© Reuters/Stefano Rellandini
Last weekend, more than 1,000 people gathered in Steubenville, Ohio, a small town with a history of high school football glory, to support the victim of an alleged rape. These kinds of rallies happen from time to time, largely on college campuses. What made this one striking was the fact that many protesters were wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
Those masks are a trademark of Anonymous, the shadowy collective of hackers that has taken on Steubenville as a vigilante cause. In terms of criminal justice, this is far from ideal. But for our culture at large, it represents an unlikely glimmer of hope.
The Steubenville story began with old power dynamics, the ones that stem from a mix of athletic glory, power, and sex. At a series of parties last August, according to news reports, a 16-year-old girl, unconscious due to alcohol or drugs, was allegedly gang-raped by at least two members of the beloved Steubenville High School football team. The girl learned about the attacks the next day, the press reported, after various boys posted photos and mocking tweets - which they later deleted - on social media.
Two of the football players were charged, as juveniles, with rape. Their trial begins next month. But some locals, including a crime blogger, kept hammering at the story, claiming town officials were protecting other athletes, circling around a subgroup that is treated as untouchable. Last month,
The New York Times published a long, meticulously researched account, which included a pointed threat to a reporter from the high school football coach.
Then Anonymous took up the cause.
