The man charged with 25 counts of battery last April has gotten his comeuppance.
Robin Garb, the 22-year-old UF student better known as the Gainesville Groper, is going to plead no-contest on Friday to assaulting female students on campus. Garb took certain "liberties" with the women after claiming he was trying to remove a bug off their clothing. We are glad that he is going to be removed from society, but we feel like the crimes don/t constitute the prison and probation time he is slated to receive.
The news of his sentence might not seem so jarring if it didn/t come so soon after the sentencing of ex-Cpl. Bill Billings, who received a mere 24-month probation for assaulting prostitutes on the job. One might make the argument that since the women were prostitutes, they had a choice in the matter.
But remember that some of the women (excuse us, girls) Billings "employed" were as young as 13 (and therefore clearly doing it out of some horrible, terrible necessity).
So, excuse us while we get this straight: An officer of the law gets off basically unscathed for getting up close and personal with women while on the city/s dollar, but when regular Joe Pervert gets caught inappropriately touching women (on his own time and dime), he gets hard jail time? Sounds like an inconsistency to us.
We aren/t downplaying the seriousness of Garb/s crime (or saying his victims don/t deserve justice) but are pointing out the law/s obvious sympathy for its own kin.
