Tears of relief, not sadness were shed by Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers student who was found guilty of spying on his roommate with a webcam, after a judge made the right call by leniently slapping him with a 30-day jail sentence.
However, some might think it wasn’t punishment enough when you throw in the fact that his roommate, Tyler Clementi, was gay and ended his own life by jumping off a bridge after discovering Ravi told others of his encounter with another man.
Although it was a blatant act of invasion of privacy, Ravi was never charged with murder and never deserved severe punishment. Ravi faced five to ten years in prison and that was just too harsh a sentence for secretly videotaping a roommate.
Ravi didn’t push Clementi off the bridge, nor did he threaten to do so. It would’ve been heinous if he was sentenced like a murderer. He was a teenager at the time and calls what he did a result of “dumb kid” actions.
“I was 18, I was stupid, I wouldn’t think about my actions beyond a minute into the future,” Ravi said in a television interview. “I wasn’t the one who caused him to jump off the bridge.”
College kids do stupid things and that is exactly what Ravi did. But he didn’t do anything stupid enough to land him years in prison with killers and rapists.
Many were quick to use Ravi as an example of bullying. They labeled him anti-gay and guilty of a hate crime, but he was none of the above.
“I had to go up there in front of a judge under oath and say I intimidated Tyler because of [his] sexual orientation,” Ravi said. “[But] I don’t hate gay people.”
Ravi never intended to have Clementi kill himself and his actions were not a case of an eye for an eye, and the judge saw this.
“A defendant in a criminal case is not entitled to a perfect trial, he’s entitled to a fair one,” said presiding Judge Glenn Berman. “I’m convinced without any question he got a fair one.”
A perfect verdict for the Clementi family probably saw Ravi rotting in a cell for 10 years, but cooler heads prevailed and the judge ruled correctly with justice, compassion and reason while still scolding Ravi for his recklessness.
“[Ravi] is not convicted of a hate crime,” said Judge Berman. “I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi. He had no reason to, but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity.”
The judge was right.
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