Pika Strikes Back

The 2018 documentary "Roll Red Roll" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last month.  In 80 gripping minutes, it recounts the 2012 rape of an incapacitated 16-year-old girl by two Steubenville, Ohio, high school football players, one a quarterback and one a wide receiver, and the near local indifference and blaming of the victim that followed.

Ultimately, incriminating YouTube video, along with Facebook and Twitter evidence all provided by the perpetrators themselves, allowed intrepid true-crime blogger Alex Goddard to recreate a real-time account of the six-hour ordeal, bringing the horrific act to the attention of outside reporters and the real world that exists beyond devotion to brand.

The documentary will likely never make it to Estes Park, and few Estes Park residents will take the trouble to trudge down to Denver when is plays on the one or two screens there.  Which is a shame, because enablement of rape culture is something Estes Park is struggling with right now, or would be, if anyone bothered to note that in 1917, two Estes Park men were accused by a 16-year-old girl of systematic grooming and sexual abuse over the course of seven years, and 100 years later, we chose to honor one of those men with a bronze pika as part of our Centennial celebration.

It should be noted that in Steubenville, one of the rapists served a year in juvenile detention, while the other, who was also convicted of possession of photographs of the event, served two.  You can Google this yourself and learn that Bo Pelini, the former Nebraska football coach exiled to Youngstown State for crimes against humanity (including alleged physical abuse of players), actually allowed one of the convicted felons a spot on his roster and playing time, telling reporters after a game against Central Connecticut last year, "You have to be happy for the kid."  You do?

Oh, but it gets better.  While that convicted rapist only saw mop-up duty, his partner in crime actually earned a starting position last year at Division II Central State University near Dayton, Ohio, and will likely be the starter again this fall.  Football rules.

The victim, meanwhile, still continues to live with a photo surreptitiously circulating on the internet of (Spoiler Alert) her unclothed body covered in male ejaculate, in no way obtained with her permission or consent.  You can always chose to be Stormy Daniels, but you apparently have no say in being the Steubenville, Ohio, stress-relieving sex toy for knuckleheads.

If Estes Park doesn't catch the obvious echoes in this case, maybe I need to yell a little louder.

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