“These are not rapists.”

US indie band Good English have been kicked off the bill at four Brooklyn venues after their drummer wrote a controversial letter defending convicted rapist Brock Turner.

Brock Turner, a former student at Stanford University, was on Thursday sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.

The case has become an international talking point after a letter his victim read aloud at his trial was widely shared online. Many are angry at the leniency of his six month sentence, which the court ruled was decided on the basis that a longer sentence could “severely impact” Turner.

Good English drummer Leslie Rasmussen, a friend of Turner’s, wrote a letter to Judge Aaron Perksy, which was then obtained by The Cut. In the letter, Rasmussen argued it “wasn’t fair to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against him.”

She blamed political correctness and asked when we would see that “rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists.”

“These are not rapists. These are idiot boys and girls having too much to drink and not being aware of their surroundings and having clouded judgement.”

The Ohio three-piece were set to play a string of Brooklyn shows this weekend at venues Matchless, Rock Shop, Indie City Distillery and Gold Sound.

Rasmussen has since released a statement on Facebook defending her letter, in which she blames American drinking culture and writes that while she doesn’t “condone, support, or sympathize with the offence or the offender” she does believe that “Brock’s character was seriously affected by the alcohol he consumed.”

That statement has since been deleted, along with the band’s Facebook page.