This video letter is a part of the Los Angeles Instances collection Hear Me Out. Learn and watch Shira Scott Astrof’s first letter here.
To the editor: Two years in the past, I wrote to the Los Angeles Instances about lastly getting my day in courtroom — after being pressured to attend eight years to testify towards the person who raped me (“Letters to the Editor: I was raped and forced to wait eight years to testify. My day in court just arrived,” Sept. 1). A choose dominated there was sufficient proof for the case to go to trial. What occurred subsequent is why I’m writing once more now.
A number of different girls got here ahead, ready to testify. However because the trial approached, one after the other, they withdrew — leaving me, as soon as once more, the one sufferer prepared to testify. Prosecutors have been pressured to resolve the case with a plea deal.
However I had one nonnegotiable situation: The person who raped me needed to plead responsible to my rape. I wanted the opposite girls he damage to see that he had been convicted, to know they weren’t alone, and that if I might stand as much as him, so might they. This was by no means about me. It was about ensuring he couldn’t damage anybody else once more.
As extra individuals discovered of my story in The Instances, messages flooded my inbox from survivors around the globe. Many advised me they’d by no means reported their assaults, however listening to somebody refuse to remain silent modified one thing in them. Some have since filed police experiences. Others started telling their tales for the primary time. Most significantly, they understood the message I hoped they might hear: They by no means ought to have felt ashamed.
For too lengthy, we’ve been advised, immediately or not directly, to remain quiet. To guard our privateness. To turn out to be “Jane Doe.” To maneuver on. However we confronted a monster and survived. We should always really feel happy with our power, empowered to guard others. Predators depend on silence.
And right now, the person who raped me is serving 4 years in jail as a result of I refused to remain silent. And I’m not completed. Extra of his victims have continued to come back ahead since listening to my story — and I intend to verify he’s held accountable for each single one in every of them.
That is the way it adjustments. One voice turns into two. Two turn out to be 10. And out of the blue, the silence predators depend on is gone. Individuals nonetheless have a look at me surprisingly once I say this, but it surely’s true: I’m glad he picked me. As a result of somebody needed to cease him.
And I did.
Shira Scott Astrof, Los Angeles
