Reply to Anyone else read recent New Yorker article about gay Rutgers freshman who jumped off GW bridge?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I read that article last night too. It was just heartbreaking. The thing that strikes me is the the two boys were in the dorm room the first day and were completely unable to talk to each other. Before he met Tyler, Dharun was upset, not just that he was gay, but also that he seemed poor and uncool. I just hope that I can raise my kids to be more open minded on all fronts and able to have a basic conversation with all kinds of people.

Tyler's suicide is particularly heartbreaking because it seems so avoidable. If only Dharun had been more respectful. If only Tyler had reached out to someone instead of going to the bridge. If only...

The article mentioned that [b]Dharun turned down a plea deal for 600 hours of community service, no jail time and help against deportation -- why would he not take that? [/b](Unless he didn't believe he would get the help against deportation.) I think he stands to serve a far greater punishment now. (Not saying he doesn't deserve a greater punishment, I'm just surprised he didn't take the plea.)[/quote]

OP here.  I wondered about that too.  It seems pretty unlikely that he's going to walk away with anything better than that, although I too was wondering if maybe he knows that they can't/won't prevent him from being deported.  But I'm also wondering if his lawyers feel that he won't get convicted on the particular charges.  As the author of the article pointed out, this seems like one of those situations where the law unfortunately doesn't exactly fit the crime.  When Dharun's attorneys pick apart the elements of each charge, it may be difficult for the jury to convict.  One of the things the article mentioned was that one of the charges, I think bias intimidation, required that the victim be  in fear, and (if I'm recalling correctly) the prosecution is pointing to Tyler's statement that he was "afraid" of ending up with an even worse roommate as evidence that he was in fear, which is kind of a stretch.

And yes, Dharun did seemed to think being poor and uncool was even worse than being gay.  From day one he literally treated Tyler like he was not a human being.  He wasn't openly mean and I honestly believe he never intended for Tyler to find out what he had done, which was stupid, of course, considering how publicly he posted it, but it shows how he didn't even consider Tyler to be savvy enough to even use google.  It sounds like Tyler was very quiet and I don't think it even occurred to Dharun that Tyler had feelings.  WHen I was that age I certainly think I was at least outwardly more polite/respectful than that, but I do remember privately having a similar attitude about certain kids in high school and early college.  I am very ashamed of that now.    [/quote]

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