daisy’s unconscious body was later dumped into her family’s yard, left alone for hours in freezing weather. One of Daisy’s attackers was initially in police custody, where he admitted to having sex with her while she was under the influence.
He claimed it was consensual. The hospital states the young girl’s blood alcohol level was almost twice the legal limit and they discovered three tears inside of her body, 2-4 inches in length.
This suspect rapist is Matthew Barnett, a student at the University of Central Missouri. He’s the grandson of Missouri state Representative, Rex Barnett.
We demand an immediate investigation into the handling by local authorities of Daisy’s case. Why were the suspects initially arrested and then released? How was video and medical evidence not enough to put one of these football players inside a court room? What is the connection of these prosecutors, if any, to Rep. Rex Barnett? Most of all, We are wondering, how do the residents of Maryville sleep at night?
We have heard Daisy’s story far too often. We heard it from Steubenville, Halifax and Uttar Pradesh. In some cases, action meant nothing because it couldn’t bring them back. Both Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons, girls not much older than Daisy, took their own lives after the adults, the police and the school system, failed to protect them. If Maryville won’t defend these young girls, if the police are to cowardly or corrupt to do their jobs, if justice system has abandoned them, then someone else will have to stand for them. Mayor Jim Fall, your hands are dirty. Maryville, expect us.
We Are Anonymous.
We Are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Join us.
#OpMaryville #Justice4Daisy
The point isn’t that these two alleged rapists are guilty, but that these two young girls deserve justice. They deserve a fair trial to determine if the evidence is there to convict the two young men. They deserve to be treated as valuable humans, to whom the law applies. They deserve to know that it’s not okay for someone to rape them. Daisy deserves to know that society does not think she should have been dumped in the freezing cold and left outside like garbage.
The rape culture is what harassed Daisy’s family and drove them from this town. The rape culture is what makes Daisy feel so bad that she cuts herself due to the backlash to her standing up for herself.
It’s not Daisy who is wrong here; it’s the grown ups in this town who completely devalued a young girl’s life in service to a Very Important Football Star and Grandson to VIP State Representative.
If there were no rape culture, then we’d expect to see an entire town operating as a lynch mob going after the accused rapist as often as they go after the victim. Instead, almost always we get the town going after the victims, ruining their lives deliberately in a relentless act of intimidation for daring to threaten the system of privilege by claiming their rights as a human being.
Note: While sexual assault victims are not usually named, according to the Kansas Star, “Daisy Coleman’s name appears in this article with the permission and cooperation of the Coleman family.”
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