Its OK when its someone elses daughter

After we posted a link to the story about Alison Stokke, the high-school track athlete who has been unwillingly turned into an internet sex object, sharp-eyed reader Evan emailed with the observation that Stokke's father is the same guy who earlier this year defended a cop who jerked off on a stripper during a routine traffic stop. “She got what she wanted,” Al Stokke said, of the stripper. “She’s an overtly sexual person.”

The hits they keep on comin'. Stokke also defended a sheriff's son who was convicted of participating in a videotaped gang-rape. From the OC Weekly's account of the sentencing hearing:

The defense niceties vanished immediately. Defense lawyer Al Stokke, who replaced lead trial attorney Joseph G. Cavallo, questioned any link between the rape and the victim's claim of mental anguish. Stokke also mocked the girl's physical injuries, finally conceding she was unconscious but then trying to use that against her. "There's [no pain] that is felt," he said, "because she was unconscious."

Wow. To be perfectly clear, this is NOT to say that Alison Stokke has been in ANY WAY deserving of the harassment that has been heaped upon her for simply participating in a high-school track meet. But it's noteworthy that her father, who is understandably deeply concerned for his daughter's safety, has defended several men who have done things far more reprehensible than link to or post photos on the internet without permission.

Her father, Allan Stokke, comes home from his job as a lawyer and searches the Internet. He reads message boards and tries to pick out potential stalkers.

"We're keeping a watchful eye," Allan Stokke said. "We have to be smart and deal with it the best we can. It's not something that you can just make go away."

In other words, it's his daughter, and of course he's doing all he can to ensure she's safe now that her photo is plastered all over the internet in a sexual context. But he seemed to not only lack concern but to show outright disdain for the woman who was sexually assaulted by a traffic cop and for the girl who was gang-raped. From his previous comments, he seems to desire a world in which reprehensible treatment of women (sexual assault, harassment, rape) is a-OK. But maybe, just maybe, his views will change now that he is forced to consider the fact that his own flesh and blood -- his wife, his sister, his mother, his daughter -- could be a victim of that violence.