Heroes

We speak today of heroic acts.

It is, after all, one of the reasons we read, and write, crime fiction, because there’s a hero, who makes us think, What if I..? A paradigm for behavior, a reinforcement of Right versus Wrong. I, too, might find it in me to be a hero.

A party, filled with college athletes, getting a little out of hand. There’s alcohol (what a surprise) and there are young men and women, and the noise level is rising and people are having a good time, except for those who are a little put off and decide it’s time to leave.

Some members of the women’s soccer team are there, surrounded by noise and music and rapidly emptying glasses, when a passing girl told them she’d seen a girl in a room with a bunch of guys.

April Grulle, Lauren Chief Elk, and Lauren Breayans looked at each other, put down their glasses, and went to see. “That didn’t sound right,” April said.

They bullied their way into the room and found a 17 year old girl, unconscious and with vomit in her mouth (and to add a macabre and truly disgusting touch—sorry about this, anyone reading before breakfast—it was not her vomit.) on a mattress on the floor with a man on top of her. They shouted at the eight or so men in the room, pushed their way into the room, dragged the girl to her feet, and took her to the hospital. They made a statement to the police, and they waited for the arrest. They’re still waiting, and they’re being harassed by the friends of those fine upstanding young men because they won’t shut up about it.

April Grolle, Lauren Chief Elk, and Lauren Breayans, I celebrate your courage in the face of eight large and presumably drunken young men and your determination to carry through with what was Right. I hope you stand proud in your actions, when pressure builds and law enforcement fails, because honeys, you’re my heroes.

C. W. Nevius writes about it here.

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7 Comments

  1. Vicki Larson on June 6, 2007 at 6:04 pm

    I absolutely cannot believe I finally am able to leave a comment. Holy Toledo you guys have made this difficult. How in the world do we figure it all out? I send my condolences to you Laurie on the loss of your mother… A hard and mysterious time in a woman’s life. I inherited a box of china from my mother, and she was gone two years before I could bear to open the box and put the china in my cupboard. Many strange anomalies in the reactions to losing your mother. For one thing, it makes you an orphan. On another level, it finally means you’re grown up. It’s all a mixture. May God be with you and comfort you.

  2. Zoë on June 6, 2007 at 6:39 pm

    You go, girls!

  3. kitty on June 7, 2007 at 5:39 am

    I am sitting here with my coffee, opened mouthed that the law enforcement is doing nothing. What can we do to help? As a college professor, there are various times we hear about these things, and how NO ONE stands up for the woman. Again thank you for bringing this to our attention. They are truely heroes in any one’s book. Shame on those men.

  4. Penny on June 8, 2007 at 5:46 am

    How dreadful but unfortunately not exceptional. I hope that by now something has been done about this crime but it sounds as if those men have money and priviledge (as well as the old boys club) on their side.

    Paris Hilton has just been released from a US jail because of a ‘medical condition’ – the noise, crying, not liking it – and I wonder how many of the young women incarcerated in that jail feel the same and how many have genuine mental health problems. Will they be allowed out to serve their terms in their own homes? I very much doubt it. Money, power, priviledge etc still has the advantage but I’m pleased to hear that there is a protest about this and that Paris may yet have to serve her sentence in jail.

    There should also be a protest about this assault on the young woman and the lack of action by the police/courts.

  5. 2maple on June 8, 2007 at 9:15 am

    Good for them. Regardless of the actions of others, you have to be able to look at your self in the mirror in the morning. The girl was rescued from a bad situation. They did the right thing. Wrong is wrong.

    However, each situation has to be looked at on its own merits. My husband sat on a jury where a couple of vengenful teen-aged girls accused a teacher of sexual harassment. This later was found NOT to be the case. Even though the man was found innocent, his career was destroyed. Wrong is still wrong. The gnawed at my husband tin the same way.

    Injustice is offensive.

  6. bani on June 8, 2007 at 4:15 pm

    Sadly this is all too common. I’m so heartened that these women were courageous enough to do something!

  7. Kerry on June 8, 2007 at 10:27 pm

    It’s awful to be reminded about the terrible things people do to one another. It’s awful to have to acknowledge yet again how severely young women can be victimized. It’s beyond reassuring to know that other young women can stand together and stand strong to rescue someone. They are, indeed, heroes. I hope they are able to continue standing together and standing strong in the face of both harassment by individuals and the vagaries of a justice system that might fail the victim and them. And I hope the latter really doesn’t happen.

    Thanks for sharing this. Yes, I’m outrage, but I’m proud beyond words of these young women, and they give me hope.

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