Northside Festival just dropped Good English from its lineup after drummer Leslie Rasmussen expressed support for former Stanford student Brock Turner.
“Due to recent information brought to our attention, Good English is no longer playing Northside Festival,” organizers announced on Twitter.
Turner, 20, was given an unusually light sentence of six-months in jail when he was convicted last week of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
Rasmussen, a childhood friend of Turner’s, wrote Judge Aaron Persky a letter defending Turner’s character and blaming the charges on political correctness.
“I don’t think it’s fair to base the fate of the next ten plus years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against him. I am not blaming her directly for this, because that isn’t right,” Rasmussen wrote, according to New York Magazine. “But where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists.”
However, after Northside Festival cut Rasmussen’s band, she changed her tune, and claimed that her comments were misconstrued. You can read the statement in full at Brooklyn Vegan.
"I know that Brock Turner was tried and rightfully convicted of sexual assault," Rasmussen began. “I realize that this crime caused enormous pain for the victim. I don’t condone, support, or sympathize with the offense or the offender. I was asked by a court in California to provide a character statement as a standard and necessary part of the sentencing process. I believe that Brock’s character was seriously affected by the alcohol he consumed, and I felt that the court needed to consider this issue during their sentencing deliberations."
