We’ve already posted about Roman Polanski being arrested this weekend for that decades-old “sex with a minor” conviction, but after watching the ladies of “The View” argue over the issue this morning, I felt compelled to write more. For starters, in the clip above, Whoopi Goldberg, who I never expected to be a rape apologist, coins a term I’ve never heard before—“rape-rape.” Apparently “rape-rape” is NOT when you drug a 13-year-old girl with alcohol and a Quaalude and then have anal sex with her. That’s something else that’s, apparently, not as bad. WTF?

Finally, some good news to come out of this sad story: Phoenix police will pursue felony child abuse charges for the parents, Liberian refugees, who abandoned their eight-year-old daughter in July—after she was allegedly gang-raped by four boys—because they were ashamed.

The boys, ages 10 to 14, who are also Liberian refugees, allegedly lured the eight-year-old girl to a storage shed, by promising her chewing gum, where the alleged assault took place. When the parents learned their daughter had been raped, they apparently told police they did not want her to return home. She has been living in protective custody since the incident.

Ditching their kid is not the main reason police are pursuing abuse charges, however. According to the Associated Press, the young girl and her family have been referred to Child Protective Services in Phoenix five times since the girl was four years old. Altogether, past reports (including several times the young girl was found by neighbors or police to be wandering around the neighborhood by herself stealing or begging for food) could comprise felony child abuse. [Fox News]

This is a sad story. If you are looking for something uplifting to start your weekend, stop reading right now.

Police in Phoenix, AZ, went out to investigate reports of hysterical screaming. They found four boys, all under age 15, and a partially clothed 8-year-old girl running from an empty shed. The boys, ages 9 to 14, now face charges ranging from sexual assault to kidnapping. Investigators say they lured the girl to the shed by offering her gum. Then, they held her down and took turns raping her for about 10 to 15 minutes.

After being convicted of raping a four-year-old girl, ex-convict and Oklahoman native David Harold Earls is being sentenced to only one year in prison. He reportedly “struck a deal” in which 19 out of 20 of the years he was supposed to spend in jail were suspended.

So, how on earth did this happen? Supposedly, the rape victim (now five), made “contradictory statements during pretrial hearings.” At one point the toddler even left the court room and ran down the hallway. Can you believe that!? I guess that means her rapist is innocent!

An article on CNN yesterday turned me on to Zimababwe native Betty Makoni, CNN hero of the week. She is a teacher, a volunteer, and the executive director of her organization, Girl Child Network (GCN), which boasts 30,000 members in Zimbabwe alone. She was also raped when she was 6 years old.