“I guess I tried to force myself on her, and I feel like such a terrible person for it,” Zachary Alperin reportedly told police after he was apprehended for the rape of a Missouri State University student.
Alperin, 22, has every reason to feel terrible, not just for what the MSU student did but for what he faces, namely a possible seven-year prison sentence. From his Facebook page, Alperin seems to be an apolitical jock who loves his mother, his father, and the Kansas City Chiefs. That simple life is over.
The nature of the attack, however, raises issues about the confused state of affairs in which young people find themselves today. Hours before the incident, the woman attended a #MeToo rally at Park Central Square in Springfield to support survivors of sexual assault.
“We wanted to be inclusive of all people who have been affected by sexual assault and also to be able to open conversations for children who often are told, oh, you don’t have to worry about this, and then they become ignorant and naive, and aren’t able to protect themselves,” rally organizer Kelsey Nichol told KY3.
Unfortunately, the victim proved to be ignorant and naive and, as a consequence, was unable to protect herself. She met Alperin after the rally. Whether he attended was unclear. Together, they visited some bars in downtown Springfield. After some heavy drinking, she invited Alperin back to her room on the MSU campus.
Reports the Springfield News-Leader, “The woman told police she allowed Alperin to sleep in her room but told him not to touch her because she was intoxicated.” Her request was not exactly honored. The woman told police she went to sleep and woke up to find Alperin on top of her naked. He reportedly performed “sex acts” on her before she was able to push him away.
Alperin held Wednesday in the Greene County Jail on $20,000 bond, charged with rape and sodomy. “Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere,” said the Anglo-Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke more than two centuries ago, “and the less of it there is within, the more there is without.”
This is a message the #MeToo movement does not seem to grasp.
