Without Fear but Plenty of Favour
Young woman who drove drunk and kicked a police officer walks from court with clean slate
WTF?!
Some cases of compassion towards female offenders might be supported if, and only if, male offenders would have the same chance of being shown compassion, but of course that’s not the case. However, it’s difficult under any circumstances to support this female offender receiving no punishment, not even a period of disqualification from driving. The offending was just too serious.
Note that the offender is referred to in the headline as ‘Young woman…’, but it turns out she was in her 20’s. Yes well we suppose that’s young for an adult but actually she was an adult and had been subject to adult legal consequences for several years. If exactly the same offences had been committed by a man in his 20’s the headline would almost certainly have simply referred to him as ‘Man…’. The infantilization of women when they do wrong is designed to elicit sympathy and caring towards them. In one breath women want to be taken seriously as adults then in the other breath they want to be treated as children who have little agency or responsibility for their behaviour. This whole article, written by a female, was oriented towards making this ridiculously lenient treatment seem justified.
Note also the woman’s self-centred focus and minimization of her behaviour. She was so embarrassed and nervous to be in Court. She couldn’t describe how it made her feel to think if she had hit someone. “It was so silly, but I was distressed.” “I’ve had this slip up and I’ve made this mistake”. Yeah, a bit of a slip up you silly billy, there, there.
Note also that she blames some unidentified man who she claimed assaulted her but this actually had amounted only to ‘unwanted attention’. Yeah, always blame some man.
The even younger man in this recent case was never referred to as a ‘young man’. Although he neither resisted nor assaulted police and his alcohol level was less the above woman’s, no way he was going to be discharged without conviction. Further, unlike the woman he didn’t deserve name suppression. Par for the course.