Anonymous’ #JusticeForDaisy #OpMaryville Action Targets Missouri Town After Alleged Rapes [Video]

Anonymous has launched action against a Missouri town after the alleged rape of a teenage girl, months after strongly impacting a Canadian rape case in which the victim of the alleged assault later committed suicide.

After Anonymous involved themselves in the Rehtaeh Parsons case, authorities under pressure acted more decisively in investigating the alleged assault. Now in Missouri, a similar rape incident has spurred Anonymous to ensure that the alleged crime doesn’t slip through the cracks.

Over on Twitter, the #JusticeForDaisy hashtag is being used to boost the signal in a case horrifyingly detailed in local news this weekend and brought to a larger scale of attention. The #OpMaryville tag has also been used by Anonymous supporters to draw attention to the case.

RawStory reports that the Anonymous rape case intervention is marked by a few unusual factors for an alleged sexual assault — mainly that the “facts of the case” are not largely “in dispute,” and that the victim has been named, which is unusual for a sexual assault allegation involving a minor:

“The facts of the case are not in dispute: on January 8, 2012, a high school senior recorded himself having sex with Daisy Coleman, then left her, drunk and nearly unconscious, on her parents’ front lawn in freezing weather. The senior in question, Matthew Barnett, had given her ‘a big glass of clear stuff,’ and tests at the hospital seven hours later showed her with a blood alcohol level of 0.13.”

RawStory further quotes a prosecutor involved with the case, adding that the 14-year-old girl and her alleged rapist “were doing what they wanted to do, and there weren’t any consequences… it’s reprehensible. But is it criminal? No.”

Clearly, Anonymous disagrees, and over on Twitter, several supporting tweets are promoting the #OpMaryville or #Justice4Daisy hashtags.

In the clip above (done in standard Anonymous call-to-action style) the narration describes the alleged rapes of the girls, 13 and 14, and the parallels to the Steubenville rape case — such as the initial pass given to well-connected teen football players. Watch Anonymous’ Daisy Coleman clip above, and follow the action on Twitter using the linked hashtags.