Source: Variety / Getty
Tory Lanez is finally going to prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in her feet three years ago.
On Aug. 8, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Herriford gave Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, a 10-year prison sentence following two full days of witness testimony and letters from others caping for leniency on behalf of a man who not only shot Megan Pete, but then used his money and influence to start an entire misinformation campaign against Meg which cast her as the villain and him as a “sympathetic victim.”
As a lover of hip-hop, I still have not been able to find the words to express how I feel about the entire community either turning a blind eye toward Megan’s assault or openly supporting her attacker.
There is a weird form of cognitive dissonance that has led to people continuing to proclaim Tory’s innocence despite a large amount of evidence to the contrary.
There are still lies being told on Megan’s name, and there have been plenty of loudmouths on the internet spouting continued misinformation and lies about how exactly we got here.
I want to clear a few things up in defense of Megan and women everywhere who have to suffer under the undue weight of the patriarchy, misogynoir, and a public full of apologists who would rather uplift an abuser than help facilitate the healing for a victim.
Megan never pressed charges
One of the biggest lies out there is that Megan reported Tory to the police or pressed charges against him. The narrative is that the fact that this went to trial at all is Megan’s fault, and that is categorically false.
On the night of the shooting, residents in the area called the police when they heard the disturbance happening in and outside of a car Megan was riding in with Tory and others.
When police arrived on scene, Megan did not tell them she had been shot. Instead, she indicated that she had stepped on glass and was taken to the hospital for treatment. Tory Lanez was arrested and given a felony concealed weapon charge. Even after she was treated at the hospital, Megan didn’t tell police Lanez shot her.
When video of the incident began circulating online, Megan clarified that she had in fact been shot, but she still did not say it was Lanez who had done it.
LAPD was initially unable to press charges against Lanez for the shooting because none of the witnesses, including Megan, were cooperating with their investigation.
Tory’s fragile masculinity and ego got him in trouble
Megan endured a full month of harassment online following the shooting. Lanez — including claims that she had lied about being shot.
She was the butt of disgusting and misogynistic jokes from every corner of the internet, and her name was being dragged through the mud on popular blogs and websites.
After posting photos of the gunshot wound online, Megan made a video directly addressing Lanez and what she said was a campaign by him and his publicist to tarnish her name and make her look like the villain in the incident.
Up until that point, she had been protecting him, but would you continue to protect an attacker who openly lied about you on social media in order to protect his own reputation and livelihood?
Megan’s side of the story
In an Instagram video that has since been deleted, Megan told the public that Tory was in fact the person who shot her.
“Yes this n—a Tory shot me,” she said. “You shot me. And you got your publicist and your people going to these blogs lying and sh-t.”
“Stop lying,” she said adamantly. “Why lie?”
She went on to say that she tried to keep the situation off the internet, and that is key because had Tory done the same thing, he wouldn’t be getting locked up now, but we know how fragile masculinity works, especially in a tiny human with a Napoleon complex.
Megan accused Tory of “dragging it,” and said he told people she had hit him when that wasn’t true.
And let me just pause here so we can all laugh at a grown man with an ego the size of the Chrysler building and a body the size of fifth grader lying and crying about a woman hitting him. Was he not ashamed?
Megan also said Tory spread rumors that she was mad because he wanted to mess around with Kylie Jenner (yuck and yikes, by the way).
Megan said the incident started with an argument in the car. Megan, Tory, Megan’s former friend who I won’t name because she is eternally goofy in my eyes and doesn’t deserve my keystrokes, and Tory’s bodyguard were all in the car. Megan was in the front seat, and Tory was in the back.
Thee Stallion said she got out of the car because she was done arguing and didn’t want to argue anymore. She said she was walking away when “from out of the backseat of the car,” Lanez started shooting at her.
Megan said the reason she told the police she had stepped is because she was afraid of how “aggressive” she believed the police to be, and she didn’t want any of them to end up being shot because the police found a gun in the car.
She later reportedly acknowledged that she should have told the police the truth in the first place instead of covering for Lanez as she had.
In the end, the Los Angeles County District Attorney decided to prosecute Tory Lanez for the shooting.
Even after all of his public attacks of her both online and in his songs, Megan never pressed charges against him and only told police he was the shooter after it became public knowledge.
Instead of being grateful and keeping his mouth closed, Tory decided to go full leprechaun Karen and try to change a narrative no one would have even been talking about if it weren’t for him.
Megan suffered; Tory did not
Megan was hospitalized and had to have surgery to treat her wounds. There are still bullet fragments in her foot.
For the three years since the incident happened, she has been the target of a calculated and paid misinformation campaign (that is actually a matter of public record now thanks to it coming out in court); the target of online harassment, bullying, and abuse; and used as the butt of constant jokes and rap lyrics referencing her in the aftermath of the shooting.
She did nothing to deserve any of that.
In the end, Tory is guilty, and he’s going to prison
The people who continue to defend Tory Lanez are wrong. He had absolutely no defense. His defense team was horrible, and the witnesses they chose to put on the stand only further bolstered the prosecution’s case.
There is a large amount of evidence indicating his guilt. His case is now a matter of public record. He was tried in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, and his case number is BA490599.
I highly suggest anyone who remains unconvinced of his guilt look the case up and disabuse yourself of the notion that he is anything other than what he is — a misogynist and a violent offender.
Monique Judge is a storyteller, content creator and writer living in Los Angeles. She is a word nerd who is a fan of the Oxford comma, spends way too much time on Twitter, and has more graphic t-shirts than you. Follow her on Twitter @thejournalista or check her out at moniquejudge.com.
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The post Tory Lanez Has Been Convicted And Sentenced, Yet Megan The Stallion Is Still Being Attacked appeared first on NewsOne.
Tory Lanez Has Been Convicted And Sentenced, Yet Megan The Stallion Is Still Being Attacked was originally published on newsone.com
