Twenty-year-old Dharun Ravi had shown little remorse for the suicide of his roommate Tyler Clementi until Tuesday when he released a public apology.
Dharrun was heavily criticized by a judge for refusing to say he was sorry for secretly filming Clementi have sex with another man and posting it online. Clementi later killed himself, opening nation-wide discussions over the dire effects of bullying. Before taking his life, Clementi saw Dharrun's Twitter feeds boasting of the incident. "I saw him making out with a dude. Yay," they read.
"I accept responsibility for and regret my thoughtless, insensitive, immature, stupid and childish choices," Dharrun said through a statement from his attorney. "My behavior and actions, which at no time were motivated by hate, bigotry, prejudice or desire to hurt, humiliate or embarrass anyone, were nonetheless the wrong choices and decisions. I apologize to everyone affected by those choices."
Thursday, Dharrun is off to serve a 30-day jail sentence. He wasn't charged with 18-year-old Clementi's death, but 15 criminal counts of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Two of the intimidation counts have maximum 10-year sentences, but Dharrun was only sentenced to 30 days.
However, because his sentence is less than a year, Dharrun, a citizen of India, may not be automatically deported from the United States.
Dharrun was heavily criticized by a judge for refusing to say he was sorry for secretly filming Clementi have sex with another man and posting it online. Clementi later killed himself, opening nation-wide discussions over the dire effects of bullying. Before taking his life, Clementi saw Dharrun's Twitter feeds boasting of the incident. "I saw him making out with a dude. Yay," they read.
"I accept responsibility for and regret my thoughtless, insensitive, immature, stupid and childish choices," Dharrun said through a statement from his attorney. "My behavior and actions, which at no time were motivated by hate, bigotry, prejudice or desire to hurt, humiliate or embarrass anyone, were nonetheless the wrong choices and decisions. I apologize to everyone affected by those choices."
Thursday, Dharrun is off to serve a 30-day jail sentence. He wasn't charged with 18-year-old Clementi's death, but 15 criminal counts of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Two of the intimidation counts have maximum 10-year sentences, but Dharrun was only sentenced to 30 days.
However, because his sentence is less than a year, Dharrun, a citizen of India, may not be automatically deported from the United States.
I believe the proper response to his statement would be, ‘too little, too late’.
i so much want to say that Dharun deserves to spend a considerable amount of his life in prison. His thoughtless words and actions drove a questioning young man to his death. Tyler will forever be in my prayers, His example and spirit are a reminder and inspiration to us all. But we cannot condemn Dharun. I’m a gay man man, and I feel such sympathy for Tyler and his family, but we cannot reward Dharun’s hatred with hate. He is not an evil young man, but rather a grossly mis-informed one. This unfortunate incident is a crass reminder for us to speak up peacefully as an LGBTQ community in defiance of unlawful judgment and hatred. Rewarding hatred with hate is a step backward. I choose to honor Tyler’s memory with a profession of love rather than one of condemnation and hate. Let the powers that be place judgment on those perceived as wrongdoers.
I agree with Nick that hatred just creates more hatred, and more enlightened information will help to create a more informed public.But that having been said…this man should have been dealt with much more severely as just as the above is true it is also a known fact that severe retribution for such behavior might stop someone else from repeating that callous action in the future.I think nothing short of a few years in prison at minimum would be more justified… after all Tyler received a death penalty.My heart and prayers go out for that poor soul and his family.