An all-girl band has been dropped from Northside Festival’s lineup after the festival was made aware that the drummer came to the defense of a Stanford University student convicted of sexual assault.
The Brooklyn-based festival posted on its Facebook page Tuesday that it would no longer allow Good English to play “due to recent information” brought to its attention.
Drummer Leslie Rasmussen, a childhood friend of Brock Turner, wrote a letter to the judge in the case defending Turner and blaming his conviction on political correctness.
Turner, a former swimmer for Stanford University, was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster in 2015 in California.
In the letter, Rasmussen goes as far as to call the attack a “huge misunderstanding.”
“I am not blaming her directly for this, because that isn’t right. But where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists,” Rasmussen wrote in the letter to Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky.
Though Northside Festival did not specify what information led to pulling the band from the lineup, the move comes after numerous Facebook users posted to the festival’s page, urging organizers to not allow the band to play.
“Do not allow #goodenglish to play at your festival,” Aaron Lowstead wrote on the page.
“Good English has gotta go. Since when did girl bands start supporting rapists? They are an embarrassment and offense to your line up. I look forward to seeing you’ve resolved the situation, aka dropped ’em,” Caitlin Gaspar wrote on the page.
Many Facebook users thanked Northside Festival after the announcement.
“Thank you for canceling Good English from your lineup, especially since rape apologist Leslie Rasmussen has since chosen to double down on her vile victim-blaming with an equally offensive ‘apology,” wrote Bonnie Burn.
Northside Festival has not yet responded to emails seeking comment.
