JAMAICA PLAINS, MA — Porn gets blamed for a litany of real and imagined sins. On April 23rd, it was blamed for the unprovoked stabbings of an innocent man by his enraged and disapproving girlfriend. Instead of blaming 21-year-old Claribel Peralta’s violent outburst on poor communication skills, insane jealousy, and nearly non-existent impulse control, Rick Sawyer of Bostonist.com reports that it “may have been caused by pornography.”
How did pornography “cause” Peralta to repeatedly stab her 33-year-old presumably now ex-boyfriend in their Jamaica Plains, MA apartment?
By her emerging from the bathroom and finding him watching it – although that’s not what she initially told police after she was seen standing beside the fallen and bleeding man and trying to force her way into an apartment elevator.
Peralta admitted that the two had been arguing, but refused to tell officers where their apartment was – all the while insisting that she had innocently emerged from the bathroom and found her lover stabbed.
Fortunately for the seriously injured man, police had little trouble following the trail of blood back to their abode, where a helpful eye-witness recounted hearing the couple argue before the victim began shouting and was seen bleeding from his back. Even more damning was the witness’ account of how Peralta returned to retrieve her dropped knife and then washed the blood from it in the bathroom before placing it back on the kitchen counter.
Peralta, whether morally justified in her porn aversion or not, was arrested and charged with Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous Weapon, as well as Assault and Battery under the Domestic Relations Law.
In spite of Sawyer’s accusations, pornography received no citations, although the Boston Herald’s Jessica Van Sack found the attack amusing enough to title her blog on the subject “That may cut his porn viewing.”
