Dugan Arnett's harrowing report on the alleged rape of a 14-year-old Missouri high school student who, after the incident, was abandoned -- alone and unconscious -- on her front lawn in freezing weather, has attracted the attention of Anonymous.
The hactivist collective, best known for the attention it brought to the Steubenville rape case, issued a statement Monday alerting local police and other town officials in Maryville that it is on the case, so to speak:
We demand an immediate investigation into the handling by local authorities of Daisy's case. Why was a suspect, who confessed to a crime, released with no charges? How was video and medical evidence not enough to put one of these football players inside a court room? ... Most of all, We are wondering, how do the residents of Maryville sleep at night?
We have heard Daisy's story far too often. We heard it from Steubenville, Halifax and Uttar Pradesh. In some cases, it was too late. Both Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons, girls not much older than Daisy, took their own lives after the adults, the police and the school system, failed to protect them. If Maryville won't defend these young girls, if the police are too cowardly or corrupt to do their jobs, if justice system has abandoned them, then we will have to stand for them. Mayor Jim Fall, your hands are dirty. Maryville, expect us.
Daisy's mother, Melinda, told the Daily Mail that she wanted to share Daisy's story to highlight the case and the failures of accountability that resulted in the charges against her daughter's alleged rapist being dropped. Anonymous' involvement -- and however the group decides to handle that involvement -- is certainly going to keep all eyes on Maryville.
More to come as this story develops.
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