Overzealous Prosecutor = Ruin 18 year olds life
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http://www.55krc.com/onair/brian-thomas-5053/hes-18-and-spent-13-days-12151493/
This is happening in my home state, and it's pretty sad. I've known people like this 18 year old guy who really are determined and good at what they do (EMT/Paramedic/Firefighters/Police) and this makes me sick to think that they have a prosecutor who is willingly ready to ruin a life.
Just heard about this case on my drive to work this morning and a night after reading about "Jury Nullification" in my Effective Listening course I'm in.
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@Bill-Kindle said:
http://www.55krc.com/onair/brian-thomas-5053/hes-18-and-spent-13-days-12151493/
This is happening in my home state, and it's pretty sad. I've known people like this 18 year old guy who really are determined and good at what they do (EMT/Paramedic/Firefighters/Police) and this makes me sick to think that they have a prosecutor who is willingly ready to ruin a life.
Just heard about this case on my drive to work this morning and a night after reading about "Jury Nullification" in my Effective Listening course I'm in.
I had seen that article. I was just dumbfounded by it. Every point the kid made was valid and everything his teachers or whatever they were was not only unethical but illegal. If they were to search his car, they would need a warrant and to be honest I don't even think they could have held him at the school the way they would have had to without some sort of authorization from authorities. Maybe they could, maybe they couldn't. But the case should be dismissed based on his civil liberties being violated blatantly and without cause or justification.
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@ajstringham I went to a vocational school and when I graduated it was moving more and more towards a prison like atmosphere. They had an onsite peace officer and would do drug raids all the time with dogs.
Man I'm not sad to not be a school student today.....
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@Bill-Kindle said:
@ajstringham I went to a vocational school and when I graduated it was moving more and more towards a prison like atmosphere. They had an onsite peace officer and would do drug raids all the time with dogs.
Man I'm not sad to not be a school student today.....
Agreed. That and it seems like a lot of the kids at my old high school are, well, far from intellectual based on the things I see and hear.
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This is horrible. I feel so badly for this kid. This should be thrown out of court, he's definitely been through enough already. Also, the fact that the prosecutor threatened him and his lawyer for the change.org petition? Unethical, and a further violation of his rights. The sad fact is that I expect that the case won't be thrown out because this is typical small-town America B.S.. I do think that kids in schools need to be protected, however, once the situation was investigated (beyond the whole searching his car without a warrant) the charges should have been dropped.
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@Dominica said:
This is horrible. I feel so badly for this kid. This should be thrown out of court, he's definitely been through enough already. Also, the fact that the prosecutor threatened him and his lawyer for the change.org petition? Unethical, and a further violation of his rights. The sad fact is that I expect that the case won't be thrown out because** this is typical small-town America B.S**.. I do think that kids in schools need to be protected, however, once the situation was investigated (beyond the whole searching his car without a warrant) the charges should have been dropped.
It's not just at the small town level, lawlessness tyrants (what I like to refer to as people who are 1) not familiar enough with our system of government and it's laws to defend them faithfully and 2) those who use their office to abuse power.) are at all levels right now. This prosecutor IMHO matches both of those behaviors.
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@Bill-Kindle Good point. Government at all levels has grown rather "big" lately.
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I see things like this often in my state. For example: http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/02/14-year-old_lil_carl_howard_se.html
It's still pretty controversial as to whether or not that should stick in this link, but what kind of society do we live in now that a pocketknife can get you brought up on felonies and 14 year olds are charged as adults?I live in a very rural area myself. Small town. In high school one of my history teachers was once attempting to open a package that had the plastic seal on it. After a second of struggling he looks out to the class, says 'does anyone have a pocketknife?' 'right here!' the teacher grabs the knife, opens it, uses it, closes it, and hands it back. 'Thanks!', pauses for a minute, then says to the class, 'I guess it's a good thing that no one had a pocketknife, right?'
