Remember when it was suggested that former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi might get a hefty sentence for his involvement in the death of Tyler Clementi? That Ravi might even be deported since he’s not a US citizen? That this young man with so much promise would be sent to India, a country he left when he was a small child?
Well, no worries there, because Ravi was sentenced today for his hate crime conviction … and he only has to serve 30 days in jail. It’s like he stole a necklace or drove drunk in Hollywood.
According to CBS News, “Judge Glen Berman told Ravi to report to the Middlesex County Adult Correctional facility on May 31. Ravi, 20, was convicted in March of 15 criminal counts, including bias intimidation and invasion of privacy, for using his webcam to view his 18- year-old roommate Tyler Clementi kissing another man in September 2010.” As for the deportation issue, “The judge says he added a notation to his judgement recommending that Ravi not be deported.”
What do you think? Has justice been served in this case?
Carolyn Castiglia is a New York-based comedian/writer wowing audiences with her stand-up and freestyle rap. You may recognize her hip-hop alter ego Miss CKC from Comedy Central, VH1 and MTV2. Carolyn’s web vids have been nominated for an ECNY Award and featured in two issues of EW magazine. She’s appeared in TONY, The NY Post, The Idiot’s Guide to Jokes and Life & Style. You can find Carolyn’s writing elsewhere online at MarieClaire.com and The Huffington Post.
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0 thoughts on “Dharun Ravi Only Sentenced to 30 Days in Relation to Tyler Clementi Cyberbullying Death”
Your headline is very misleading. He was sentenced for invasion of privacy, t bullying, and not causing anyone’s death. There is no cause to charge him with anything at all related to the death of Clementi. So, yes a similar sentence to a similarly small crime. The tragedy that occurred in the wake of the invasion of privacy continues to be conflated with the invasion of privacy acts for which this kid was charged and appropriately sentenced. Read the NYT or the New Yorker in depth stories and you will learn that Ravi was a dick, sure, but not a bully and not responsible for the death of his roommate. We do not send people to jail for 10 years for being dicks, and it’s a good thing because we have surely all done things that were not well thought out and were hurtful to others when we were 18.
Holly ~ I agree. What college roommates don’t mess with each other at some point? Yes, he invaded his roommate’s privacy and no he shouldn’t have webcammed it and let others know how to access it to witness it. But. Those who commit suicide have deep rooted problems and a simple (albeit low) “prank” cannot be blamed for the roommate taking his own life – something that is biologically programmed into us to avoid at all costs – therefore, his roommate has a screw loose to begin with (callous to say, but suicidal people are not in their right frame of mind) and any number of things we would find insignificant in the grand scheme of things could have easily lead to his suicide (a failed test/car broke down/stress from school/work/money problems/a bad day). We need to start taking responsibility for our own reactions to stressors. of course bullying doesn’t help the situation, but there is something to be said about being strong enough to not let bullies/life have that negative power over you.
“and he only has to serve 30 days in jail. It’s like he stole a necklace or drove drunk in Hollywood.” HA!! funny! Sentencing, not so much. I think he should have gotten at least 3-5 years in prison.
I agree with Holly, and Heather F. We keep focusing on other people instead of actually digging into the psychological mind of the suicide victim. Hence the meaning of the word suicide: “the act of intentionally causing one’s own death”. Throughout history we have seen that groups of people (think holocaust) have suffered horrific oppression and yet most of these terrible history acts were not known for the suicide rates but more for the strength and courage the victims showed against their oppressors . Dharun Ravi’s only mistake was being a self absorbed college kid who doesn’t care how his decisions will affect others, just like 85% of all college kids. Like it was said before he was a dick, but he wasn’t attacking Clementi’s homosexuality. And why must we always seem more inclined to blame everyone else when a suicide victim is homosexual. Yet when suicide occurs in other teens or adults who are heterosexual, people assume they were just not psychologically healthy.
It is worthwhile to read the recent New Yorker article on this case. Ravi was beeing a jery teenage boy, playing a prank we have all laughed at in the movies. He did not kill anyone and his roommate was openly gay and had been checking out bridges before the suicide and even starting Rutgers. Despite our best efforts at parenting, teenagers are going to be jerks and hurt others.
Wow. I am shocked by the seeming lack of understanding of what really happened. Ravi bullied and harassed his roommate Tyler because Tyler was gay. Because of that bullying and being outed, Tyler’s desperation and depression grew so deep that he thought the only way out of his despair was to take his own life.
Yes, there are other factors at play here. I do think criminalization generally is not the best solution, and certainly 10 years in prison and deporting Ravi was not going to help anyone — it would have only served to destroy another person’s life.
But let’s be clear: thinking of and calling bullying “jerky behavior” and “pranks” only serves to perpetuate this climate of harassment, discrimination, and often violence that pervades our schools across the country. This climate and culture serves no one — not the students being bullied nor the students perpetuating the harassment. We need to do better by our children!
Adults who cause serious harm should be accountable in a meaningful way—which did not happen here. There is something appalling about the way folks have downplayed the seriousness of what this man did and the seriousness of the impact on the victim—because he was male and gay.
I also find this young man’s utter lack of remorse to be chilling, and I fear that this sentence will only reinforce his apparent belief that he did nothing seriously wrong.
I read it. He’s not just a normal teenage boy and what he did isn’t a normal prank. The judge who sentenced him even called him out for having no remorse. The whole story is very unfortunate, but you can’t deny that Ravi’s actions played a role in Tyler’s death. His death aside, this was a very caluclated invasion of privacy meant to humiliate. This is not just a “prank.” I wish people would stop saying that.
Also, it’s worth noting – NOT ALL TEENAGERS DO THIS SORT OF THING. To insinuate that “all people” do this stuff when they’re young isn’t true and it’s insulting. I never purposely humiliated any of my friends or associates. Disgusting. Ugh. I’m so fed up with sympathy for the devil.
Although I do not know all of the details of this case, I feel that it is an example of the failure of “the system” or society or the school etc., to provide a way out other than suicide for a person being bullied for any reason. It is particularly difficult for gay people because there is still a lot of societal prejudice against them. However, regardless of what level of dick or jerk or devil Ravi was, he was prosecuted for what laws he broke. Although I doubt he would have ever been charged with anything at all had Tyler not killed himself, he was not charged with anything having to do with Tyler’s death because he could not be. If Tyler had not killed himself, how much time do you think Ravi should have spent in prison? I think 30 days is appropriate.
shameless deceased worthless to be born Tyler ‘s parents and Gay partner
M.B. have to be jailed virtually for intruding Ravi’s room. Ravi’s parent are toiling hard to pay room rent which is so high .Shameless Judge forgot his judicial powers. Shameless America put to shame. Anyway Rutgers is closed for forever in two years time. Prostitution, drugs , and gay activities are center for learning in Rutgers College. Curse is already befallen on gay people to suffer countless incurable skin diseases. God will never forgive your article even for a second.
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Your headline is very misleading. He was sentenced for invasion of privacy, t bullying, and not causing anyone’s death. There is no cause to charge him with anything at all related to the death of Clementi. So, yes a similar sentence to a similarly small crime. The tragedy that occurred in the wake of the invasion of privacy continues to be conflated with the invasion of privacy acts for which this kid was charged and appropriately sentenced. Read the NYT or the New Yorker in depth stories and you will learn that Ravi was a dick, sure, but not a bully and not responsible for the death of his roommate. We do not send people to jail for 10 years for being dicks, and it’s a good thing because we have surely all done things that were not well thought out and were hurtful to others when we were 18.
Holly ~ I agree. What college roommates don’t mess with each other at some point? Yes, he invaded his roommate’s privacy and no he shouldn’t have webcammed it and let others know how to access it to witness it. But. Those who commit suicide have deep rooted problems and a simple (albeit low) “prank” cannot be blamed for the roommate taking his own life – something that is biologically programmed into us to avoid at all costs – therefore, his roommate has a screw loose to begin with (callous to say, but suicidal people are not in their right frame of mind) and any number of things we would find insignificant in the grand scheme of things could have easily lead to his suicide (a failed test/car broke down/stress from school/work/money problems/a bad day). We need to start taking responsibility for our own reactions to stressors. of course bullying doesn’t help the situation, but there is something to be said about being strong enough to not let bullies/life have that negative power over you.
What Heather F said.
You are not only callous, Heather F, but dangerously misinformed about suicide as a result of oppression and humiliation for being gay.
Except that that, in this case, the oppression and humiliation began after Tyler Clementi came out to his parents and his mother rejected him.
I totally think the sentence was appropriate. He is a jerk but not a murderer. A pretty important distinction.
“and he only has to serve 30 days in jail. It’s like he stole a necklace or drove drunk in Hollywood.” HA!! funny! Sentencing, not so much. I think he should have gotten at least 3-5 years in prison.
I agree with Holly, and Heather F. We keep focusing on other people instead of actually digging into the psychological mind of the suicide victim. Hence the meaning of the word suicide: “the act of intentionally causing one’s own death”. Throughout history we have seen that groups of people (think holocaust) have suffered horrific oppression and yet most of these terrible history acts were not known for the suicide rates but more for the strength and courage the victims showed against their oppressors . Dharun Ravi’s only mistake was being a self absorbed college kid who doesn’t care how his decisions will affect others, just like 85% of all college kids. Like it was said before he was a dick, but he wasn’t attacking Clementi’s homosexuality. And why must we always seem more inclined to blame everyone else when a suicide victim is homosexual. Yet when suicide occurs in other teens or adults who are heterosexual, people assume they were just not psychologically healthy.
Lolo209 – not true. It has been suggested that straight people have been the victims of bullying-related suicides as well. Look at the Phoebe Prince case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Phoebe_Prince
It is worthwhile to read the recent New Yorker article on this case. Ravi was beeing a jery teenage boy, playing a prank we have all laughed at in the movies. He did not kill anyone and his roommate was openly gay and had been checking out bridges before the suicide and even starting Rutgers. Despite our best efforts at parenting, teenagers are going to be jerks and hurt others.
Wow. I am shocked by the seeming lack of understanding of what really happened. Ravi bullied and harassed his roommate Tyler because Tyler was gay. Because of that bullying and being outed, Tyler’s desperation and depression grew so deep that he thought the only way out of his despair was to take his own life.
Yes, there are other factors at play here. I do think criminalization generally is not the best solution, and certainly 10 years in prison and deporting Ravi was not going to help anyone — it would have only served to destroy another person’s life.
But let’s be clear: thinking of and calling bullying “jerky behavior” and “pranks” only serves to perpetuate this climate of harassment, discrimination, and often violence that pervades our schools across the country. This climate and culture serves no one — not the students being bullied nor the students perpetuating the harassment. We need to do better by our children!
Adults who cause serious harm should be accountable in a meaningful way—which did not happen here. There is something appalling about the way folks have downplayed the seriousness of what this man did and the seriousness of the impact on the victim—because he was male and gay.
I also find this young man’s utter lack of remorse to be chilling, and I fear that this sentence will only reinforce his apparent belief that he did nothing seriously wrong.
I read it. He’s not just a normal teenage boy and what he did isn’t a normal prank. The judge who sentenced him even called him out for having no remorse. The whole story is very unfortunate, but you can’t deny that Ravi’s actions played a role in Tyler’s death. His death aside, this was a very caluclated invasion of privacy meant to humiliate. This is not just a “prank.” I wish people would stop saying that.
Also, it’s worth noting – NOT ALL TEENAGERS DO THIS SORT OF THING. To insinuate that “all people” do this stuff when they’re young isn’t true and it’s insulting. I never purposely humiliated any of my friends or associates. Disgusting. Ugh. I’m so fed up with sympathy for the devil.
Although I do not know all of the details of this case, I feel that it is an example of the failure of “the system” or society or the school etc., to provide a way out other than suicide for a person being bullied for any reason. It is particularly difficult for gay people because there is still a lot of societal prejudice against them. However, regardless of what level of dick or jerk or devil Ravi was, he was prosecuted for what laws he broke. Although I doubt he would have ever been charged with anything at all had Tyler not killed himself, he was not charged with anything having to do with Tyler’s death because he could not be. If Tyler had not killed himself, how much time do you think Ravi should have spent in prison? I think 30 days is appropriate.
shameless deceased worthless to be born Tyler ‘s parents and Gay partner
M.B. have to be jailed virtually for intruding Ravi’s room. Ravi’s parent are toiling hard to pay room rent which is so high .Shameless Judge forgot his judicial powers. Shameless America put to shame. Anyway Rutgers is closed for forever in two years time. Prostitution, drugs , and gay activities are center for learning in Rutgers College. Curse is already befallen on gay people to suffer countless incurable skin diseases. God will never forgive your article even for a second.