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Community Meet to support DHARUN RAVI on Friday, March 30 at 7:00 P

Published on 27 March, 2012
Community Meet to support DHARUN RAVI on Friday, March 30 at 7:00 P

We are reaching out to your support for Ravi Pazhani living in Plainsboro, New Jersey whose son Dharun Ravi has been wrongfully accused of hate crime, convicted and victimized in the so-called “Rutgers University webcam spying” case. The sentencing is set for May 21, 2012 and Dharun Ravi is facing up-to 10 yrs. of prison time.

Dharun Ravi and their friends have been getting overwhelming support and we want all the leaders of the Indian community to meet and solidify the immediate next steps for support this worthy cause. 

A Dinner meeting set up for: 

Date:       Friday, March 30, 2012

Venue:    Hotel 999 / Jewel of India,

999 US Hwy 1 South,

North Brunswick, NJ 08902.

Time:       7:00 PM

Phone:    732-246-3737

We request you as a leader and friends of the Indian community to attend, support and provide strength to Ravi Pazhani Family and victim Dharun Ravi.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to (NAME) and (PHONE NUMBER) for further details. Your RSVP will help us organize this dinner meeting more efficiently 

Looking forward to see you and your support 

Sincerely, 

Jayesh H. Patel                                Anil Kappa                                        Karthik

(732) 688-2658                                 (917) 822-1647                               (908) 565-6056

priyatravel@aol.com                          anilkumarkappa@gmail.com                   arunakarthik@hotmail.com

 

Dharun Ravi Case Trail

Dharun Ravi has been wrongfully accused of hate crime, convicted and victimized in the so-called Rutgers University webcam spying case. 

The webcam viewings (one accomplished for few seconds, the other aborted by Dharun Ravi) were wrong and immature. There were two incidents, one on September 19th 2010 and the other on September 21st 2010. On Sep 19th 2010, Tyler’s brought in a male guest he found online for intimate encounter at the dorm room shared by Ravi and Tyler. Ravi was asked to leave the room after the arrival of the male guest and Ravi was very concerned about his belongings in the room based on the scruffy look of the male guest and his demeanor. He went to his friend’s room and activated his cam in the room to see if anything suspicious was going on. Dharun and his friend were shocked and speechless to view Tyler and his male guest kissing each other. In 2 seconds of seeing the incident they closed the computer and went on with their business. The second viewing party (Sep 21st) claimed by the media never happened as Dharun realized that it is inappropriate and turned the camera away and put his computer into sleep mode. These facts came out in the trial. In essence there was no recording, no transmitting to 3rd party or online posting such as Youtube. The only thing Dharun did wrong was that he Tweeted about the 19th and 21st incidents to his friends. New Jersey’s Middlesex County Prosecutors argued that Dharun had hatred in his heard towards gay people and that’s why he planned both September 19th and 21st 2010 webcam spying, which is totally not true. 

But Dharun should not be sent to prison for using extremely poor judgment. Dharun, a teenager like Clementi, likely thought of the viewings as nothing more than a prank in a world where more and more of our lives, thoughts, and images are played out online.

An immature prank played by an 18 year old kid does not make him a hate bias criminal. The bias intimidation crime is basically when someone acts violently against another person because of his race, religion, gender, religious belief or sexual preferences. The outrageous invocation of bias-crime charge against Dharun Ravi and the subsequent verdict were fuelled in large part by the media frenzy that followed the event. In a rush to publish, most news organizations carried semi-truths and outright falsehoods. The media connected the webcam prank and Tyler Clementi's suicide without even taking a cursory look at a hundred other plausible scenarios that could have made Tyler act the way he did. When the prosecutors found there were no dots to connect Dharun to Tyler's suicide, they were forced to trump up other charges against Dharun, lest they seem weak.

Dharun is like any other kid whose family came to the US with an American dream. The family originally hails from the state of Tamilnadu, India. Dharun has always been an extremely smart and talented boy and is a computer wizard as well an active sports enthusiast. Dharun has never had any misplaced feeling to any person because of their sexual orientation. Several of his friends and family testified to this effect during the trial. More importantly, all of the prosecution witnesses confirmed that Dharun never exhibited any bias.

The prosecution deftly avoided any charge linked to Tyler's suicide depriving Dharun the opportunity for producing evidence that would exonerate him. However, that must have sat heavily in the minds of Jurors in coming up with the harsh verdict. One can only wonder if the jury deliberated whether there would have been a court case against Dharun had Clementi not committed suicide. With the jury's guilty verdict, Dharun, it appears, has been turned into the proverbial sacrificial lamb for society's collective guilt about its own bias intimidation against homosexuals, a condition that probably drove Clementi to commit suicide.

Is it fair to treat this kid like a criminal for his immature actions?

However, the main issue at the heart of the matter is the bias intimidation law in the State of New Jersey. The extent of his punishment including the prison sentence does not match his actions and the particulars of the incident he was involved in. He is facing an extremely harsh punishment due to ambiguity in the legal statute surrounding the bias intimidation crime and how it got interpreted. Dharun has been convicted not for any feelings he might have had towards his room-mate, but he has been convicted for what his room-mate might have thought about Dharun Ravi’s actions. This is first time in US legal history that someone has been convicted for what another person might have thought about the defendant’s actions.

This law is in fact so confusing that even the Judge during the trial stated that the law is 'muddled’ and not clear.

This conviction, if left unturned, would also embolden prosecutors to tack on bias charges on more such misdemeanors. Can we be sure it can't happen to our children in future for simple acts like pushing and shoving?

There are many who feel Dharun should have accepted the plea deal offered with no jail time.

The first plea deal, offered in October, gave Ravi an option of significantly reduced jail time, if he pleaded guilty to bias intimidation in conjunction with invasion of privacy. Under that deal, he would have only faced five years in jail.

The second, offered in December, was the same as the first, except the prosecution promised to recommend only probation, and no jail time.

Dharun Ravi, quietly, but firmly, told Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman that he will go to trial rather than accept the charges that he was biased against gay people.

Ravi Pazhani (Dharun's father) said “My son was not raised to have hate in his heart. We are not hateful people. My wife and I are not like that. We have not raised our family to be like that. I know my son, and he is not a hateful person. Whatever he did to Tyler was not out of bias toward him."

Clearly, taking the second plea was the easy thing to do.  But Dharun Ravi family chose to do the right thing instead.

Please join hands in helping get Ravi justice by signing this petition to the white house - http://www.wh.gov/NM1

Also please like the Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/SupportDharunRavi

Some facts:

- There was no recording, streaming or posting online of the event as reported the media (The New Yorker Magazine)

- His roommate’s suicide note was not presented publicly in Court as the Judge and prosecutors insisted it’s irrelevant to the case

- Every single witness testified unequivocally said Ravi has no hatred towards gays

- At least one of the jurors doesn’t even know what ‘bias intimidation’ law is (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xQny4eeFzc)

 

Videos

http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55185819/2020-323-rutgers-webcam-spying-scandal

http://video-embed.nj.com/services/player/bcpid619329501001?bctid=1525113269001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAPLMIP6E~,BRrRHTAljlHNUYJqhl35zLecZpp8wkKm

You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsg0jpmU_kM

Some of the articles

http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2012/03/exclusive_interview_dharun_rav.html

http://blog.nj.com/ledgerletters/2012/03/dharun_ravi_trial_was_a_traves.html

http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2012/03/di_ionno_muddled_legislation_e.html

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2012/03/dharun_ravi_doesnt_deserve_pri.html

http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2012/03/di_ionno_in_wake_of_conviction.html

http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/032012_Aspects_of_Ravi_trial_called_ripe_for_appeal.html

http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/bergen_news/031712_RAVIJUROR0318.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/rutgers-trial-post-verdict-analysis-perilous-path-justice/story?id=15952064

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