In prison, Dharun Ravi will learn volumes about brutal and intimate lack of privacy.
Ravi, a serial gay basher and insufferable jerk — and, very likely, a closet case — was convicted in New Jersey yesterday of spying on his Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi, as the young man engaged in sex with another guy.
Ravi, who presented to the world an over-the-top macho swagger, was found guilty of invading Clementi’s privacy. Plus, jurors found him guilty of hate crimes — concluding that he harassed Clementi out of anti-gay fervor.
The hate crimes increase Ravi’s stiffest possible sentence to 10 years behind bars, giving him much time to associate with the male of the species. He also could be deported to India, a country he left at age 4.
Ravi’s unwholesome obsession with Tyler’s most private moments turned from a case of vicious bullying into something far more savage, when Tyler jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
But Ravi, 20, was not charged in connection with Clementi’s death.
Instead, he has to live forever with the knowledge that he caught his roommate, who was just 18, in the throes of a passion that, even in these liberated days, was considered by many — including Tyler’s own family — to be forbidden.
In September 2010, Ravi set up his Web cam, and caught Tyler kissing a guy. Instead of feeling embarrassed, Ravi idiotically sent out this message on Twitter:
“I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.’’
Two days later, Ravi was all fired up. At this point, Clementi asked Ravi if he could keep away from their room for a few hours so he might entertain a guest in privacy. Ravi agreed.
He tweeted: “I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it’s happening again.”
Ravi also texted a pal, saying he was holding a “viewing party” that would star an unaware Tyler engaging in private acts.
But the party never got off the ground. Ravi said he put his camera to sleep. But Clementi, who knew of Ravi’s nasty tweets, told a friend he disabled the camera.
It mattered little. Within a day, he was dead.
Why did Tyler Clementi die? We may never know.
A few days before the start of college, Clementi came out as gay to his parents (top). His dad was fine with it. But his mom, who had another gay son and always thought Tyler would give her grandchildren, “rejected’’ her boy, a despondent Clementi told a friend in an e-mail.
Also, there was the 30-year-old man with whom Clementi had an illicit affair. The man, now 32, testified at trial, using the initials “M.B.”
M.B., who never left Clementi’s dorm room, noticed Ravi’s Web cam pointed at the bed. And for this, he should suffer permanent and crushing guilt — he said absolutely nothing.
Dharun Ravi made Tyler Clementi’s short life into a peep-show spectacle. For that, he must pay.
Many people let Tyler down. They should be ashamed.