What a horrible tragedy, FV. I confused by why he was in the boot camp to begin with. I heard Fox report that he put in the camp due to a violation of probration? Why is the state putting kids into this boot camps?
A few years ago we had a situation concerning a boot camp here in my state. The boy was also only 14 years old. He looked even younger from the pictures showed by the media. In this case, the child passed out from being deprived of water and made to sit in the heat as some sort of punishment.
Instead of taking him to the doctor, the boot camp tried to handle it themselves by taking him to a motel and putting him in a shower. Which didn't help - the boy died. This happened in the middle of summer, out in the hot desert. At the time this happened, I couldn't understand why the parents would have voluntarily turn their child over to this boot camp. At the same time I felt very sorry for them. He was having some behavior problems and they thought being in this so called boot camp would help him. So sad.
The person who ran the boot camp was convicted and sent to prison. Hopefully those responsible for the boy's death in Florida will be brought to justice. Having an eye witness - the nurse, makes it more difficult for those who are saying his death was health related. I'm constantly amazed by the amount of news stories coming out of Florida. The percent of stories is way higher than the population of Florida should merit.
Please keep us posted on what's happening.
This is going to be a national story. Go and watch the videotape. He was outnumbered, he was down on the ground not doing anything, was limp in fact, and now he's dead at 14. It's a tragedy and a crime.
If it's a state nurse, she's already been told to shut up. How many state nurses from ACHA changed their story re: Terri? At least ten.
A sheriff is a county constitutional officer in his own right answerable only to the voters — EXCEPT that Charlie Crist, a state constitutional officer, he has a Constitutional and statutory obligation to defend the rights of citizens and uphold the laws of the state.
Charlie is almost certainly holding back not wanting to anger county sheriffs (they, too, are politicians, first, not cops) and their thousands of deputies/employees across the state during an election cycle.
... [Tom] Gallagher should launch on Charlie for his failure to execute the duties of his office. The governor has known for a long time about guard violence against young people extending far beyond legally justified force to protect self and others and to maintain lawful order in the state prison and county jail system.
I have done stories on deadly violence against kids in our local jails and the political powers here could care less. Wide media play of that video of the boy being beaten created a political imperative for the governor to fire the head of the state prison system. The governor would not have acted otherwise.