Following emotional appeals from M.B. and Joe Clementi, both Tyler Clementi’s gay brother James and heartbroken mother Jane read written statements for the judge, jurors, lawyers and reporters in the room, but mostly for the news media the world round, which likely will run bits and pieces later today, tonight, and this week.
Here’s what Queerty transcribed from their victim impact statements to the world on what Dharun Ravi did to their loved one Tyler Clementi.
Both mom and bro noted how Ravi investigated Tyler before he came to school and met him in person.
“He discovered Tyler was gay… Dharun had already begun his plot to bully my brother,” said James. “There is no doubt in my mind that Ravi never saw Tyler as a person, but as an object of ridicule… From the moment a random computer decided Dharun and my brother would live together, my brother’s fate was sealed.”
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Tyler’s mom Jane recalled how Ravi did not greet her, Tyler’s dad Joe, or Tyler when they were moving into the Rutgers dorm room. “Getting to know Tyler was not wha [Ravi] had in mind. He never knew the Tyler we knew, the humble, smart, intelligent, sensitive boy… All he found out was that Tyler was gay.”
They also noted Ravi’s lack of remorse, and his backtracking and covering up of evidence after the fact.
“The text message he sent hours after Tyler went missing… was a fake and insincere apology,” said James. “He never seemed to grasp that Tyler was a person.”
Jane Clementi (left) had even more choice words for Ravi: “His lying about disconnecting the webcame when he knew it was Tyler who did it was malicious and evil… I found it devastating to remember the number of times Tyler went back to [Ravi’s] Twitter page.”
“A piece of me died the day,” said Jane, who went on to say she felt “as if she were Tyler’s ears, eyes and minds” during the trial. “Even simple things entered into evidence like Tyler’s laptop reminded me how specifically he bought it.”
D P
This is evidence of how disconnected I’ve been to the developments in this trial: I just learned today that Tyler’s brother is also gay. His testimony I could not watch in the broadcast. I’ll have to follow up on his impact statement later.
A.R
whhhhhhhaaaaat?!?!?!?!?! I think that very stpiud jokes,man.Ravi got SENTENCED 30 days in jail FOR WHAT?…that crazy,no way,man.i can’t not argree more.tyler is dead.i felt bad for the tyler’s family.30 DAYS SUCKS
Derek Williams
Exactly the right outcome – a measured and appropriate punishment. Any more, then we would be descending into retaliatory scalping of a young foreigner only recently made aware of America’s paradoxical transposition from its erstwhile disgust for homosexuals, into a legislated distaste for homophobes. Punish excessively, and you sear into a man’s heart a seething resentment and recidivist ideation. Let’s also reflect that Clementi’s parents did not initially accept his homosexuality, and there were likely many more triggers that led to his tragic suicide.
In sentencing for crimes that do not involve extreme depravity, there has to be some possibility for rehabilitation. Society’s 18 year investment in Ravi shouldn’t be arbitrarily and irretrievably flushed.
Even with a zero sentence, as a result of this episode, Ravi’s life had already taken a dramatically different turn to his optimistic academic and career ambitions, and those of his family. He will never be the same, but I hope that with this lesson behind him, he will mature into a fine citizen, the better for his learning of it.
JAW
Listening to Tyler’s Mother speak… I laughed a bit… She most likely was the main reason that Tyler jumped. She was the one that was not accepting… she was the one who showed her disapproval. Ravi was the stupid college freshman that turned the cam on. Hell Tyler even asked for the room again AFTER he knew that the cam was on.
Ravi is being punished… plus if he screws up for the next 3 years he gets more time behind bars.
nikko
@Derek Williams: Them big fancy words there, DEREK WILLIAMS. All to say Ravi may have a second chance at life while Tyler is dead. Justice?
Derek Williams
@nikko: Ravi’s prank was not the cause of Clementi’s suicide as you are suggesting, and this has never been alleged by the Prosecution. The seeds for Clementi’s depression were sown long before, without doubt fueled by his mother’s rejection of him when he came out to her.
If Ravi and his classmate’s American Pie style prank had been prying on a heterosexual tryst and there had been no suicide, then this would not even have made the news.
darkmoonman
Another travesty of justice when the avoidable death of a gay man is worth only 30 days in jail. And folks wonder why gays are effing ANGRY.
Derek Williams
@darkmoonman: Ravi did not kill Clementi.
dylan terreri, i
so, a gay “man” at rutgers was recorded by a hidden camera as he was kissing another masculivoid while alone in a dorm room. it gets onto the internet and he kills himself because – because why? because he was ashamed of being a masculivoid? because he was ashamed that his own masculine presence left him feeling a need for another man in his life? the activists who sentenced his roommate to prison for hiding the camera are making the dead masculine insufficiency out to be a victim to feel pity for – this is not right because the same activists made it a crime for any masculivoid to go to a therapist for help to overcome an emotional desire for masculinity.
in other words, maybe it is the fault of gay activists that this rutgers masculivoid is dead. apparently, the dead homosexual didn’t think it was “okay to be gay,” maybe he wanted a therapist to help him internalize masculine gender-identity while his inability to find one kept him looking at men like a kid looks through the windows of a candy store. if someone doesn’t think it’s “okay to be gay” and he eventually kills himself because no therapist will help him to grow up and grow out of his outside-looking-in type of gender-disorientation…his death is the fault of the activists who predominately banished the therapy that helps one become well-oriented and in-touch with one’s own gender. i’m actually surprised that gay activists didn’t think it was anti-gay for nate, mike, shawn and wan to call themselves “boyz ii men,” simply because of the self-realization (penis-realization) implied in a boy reaching manhood.
the rutgers masculivoid obviously had a problem with his own curiosity of the masculine gender. maybe feeling incomplete without another man in his life made him feel that he wasn’t man enough, maybe he wanted people to think that he loved and respected himself as a man – maybe he jumped from the bridge because gay activists were forcing him to live a life that he didn’t want and that he didn’t agree with.
gay activists may be to blame for the dead homosexual. all people are not like chastity bono, some people actually take themselves and their genders seriously enough to overcome gender-issues by changing their minds through therapy rather than by changing their genders through surgery. the person who killed the gay “man” at rutgers is also dead and nobody can send him to prison. sending the roommate to prison for playing a college prank on a self-piteous, insecure and unstable drama-queen is just wrong…but what a curtain-call that drama-queen gave.
wasn’t it mrs. clinton who said “I can’t be responsible for every undercapitalized entrepreneur in America,” as a response to charges that her plan would bankrupt businesses and cut employment?
every person can’t be responsible for the actions of every unstable drama-queen they come in contact with. or maybe they can be…maybe if i killed myself and wrote “i can’t live if i have to pay for abortion” as a suicide note, the “white house-negro” would now be in jail for causing my death.
dylan terreri, i
http://www.masculivoids.com
“When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it.” – Madonna
http://www.jaggedlittledyl.com/essays
Derek Williams
@dylan terreri, i: You cannot pray away the gay. Clementi was barely a year into manhood and ended his short life, and Matthew Shepard ony 21 when he was beaten to death.
Your contempt for Clementi, and for Mrs Shepard doesn’t reflect shame on these young men who died before they had even lived, but it speaks volumes about you.