Teen's rape case shows racism still stains South [Miami Herald Leonard Pitts Alert]

The Miami Herald ^ | 08 March 2004 | Leonard Pitts, Jr.

[tom h]

"Leonard Pitts, Jr. does have one half-decent column under the belt: about The Passion of Christ."

He also wrote one awesome, passionate, brilliant, moving piece on 9-12-2001. It moved me to tears. He has a couple of normal brain cells; the rest are addled by a lifetime of liberal education and a natural tendency to see all race issues framed by conspiratorial acts of "white racism."

[cyborg]

YES.

[RedMonqey]

"The judge said that under the state's mandatory sentencing guidelines -- written for adult sexual predators -- he had no choice. ''My hands are tied,''"

I agreed there was no forced rape, the girl is a liar, AND the boy is serving too harsh a sentence. However if judges across the nation hadn't ABUSED their discretion,(Mass. Gay Marriages, etc.) the people wouldn't have voted for limiting their powers.

[cyborg]

It was one of those 'you had to be watching' shows. Incredible. I was even on the Oprah message board and 99.9% of the people watching thought she was lying.

[RedMonqey]

"The judge said that under the state's mandatory sentencing guidelines -- written for adult sexual predators -- he had no choice. ''My hands are tied,''"

I agreed there was no forced rape, the girl is a liar, AND the boy is serving too harsh a sentence. However if judges across the nation hadn't ABUSED their discretion,(Mass. Gay Marriages, etc.) the people wouldn't have voted for limiting their powers.

[Afro_conservative]

I think alot of people here are stormfronters in disguise

[cyborg]

No they're not stormfronters. They're just exactly cut from the same cloth as the same black people they claim have a chip on their shoulders. Opposite side of the same ignorant coin who have as much issues talking about white people behaving badly as some black people do talking about black people doing stuff.

[sarasmom]

Care to elaborate on your definition of a stormfronter?
I am a person.I am here.I am not in disguise.

[Afro_conservative]

true

[cyborg]

Ack you really want to know? They're not nice people.

[Afro_conservative]

a stormfronter is someone who is a member of the rival forum www.stormfront.org

[sarasmom]

Well gee-whiz cyborg, please educate me on my ignorance and do explain to me the tapestry of the cloth I am cut from.

[Indie]

Furthermore, mandatory minimum sentences seem to hurt the innocent and least dangerous the most. There are folks out there running around that have been in jail 10 times still committing crimes. We read about them all the time. This guy [along with someone who gets caught by a fed growing a couple marijauna plants for their own use] gets 10 YEARS for 3 months underage? 10 YEARS for 2 marijuana plants? I've testified in court in shooting cases where the perp got less. These mandatory sentence laws are BS from ulta-fascist types [whether they be on the left or right]. Where is reason? Where is common sense? Where is "justice for all?"

Ex-Dallas PD [I used my discretion and upheld the Constitution, not bad laws. The squirrels were a disgrace to the badge. No we do NOT have an obligation to enforce bad law.]

[cyborg]

What are you talking about? I didn't talk about you.

[TLI]

She also said Dixon had pinned her arms with his hands, unfastened her jeans with his elbows and used his knees and feet to remove her clothes.

She lied. Why? She did not want to publicly admit that the sex was exactly what she wanted from him. There was no lack of consent. BTW just because she is 15 does not mean she can not give consent. All it means is the LEO did not declare her an adult as they would have if she had, let's say, shot some one. And what is the "logic" on that little LEO trick? Make choices like an adult, get treated like one.

sooooo . . . See next quote.

"but that the girl was terrified her father might find out."

Again, she knew exactly what she was doing, she should be classified as an adult, let the guy go NOW, and the law should stop treating what is usually the instigator of these little soap operas (THE GIRL) like `lil miss innocent. They are NOT.

And as long as the flamers are going to block and copy their usual "Hang 'em High" “OO buck” remarks and tack them to portions of this post anyway, I also do not believe this "3 year age difference" baloney either. Three years, thirty years, no difference. If the girl is coming on to some guy, drops her pants and later wants to use the “rape” excuse, too damn bad. No deal, no soap, if anyone thinks a 15 year old girl in America today does not know the score when it comes to sex, they have a vacuum between the ears, not a brain. If there is to be an AOC, it should be determined case by case by a bio-test. Deferent IQ would be the ONLY excuse.

[xm177e2]

How do you know it was racism?

I don't "know" anything for sure, but it's pretty obvious the case wouldn't have gone to trial if it wasn't black male + white female, and if it hadn't gone to trial, there would be none of this "mandatory minimums" nonsense.

[metesky]

Do they ever give out sentences like that to white boys accused of the same crime? I don't think so. It's incredibly wrong.

Read the story: it's a mandatory sentence. What part of mandatory don't you understand. If there is an injustice here, it is on the part of the legislators, those guys trying to prove they're tough on crime by passing mandatory sentencing laws which give a judge no leeway to distinguish between a first time offender and an habitual criminal.

I pesonally knew a "white boy", as you so admirably put it, who was sentenced to five years for the statutory rape of his girlfriend. Six months after wrapping up his sentence he committed suicide.

[xm177e2]

xm177e2 revealed an awfully ignorant and incredibly ugly and racist attempt to equate apples with hand grenades.

 ./       o-\
(_)  ==  (_)   ??

Maybe you could explain to me how it is "racist" to protest against treating people differently because of their skin color. I wonder if you would be so hot on this policy of jailing boys who have sex with girls close to their age if it were white boys being sent to jail.

The police in that s[ink]hole of a town should throw themselves into investigating all possible instances of middle-class white boys having sex with underage girls, and then throw all of them in jail for 10 years. I would gladly join that Taliban. Witch hunts don't end until they become unbearable for the witch hunters.

The only way to save this kid is probably to smash the lives of as many white boys in the state as possible. Round them up and throw them in jail, to be disrespected, beaten, tortured, raped, humiliated, and denied the most basic freedoms. And when they get out, force them to register as sex offenders.

What is your reasoning? That we can't just let teenagers f--- each other? That we have to MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF THIS N-----, LYNCH HIM, for the good of society? And then maybe kids will learn to control themselves and stop having sex? Hey, it's just a black guy. Who cares about his future? Who cares that, after 10 years, when he gets out, he'll have to register as a child molester; he'll have to tell his employers he's a felon and a Registered Sex Offender.

And you think this is justice? And you are calling me a racist, because I don't drool (like Terri Schiavo) at your altar of Moralistic Humbuggery? This is injustice and oppression of the highest order (destroying a child's life) because of his skin color. I will NEVER accept that.

[xm177e2]

Six months after wrapping up his sentence he committed suicide.

I'm sorry for your loss, and for the loss felt by your friends. I feel nothing but rage when I hear a story like that. I can only imagine what he suffered, and I can't say for sure that I would have chosen differently than him if I faced the same situation.

To put a child through that sort of horror because somebody's parents are squeamish about the idea of their precious daughter choosing to have sex--it's beyond immoral, it's horrific. If that sort of law isn't based on racism, it's based on something equally ugly.