What the Stanford rape case reveals

The phone has been ringing off the hook at Judge Aaron Persky's chambers at the Santa Clara County court for the past several days. "Tell your judge he can go to hell, and I hope his kids get raped and he rots in hell," said one caller. The judge and members of his family have received death threats — which seems to be the way America rolls these days. Just a suggestion: If you disapprove of something strongly, consider the words "shame," "scandal" or "debacle." Try not to commit a crime yourself in protesting a lenient sentence.

Judge Persky sparked outrage when he sentenced a former Stanford student, Brock Turner, to six months in county jail, registration as a sex offender, and three years probation after Turner was found guilty of three felonies: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman; sexual penetration with a foreign object of an intoxicated person; and sexual penetration with a foreign object of an unconscious person. It was a light sentence.