Congratulations and thanks to the young woman who fought off a
rape attempt in the early hours of Thursday, Dec. 18, wounding the
rapist in the process with kitchen knives! She is not a victim; she
is not even a survivor: she is a hero and she helped make Gilroy a
safer place.
Congratulations and thanks to the young woman who fought off a rape attempt in the early hours of Thursday, Dec. 18, wounding the rapist in the process with kitchen knives! She is not a victim; she is not even a survivor: she is a hero and she helped make Gilroy a safer place.
Congratulations and thanks also to the Gilroy Police Department, who diligently followed up investigative leads which resulted in their providing the woman with a photographic line up. She picked out her attacker from the photos and the police arrested the suspect, Damian Derby, without incident Friday evening.
Thanks also to Councilman Bob Dillon, who posted to the Dispatch web comments an email he received from the GPD, notifying him that the suspect had been arrested. I appreciate the information.
The only way this story could be better would be if the girl (No insult intended; she calls herself “the girl” in her web posts) had killed the would-be rapist, either by stabbing a little deeper or by blowing his fool head off.
I have been reading the Dispatch web comments again. As a general rule, I have neither time nor inclination to read them. No time, because I have two part-time jobs plus various home repair projects and a family. No inclination, because under the shield of anonymity provided by the use of a pseudonym, the web comments are all too often nasty, brutish, ungrammatical, ill-spelt and short. There are exceptions.
Councilman Dillon uses his own name and his customary clarity. “The girl” – assuming she is indeed who she says she is and not some imposter – made her points and ignored the vileness flung at her. A few of the posts congratulated “the girl.” But most of the so-called commentary is not worth reading, and certainly not worth commenting on.
One fellow said she was “leading” the rapist on. That is a ridiculous statement. It is true that many rapes could be prevented. Young people do not have much common sense. It has been suggested that the part of the brain that is responsible for judgment does not develop until age 26. That would explain why young people take so many foolish risks. Unsupervised, they drive fast, set off fireworks, take dares, dive in shallow water, ride skateboards, jump bicycles. They also drink, do drugs, hitchhike, run away, have sex, and so forth.
A girl or woman who engages in these activities, or even something as simple as going for a run with earphones on, is putting herself at greater risk for sexual assault. But a girl does not “deserve” to be raped just because she takes foolish risks, any more than a boy “deserves” to break his neck just because he takes a foolish risk. The only difference is that in the latter case, the lake or the ski jump has no evil intent. The rapist has.
In this particular case, “the girl” was not taking any foolish risks. She was asleep at home when the alleged rapist crawled into her home through a pet entry. I am sorry she did not kill him. It would have saved the taxpayers a lot of money. I hope he is convicted and gets sent away for a good long time.
I expect I will get some flack from Community Solutions on this piece. I appreciate the work Community Solutions does, and I agree with them on most points. But I think they overreact to anyone saying, as I say here, that there are risky behaviors that will increase one’s chances of getting raped. I also disagree with them on the subject of reporting. I think all rapes and child molestations should be reported.
Many people do not realize that rapists and child molesters tend to be repeaters. Filing a report can save someone else pain.
Lastly, I disagree with them on the subject of fighting back. They say the victim should decide at the time. Everything I have read indicates that fighting back is the best strategy for escaping alive and unharmed. “The girl” demonstrates how effective fighting back can be.
