COUNCILOR ROOKE IS WRONG!
As
I walked down the street in Charleston, South Carolina watching the long limbed
cypress tree branches jutting into the streets, I couldn’t help but think about
the lynch mobs that hung so many black men just because they were Black.
And as I read newspaper reports about the
vandalism at Central High School allegedly carried out by five Black students
and one White student and read the comments by City Councilor Tim Rooke and
Prosecutor Corrine Rock, I couldn’t help thinking about those hanging trees.
Rooke wanted to prosecute the students to
the fullest extent of the law and expel them from school. Corrine Rock plans to convene a grand jury
and eventually seek state prison (!) time for them all. She asked for $150,000 dollars bail on each
student. Rooke and School Committeeman,
Michael Rogers, fell all over themselves on television calling for the harshest
punishment and expressing their hope that these students would be made an
example of.
All of this before a day of trial has
been held and before a single finger has been lifted to evaluate the character
of the students to determine if this was an extension of bad behavior or a youthful
aberration. “Hang ‘em from the nearest
cypress tree.” Trial be damned! Justice be damned! Mercy be damned!
What awful leadership from Rooke and
Rogers and the District Attorney’s office!
Rile the mob and feed their blood lust and leave the remains of the
“niggers” to their families to worry about, right! No wonder law enforcement officials are met with such skepticism
by the minority community!
Thank God for the judge who released each
on his own recognizance for the simple legal reason that they met the
requirements for release. They are
apparently first-time offenders and good students, some of whom play
sports. They pose no threat of flight
or of danger to the community. They
have not even been in trouble in school!
They are headed for college!
Should their useful lives be terminated forever because of one mistake?
Tim Rooke, of all people, should know
better!
Their mistake is serious and they should
pay for it but the price should be proportionate to the crime and all of the
surrounding circumstances. And that
means the remainder of their useful lives should not be destroyed for one act
of vandalism that caused no threat of physical harm or actual physical harm to
anyone. It was a youthful prank that
got out of hand and should be handled accordingly.
How is it that the White Commerce
basketball player who allegedly made games out of busting out car windows
didn’t elicit a peep from Rooke or Rogers?
He not only wasn’t expelled from school, he was allowed by a judge to
continue playing basketball!
And we should all challenge the District
Attorney to provide a list of all of the White urban and suburban first-time
offender students who were dragged before a grand jury and threatened with
state prison (not jail) time for vandalism. And, by the way he should be asked to provide a list of those who
committed acts of vandalism who were not hauled before the grand jury and
threatened with prison time, too starting with the recent two events in Palmer.
I’m sorry to say that the response of Rooke, Rogers and the District Attorney’s office are acts of raw racism and appeal to the lowest mob instincts and everybody in the community should stand up and say so. n