The reaction has been swift, viral and unrelenting.
Shortly after Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky sentenced an ex-Stanford University swimmer to only six months in jail for sexually assaulting an uncon2scious woman, the victim’s emotional 12-page court statement drew 13 million readers online, and a cyber-petition demanding the judge’s removal garnered well over a million signatures. By Thursday night, the judge himself had been, at his own request, removed from hearing criminal cases altogether.