Justice Denied

There has been a resolution to a local story that has been in the news the last week or so. Unfortunately, the resolution has left many people feeling justice has been denied. The basic facts are a woman left her two year old child in a hot car all day to die. The insufficient resolution is amazingly the county prosecutor decided he didn't think it was intentional so he is not going to charge her with any crime. Part of the prosecutors justification for ignoring this crime is he believes she will be suffering for the rest of her life anyways. He is likely right, but does that matter? Our prisons are populated by many people who feel bad about the results of their actions. If someone drives drunk and kills someone else they probably feel horrible about it, but we still punish them for the offense. Heck, we have had people arrested and prosecuted for leaving a dog in a car on a hot day.

A side issue in this case is the general belief that race and class played a role in how this case was handled. The "mom" is a white, college educated, well-paid professional. Some speculate, quite correctly, that if those factors were different she would have been treated much more harshly. What is her profession? Oh yeah, she is an assistant principal at a local school responsible for the well-being of hundreds of kids each day. Keep in mind our public schools have gotten so goofy with their zero tolerance policies that they will expel a child for drawing a picture of a gun. Additionally, consider how quickly public schools will call child protective services with allegations of child abuse if a kid shows up to school with bruises.

The last element of this case is just a personal prejudice. She has a hyphenated last name which means when she got married she didn't respect her husband enough to take his name. I may just be a crotchety SOB, but I don't like that crap.