+
upworthy
More

Two adult men who raped teen girls have walked this week. WTF is wrong with our system?

Two adult men who raped teen girls have walked this week. WTF is wrong with our system?

If you thought the ridiculous outcome of the Brock Turner case was a fluke, think again.

Two stories have come through the news cycle this week that show just how messed up our justice system can be when it comes to sexual assault. Two adult men. Two teen girls. One man luring a 14-year-old to his house, giving her alcohol, then raping her. Another man finding a 15-year-old in an online anorexia forum, convincing her to leave her family to live with him at 16, and then holding her captive for a year as his sex slave.

The former pled guilty and won't spend a single day in jail. The latter served eight months in detention and has been sentenced to time served, meaning he will spend no more time in jail.


If you feel like there must be something missing from these stories, there is—namely, justice for the victims and any semblance of human decency.

Shane Piche raped a 14-year-old he met while driving her school bus.

According to the Watertown Daily News, Shane Piche was 25 when he met his 14-year-old victim as herschool bus driver. The fact that the girl rode a school bus should have been a clue to Piche that sex with her was not an option, regardless of consent. But after communicating with her on social media, he lured her to his house with gifts and alcohol, and then he raped her.

The former Watertown City School District bus driver who admitted in a plea deal in February to raping a 14-year-old...

Posted by Watertown Daily Times on Saturday, April 27, 2019

This isn't a he said/she said case. She said "He did this." He admitted, "Yeah, I did that." There is no question that the rape happened.

And somehow, under New York law, the guy was able to walk away as a Level 1 sex offender with no jail time. Level 1 means he is considered low risk and won't be included in online sex offender databases. He's not allowed to be alone with anyone under 17 other than friends and family, and he had to pay around $1400 in fees. He'll receive sex offender counseling while on probation, but no jail time.

Oh, and you know why Judge McClusky designated him a Level 1 sex offender instead of Level 2, which the D.A. requested? Because he had no prior offenses and only had one victim.

Only one victim. Ugh.

Michael Wysolovski spent less time in jail than he did keeping his teenage victim in sexual captivity. Seriously.

If Shane Piche's story didn't leave you scratching your head, this one from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will.

Michael Wysolovski found his victim in an online anorexia forum when she was 15. By the time she was 16, he'd convinced her to run away and live with him. Her family didn't know where she was for a year.

Michael Wysolovski, 31, was arrested on false imprisonment, aggravated sodomy, interference with custody and cruelty to children charges.

Posted by CBS News on Sunday, June 25, 2017

In 2017, she tried to leave, but Wysolovski wouldn't let her. She reached out in an anorexia forum and someone there alerted the FBI. According to her father's statement, when police found her at Wysolovski's home she was malnourished, had ringworm, and suffered from back problems from being repeatedly held in a dog cage.

According to the AJC:

"The victim and Wysolovski agreed to enter a “consensual non-consensual” sexual relationship, a type of BDSM (bondage, domination, submission, masochism) relationship in which the partners agree to simulate non-consensual sex acts, prosecutor Michael DeTardo said during the plea hearing. Over time, Wysolovski violated the set boundaries for this arrangement, refusing to use 'safe words' and using 'excessive force' including biting and physical violence. The victim, who was anorexic, initially encouraged Wysolovski to control her eating habits and kept journals detailing her desire to lose weight, DeTardo said. Wysolovski later used food to punish the victim or force her to perform sexual acts."

The age of consent in Georgia is 16, and prosecutors said there was too much "gray area" to submit the case to a jury. Wsyolovski was indicted on charges of rape, aggravated sodomy, cruelty to children, false imprisonment and interstate interference with custody, but the rape and aggravated sodomy charges were dropped as part of his plea deal. He was held for eight months before he made bail. He has to register as a sex offender and is on probation for 10 years.

For holding a teen girl hostage and sexually abusing her for a year, this fully grown adult man who should know right from heinously wrong was detained for eight months and will serve no further jail time.

Eight months. That's it.

Our justice system seems to forget that teens are still children—and that women are actual human beings.

Some people will try to blame the victims here, claiming that they put themselves in the situations they ended up in. But these girls were 14 and 15 when they met their rapists. Young teens. Impressionable youths. No adult male in his right mind should be thinking about having sex with these girls, much less coercing them or forcing them to do anything that's been described in these cases.

But to actually commit these crimes and not even go to jail? How did we get here? How do we place more value on the life of a grown man who victimizes girls than on the life of the girl he victimizes? How can our justice system fail so miserably at dispensing justice?

There are people serving jail sentences for marijuana possession, a crime which is no longer a crime in 10 states. And yet admitted rapists walk among us having served no time? How do they get away with that?

Someone explain how any of this makes sense, please, because I've grown tired of trying to understand it every time it happens.

True

Making new friends as an adult is challenging. While people crave meaningful IRL connections, it can be hard to know where to find them. But thanks to one Facebook Group, meeting your new best friends is easier than ever.

Founded in 2018, NYC Brunch Squad brings together hundreds of people who come as strangers and leave as friends through its in-person events.

“Witnessing the transformative impact our community has on the lives of our members is truly remarkable. We provide the essential support and connections needed to thrive amid the city's chaos,” shares Liza Rubin, the group’s founder.

Despite its name, the group doesn’t just do brunch. They also have book clubs, seasonal parties, and picnics, among other activities.

NYC Brunch Squad curates up to 10 monthly events tailored to the specific interests of its members. Liza handles all the details, taking into account different budgets and event sizes – all people have to do is show up.

“We have members who met at our events and became friends and went on to embark on international journeys to celebrate birthdays together. We have had members get married with bridesmaids by their sides who were women they first connected with at our events. We’ve had members decide to live together and become roommates,” Liza says.

Members also bond over their passion for giving back to their community. The group has hosted many impact-driven events, including a “Picnic with Purpose” to create self-care packages for homeless shelters and recently participated in the #SquadSpreadsJoy challenge. Each day, the 100 members participating receive random acts of kindness to complete. They can also share their stories on the group page to earn extra points. The member with the most points at the end wins a free seat at the group's Friendsgiving event.

Keep ReadingShow less
Democracy

This Map Reveals The True Value Of $100 In Each State

Your purchasing power can swing by 30% from state to state.

Image by Tax Foundation.

Map represents the value of 100 dollars.

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to "browse" the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is "worth" in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of "smoothing" into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Woman bakes cheeky curse word pies for her grandma and it becomes a quirky holiday tradition

2023's pie is an homage to her favorite word to use while stuck in traffic.

Canva

You never know where a holiday tradition will come from.

Tried-and-true holiday traditions certainly have their merit, but there’s something quite special, magical even, about discovering personal rituals that commemorate one’s unique life. In my household, for instance, nothing quite rings in the Christmas spirit like sipping my partner’s delicious coquito and putting up a cardboard gingerbread house for my cats.

The beauty of creating customized holiday traditions is that they can be as festive, sentimental, or as silly as you want them to be. And you never know how one small moment can become the catalyst for a tradition that sparks joy year after year.

For Jess Lydon, that tradition is baking expletive-laden pies for Thanksgiving. (This is your profanity warning—the images below contain swear words.)

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

Keep ReadingShow less

Peter Bence's piano cover of "Africa" by Toto

Peter Bence’s performance of “Africa” by Toto has over 17 million views on YouTube because of his creative reimagining of the song and, well, just about everyone loves “Africa.”

Bence is a Hungarian composer and producer who has become a viral sensation for his Michael Jackson, Queen, Sia, and Beatles covers. He has over 1.1 million followers on YouTube and has toured the globe, playing in more than 40 countries across four continents.

His performance of “Africa'' is unique because it opens with him creating a rhythm track and looping it by strategically tapping the piano and rubbing its strings to create the sound of shakers and congo drums.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Family posts a very chill note to neighbors explaining why their dog is on the roof

“We appreciate your concern but please do not knock on our door.."

via Reddit

Meet Huckleberry the dog.

If you were taking a stroll through a quiet neighborhood and happened to catch a glance of this majestic sight, you might bat an eye. You might do a double take. If you were (somewhat understandably) concerned about this surprising roof-dog's welfare, you might even approach the homeowners to tell them, "Uh, I'm not sure if you know...but there's a...dog...on your ROOF."

Well, the family inside is aware that there's often a dog on their roof. It's their pet Golden, Huckleberry, and he just sorta likes it up there.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

12 hilariously relatable comics about life as a new mom.

Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

All illustrations by Ingebritt ter Veld. Reprinted here with permission.

Some good not so good moments with babies.



Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

Illustrator Ingebritt ter Veld and Corinne de Vries, who works for Hippe-Birth Cards, a webshop for birth announcements, had babies shortly after one another.

Keep ReadingShow less