Brock Turner's mom blocks cameras as her son signs sex registry

[TexasTowelie]

Brock Turner's parents are continuing to support their son.

As the former Stanford swimmer — whose six-month sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman sparked national outrage — signed the sex registry in his home state of Ohio on Tuesday morning, his mother stood behind him, raising her arms and blocking photographers and media with her white knit sweater.

A photo of Carleen Turner shielding her son from NBC News makes a powerful statement about a parent's will to stand by a child who is morally culpable and has committed a crime.

Both Turner's parents wrote letters to the court before their son's sentencing. Carleen wrote that prison or jail would be a "death sentence," and his father, Dan Turner, said his son was "paying a steep price for 20 minutes of action."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Brock-Turner-mom-shields-son-signs-sex-registry-9205224.php

[Angry Dragon]

1. they are so proud of him

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Six months is a steep price?

[mythology]

3. Even if it was, the trash only spent 3 months inside

He got out early for good behavior. Thanks judge Persky.

[True Dough]

4. And he only served three of those months!

His "good behavior" came a little too late.

[trotsky]

6. Well you know it was only "20 minutes of action."

Geez, can't everyone just get over it?

[Dreamer Tatum]

25. This kid will do time for the rest of his life. Nt

[COLGATE4]

54. Works for me.

[Dreamer Tatum]

55. That's kind of fucked up. Nt

[COLGATE4]

59. Not as fucked up as cowardly taking advantage

by sexually abusing a passed-out woman.

[Dreamer Tatum]

60. So you favor life imprisonment for rape? Nt

[Dorian Gray]

62. Don't know about the person you asked

but I sure do.

[COLGATE4]

66. Don't be so dramatic. He only served 3 months!

Do I mind that he will be known as a rapist? Nope.

[Dreamer Tatum]

67. The tenor of many messages here is more bloodthirsty.

Which I think is a problem, which of course makes me a proponent of rape culture.

[TipTok]

63. How long do you think is appropriate for him to face consequences for rape?

[Crunchy Frog]

64. As long as his victim?

How about, if you don't want to face consequences for rape, then don't rape.

[Dreamer Tatum]

65. I think there are probably thousands of men convicted of rape

Who did serious time, and who aren't being threatened by a vigilante hit squad.

This kid got off way too easy, but people generally want him completely destroyed forever, for good.

So I'm just asking what people think is appropriate.

[COLGATE4]

52. Well, according to the proud Dad

it was only "20 minutes of action". Looks like son is a chip off the old asshole.

[Amaril]

5. And that's exactly why

........that little creep has no respect or compassion for other humans. They have raised him to believe he is a golden child who is entitled to whatever he wants whenever he wants it.

"Twenty minutes of action"

That shit burns my ass every time I hear it.

[guillaumeb]

7. Rape is "20 minutes of action"?

Sounds like the parents are as bad as the sex offender.

[lame54]

9. I thought the judge said that...

Gonna have to look that up

[tblue37]

11. No, it was in the father's letter to the judge begging for a lenient sentence. nt

[lame54]

10. It was the father...

I misread it reported earlier

[forgotmylogin]

23. It sounds awful

I hope in his brain he meant "the actions taken in the course of twenty minutes" and not "action" as sexual euphemism.

[Chiyo-chichi]

24. I'm sure he meant the former, but it is no less appalling.

[guillaumeb]

48. By his wording he reduced rape to "action"

and of course the real victim in the father's eyes is his son, not the unconscious woman. A true values family.

[mercuryblues]

8. It looks more like

she is flashing him.

[TexasTowelie]

14. It's either that

or she is in the throes of being raptured.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. i have no issues with parents standing by their kids no matter what

that is ultimately the purpose of a family

[loyalsister]

20. Thank you!

I would think that she is in a very tough spot. Our experience regarding this kid is him as a rapist so it is natural for us to see him that way. His mother has seen him in humanizing vulnerable moments.

Most parents who care about their kids stand by them no matter how egregious their behavior. It is also possible for a parent to object to her kid's behavior and still reasonably want to protect him from public humiliation. She isn't the one who tried to justify his behavior.

[Egnever]

33. Absolutely

One of our most famous killers but dad still had a hard time accepting what his son did.

in July 23, 1991, Milwaukee chemist Lionel Dahmer discovered - along with the rest of the world - that his son Jeffrey was a murderer who, over a period of many years, had carried out some of the most ghastly crimes ever committed in the United States. These crimes were so grisly that for a time Dahmer entered a world of complete denial - first convinced that Jeff was innocent, then later that he had been no more than the tool of some other, far more evil human being

It is a natural reaction for most parents.

[closeupready]

50. That case came to my mind, too - I recall his mother stated

after he was killed while serving a life sentence in prison (to paraphrase): "Okay, is everyone happy now? Jeffrey's dead!" She was being sarcastic, of course, since she had continued to visit him in prison.

[gratuitous]

21. Indeed

You'd have to be a special kind of scum to have even your parents turn on you.

Luckily, the rest of us don't have to put any stock in them.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

34. Really?

That wasn't my experience. I was involved in some minor vandalism as a teenager with some friends, and my parents told the police to lock me up and keep me there.

I had something like a 3.8 GPA at the time, taking "advanced" coursework. I also hadn't been in previous trouble.

I spent no time in jail and my parents didn't "disown" me, but they weren't pleased with me for quite some time.

Our neighbors were harder on their son. The father was ex-military. The son attempted suicide at age 16. His parents then told him to get out (after he returned home from getting his stomach pumped), and he slept at a nearby airport for awhile. His parents took him back in eventually. He got out of their house quickly after he graduated from high school.

[Egnever]

38. There are plenty of fucked up parents out there

Mine included.

What they did to you was wrong.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

41. Mine weren't too bad.

I was shocked when they both acted like they were ready to disown me so quickly!

My Dad was a workaholic and shouldn't have been a father since he was so disinterested in it, but Mom was pretty loving most of the time. I'm not sure that either one of them would have been pleading for leniency if I'd committed some atrocity, however.

[Egnever]

42. I told myself that for a long time

Then I had kids and as they are growing I am looking back on my childhood and some of the things my parents put me through at the same age my kids are now. Some of it was really fucked up and i could never imagine doing the same to my children.

When it is happening to you as a child I don't think you really get it at least I didn't. It was really only once I had my own kids that it started to click for me.

In the end I think I turned out pretty ok but there is certainly baggage left from those times even now 30+ years later.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

43. I don't have any children, but I think I'd be more caring too.

Last edited Wed Sep 7, 2016, 12:42 AM - Edit history (1)

I was briefly married to an alcoholic in my 20's. My parents were married for 63 years until Dad passed away, and I was strongly committed to making the marriage last. I won't go into the details, but my wife went too far -- getting drunk and sleeping with other men from bars -- and I filed for divorce. I foolishly slept with her again before the divorce. She claimed to be pregnant with my baby just days after the marriage was over.

I felt horrible for bringing a baby into this world with that kind of mother. My former in-laws were no better. We again lived together because I wanted to be a part of the child's life from the start, but then my ex-wife told me she couldn't "do this" with me. I cried like a baby. I also tried to figure out if there was some way for me to get primary custody of the child, but I knew that was nearly impossible in our legal system.

Long story short, it wasn't my baby! She gave me a picture of the ultrasound which had the date it was taken and the crown-rump length of the fetus. I was in grad school and doing "research assistant" work for the medical school at that time, and I found a book that provided confidence intervals for a date of conception based on crown-rump lengths and heart rates of fetuses. It indicated that there was about a 1 in 100,000 chance that I was the father based on when we slept together. I approached her with that information, and she confessed that it wasn't my baby. Her mother supposedly encouraged her to tell me that I was the father.

That whole experience obviously sucked, but it made me realize how "fatherly" I could feel when I thought the chips were down. Physical attractiveness was no longer important to me compared to worrying about a woman being "bad mother" material.

EDIT: If I was a father, I certainly wouldn't be like my parents constantly pushing "struggle" and "hardship" on their kids! They grew up during the Great Depression, and Mom often told us how she was lucky to have a potato and some milk on a given day as a child. They discouraged me from going to college. Mom's common saying to all of us was that we needed to "suffer more," and she was the "loving" one! On the other hand, I don't take basic things like food for granted after hearing about her childhood. I just wouldn't encourage hardship on my kids if I had them! I'd do whatever I could to make their lives easy, or at least better prepare them for the adult world. That means education nowadays.

There's always kids who have it far worse. I'm thankful that I didn't have parents like the ones who molest or severely beat their kids!

[LuvNewcastle]

22. Yeah, it's hard to criticize parents too much

for standing with their son. That young man did an awful thing, but his parents' display of unconditional love here is beautiful.

[cwydro]

27. Absolutely agree. Nt

[Egnever]

31. Agreed

The kid is a scumbag but he is still their kid.

[mythology]

35. My mom and stepdad taught me many things

Take responsibility for your actions, treat people with respect, things like that. At no point did they teach me to rape, or hide behind euphemisms like "20 minutes of action."

I'd have no problems shutting out people in my family for what Turner did and do so gladly. You accidentally kill somebody, you get addicted to something, you steal? Those are all forgivable and can be worked around. You kill somebody in cold blood, you rape somebody, you're on your own.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

37. that's fine for you and your family. it doesn't have to be fine for me. No matter what my brothers

do I will love them and try to protect them. However, I hope they were raised well enough not to kill/rape people. But if they do, i am still their sister and I will love them.

I can hate what this guy did but still empathize with a love a mother has for her son.

[tazkcmo]

53. Well put.

After all, we don't get to choose our family and we all make mistakes and sometimes they are really big mistakes. I fully understand a parent's unconditional love for their children as they are largely responsible for the person she/he became. In fact, I find these parents' abhorrent remarks as clues to the son's criminal entitlement. They should be feeling partly responsible for the victim's suffering but I doubt they are.

[Sand Rat Expat]

40. Agreed.

Parents continue to love their children, no matter what those children do. I'm sure there are some utterly vile murderers in prison whose mothers still love them fiercely. My parents would still love me, I'm sure, even if I'd done something as horrible as what Turner did.

Where I think my parents would differ, however, is the "support" bit. They'd still love me, but in no way would they attempt to shield me from the consequences of my actions, nor would they make such public displays of support. The consequences of my behavior would be mine to bear and mine alone. I very much doubt my parents would go with me to shield me from view as I signed a sex offender registry, nor would they minimize the severity of my actions.

This is where I take issue with Turner's parents. They're acting as if their son is the wronged party here and showing zero concern or empathy for his victim. I can't imagine my parents doing any such thing, nor would I do such a thing if a child of mine were guilty of rape.

[closeupready]

49. As you must well know, that's not how the DU universe works.

In circumstances like this, moms are supposed to throw the electric switch EAGERLY.

Seriously, I've pulled back from many topics discussed here because it's not a discussion forum; rather, it's become a forum for messed-up people to throw shit at newsmakers. Not everyone - certainly not you - but for almost every topic.

[JanMichael]

56. i do not. so what? standing by rapists & killers is for lunatics.

standing by crummy kids for no reason other than you pooping them out is hyper self centrism.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

61. No, it's called nature and biology and unconditional love. Nt

[JanMichael]

69. No it is called ugly and irrational. nt

[OnlinePoker]

13. My son's the son of an angel

See, look at my wings?

[JanMichael]

57. angel shit! nt

[guillaumeb]

15. I wonder if a parent's will to stand by...etc"

also applies to the parents of the woman who was so brutally victimized by this predator?

Does Carleen Turner even think of the female victim?

[NuclearDem]

17. If Carleen Turner doesn't knife her own son in the back, then she clearly hates rape victims.

[msongs]

16. oh dear the internet lynch mob missed the action. better luck next time nt

[pansypoo53219]

18. no shame. can you say publikkkan?

[onehandle]

19. We can still see him.

We'll always be able to see him.

[davidn3600]

26. Isnt a parent's love for their child supposed to be unconditional?

I dont know why this would be shocking?

Of course the parents support him.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

39. yeah. that's what i think too.

[Philly-Union-Man]

28. I don't blame the mom.

She's his mom after all. Mothers protect their children. The real beef should be with the sentencing judge.

[Greywing]

29. I agree ... it's heart breaking situation and the anger really lays in the sentencing

handed down by the judge. There was no justice for the victim but that is totally on the judge's head.

[Skittles]

46. correct

as with Zimmerman, the lack of real justice made Turner's life much worse

[nomorenomore08]

36. +2

[Rex]

30. "He will remain on the sex offender's list for the rest of his life."

[TexasBushwhacker]

32. Yup, next to impossible to find a job or a place to rent

Mommy and Daddy will probably buy him a house.

[roamer65]

44. He will be living with his parents for quite a while.

I'm sure the terms of probation do not allow him to live alone and probably greatly restrict his movements.

He will find it difficult to travel abroad as well, since President Obama just signed a law that requires sex offenders passports to have a special mark on them to denote their status.

[Rex]

68. Also he has to keep his nose clean and stay out of trouble with law enforcement.

I guess he has to live with it for the rest of his life.

[Skittles]

45. I don't blame the parents for protecting their child

that's what parents are supposed to do

it's too bad that parents who care that much still managed to raise someone who could behave in such a sickening manner

[Warren DeMontague]

47. I'm not gonna criticize the mom. I'll criticize the legal system that gives him 3 months

but sends pot smokers away for 5 years.

[BronxBoy]

51. Thanks for posting this

Interesting thread. I completely understand the basic instinct to protect your family. My problem with these parents is not so much that they are standing by their son but more with the fact that they have treated the victim in this case with complete disrespect.

I haven't followed this case as closely as some other DU'ers but have these parents, the ones many folks are extending the gift of compassion to on this thread, ever acknowledged the victim and the harm done to her? Did they even say I'm sorry for what their son did? I don't remember seeing anything from them. And if they haven't then I completely understand the scorn being directed at them family ties notwithstanding

[TexasTowelie]

58. You're welcome.

I don't have the answers to the questions that you addressed, but it appears that the parents have been insensitive in their remarks and the optics presented by the mother by shielding him with her white sweater only made the situation worse.