3 ms·

I agree. But maybe race is a part of it. Would there be felony charges if she was a white girl from the rich burbs?

andrewflnr 13y ago
"Maybe"? Bringing race into a discussion makes everything worse. Don't do it unless you have very good evidence. There's enough injustice here already to talk about.
- cle 13y ago
  I grew up in and around Bartow. I think there is very good reason to suspect that this may be race related.
AnthonyMouse 13y ago
>Would there be felony charges if she was a white girl from the rich burbs? It's a legitimate question but I don't know if the answer is that clear. For something like this to happen you need two things: 1) Rules that are too harsh and too broad, that classify blowing a small hole in the ground by mixing household cleaners just to see what would happen as the same offense as an act of terrorism. 2) "Zero tolerance" law-and-order bureaucrats who don't care that they're ruining the lives of bright young people by charging them with crimes they may technically have committed but fall outside the legislative intent or any sense of proportionality. "Would this happen if she was a rich white girl" is a question of (2). It's plausible that some bureaucrats are racist or are more inclined to prosecute someone expected to have fewer resources to mount a defense, or that the bureaucrats in poor neighborhoods are more likely to draw a hard line. But the way to prevent things like this from happening is really to fix (1). As long as you have rules on the books that make what happened here into a serious offense, you're providing cover for overzealous prosecutors to defend themselves under "just following orders" type rationales that appeal to the letter of the law, and paint the supposed wrong not as being that this girl was charged but that the rich white girl wouldn't be. The problem here is that the rules allow them to do this to anyone. The rules need to change.

"Maybe"? Bringing race into a discussion makes everything worse. Don't do it unless you have very good evidence. There's enough injustice here already to talk about.

cle 13y ago
I grew up in and around Bartow. I think there is very good reason to suspect that this may be race related.

AnthonyMouse 13y ago

>Would there be felony charges if she was a white girl from the rich burbs? It's a legitimate question but I don't know if the answer is that clear. For something like this to happen you need two things: 1) Rules that are too harsh and too broad, that classify blowing a small hole in the ground by mixing household cleaners just to see what would happen as the same offense as an act of terrorism. 2) "Zero tolerance" law-and-order bureaucrats who don't care that they're ruining the lives of bright young people by charging them with crimes they may technically have committed but fall outside the legislative intent or any sense of proportionality. "Would this happen if she was a rich white girl" is a question of (2). It's plausible that some bureaucrats are racist or are more inclined to prosecute someone expected to have fewer resources to mount a defense, or that the bureaucrats in poor neighborhoods are more likely to draw a hard line. But the way to prevent things like this from happening is really to fix (1). As long as you have rules on the books that make what happened here into a serious offense, you're providing cover for overzealous prosecutors to defend themselves under "just following orders" type rationales that appeal to the letter of the law, and paint the supposed wrong not as being that this girl was charged but that the rich white girl wouldn't be. The problem here is that the rules allow them to do this to anyone. The rules need to change.