WhatFinger

But did the law give way to popular outrage here?

Turns out police find a way to charge those awful kids who mocked the drowning man after all

By Dan Calabrese ——--July 24, 2017

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You can't watch this and not feel rage and indignation at what you're seeing and hearing. It's horrible beyond words:
And it was only natural once people saw the video that they wanted the teens arrested and charged with . . . something. They certainly deserve it. The problem, though, was that it wasn't clear they actually broke any laws. There's no law against being a jerk, and there's also no law requiring you to try to rescue someone when they're in trouble (except perhaps in Latham, Massachusetts). You're not even required to call 911. It's the right thing to do, obviously, but it's not against the law not to.
So when police announced their initial conclusion that they couldn't charge these little monsters with anything, it's no surprise that people didn't like it. It seemed like a terrible injustice. And in a moral sense, it certainly is. In a legal sense, however, was it the sort of situation that required police to find a way to charge them with something, in order to satisfy the public opinion mob? That certainly appears to be what happened next:
A Florida police chief said he will recommend criminal charges be filed against five teenagers who taunted a drowning man while recording his death from afar. Stressing that the state attorney will ultimately decide whether to file charges, Cocoa Police Chief Michael Cantaloupe told CNN on Friday afternoon that he will recommend the teens be prosecuted under a statute that requires the reporting of a death to a medical examiner. The chief's statement was a shift. In previous days, authorities said the teens wouldn't be charged because Florida does not have a law that obligates a citizen to render aid or call for help for anyone in distress.
On Friday, the office of State Attorney Phil Archer issued a statement, though not in response to the chief's comments about recommending charges. "We were asked to make a preliminary review of the video regarding any potential charges for failure to provide aid," the state attorney's office said. "Unfortunately, there is currently no statute in Florida law that compels an individual to render, request or seek aid for a person in distress. We are, however, continuing to research whether any other statute may apply to the facts of this case."
That last sentence seems to give away the game, and as much as I think these horrible people deserve the worst that can be done to them, this is troubling. What you have here is a group of people who have suddenly become the target of public outrage - deservedly, to be sure - and police as a result looking for a pretext to charge them with a crime when it isn't apparent that one exists. This is mob rule. Worse, it's the police taking their cue from the mob. It would be one thing if police had immediately, upon seeing this news, moved to charge them with not reporting the death. But in this case it appears they rarely if ever enforce that statute, and only are thinking of doing so in this case because they're concerned about public opinion if they don't come up with some way to put these kids behind bars.

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It reminds me of George H.W. Bush, in the aftermath of the acquittals in the Rodney King beating case, announcing that he would look for a way to charge the cops with a federal crime. It was a sneaky way to get around the Constitution's guarantees against double jeopardy, and it was clearly motivated by a desire to mollify the rioters. That was wrong, and it shouldn't have happened. Now in this case there's no issue of double jeopardy, and it does appear we're talking about a legitimate statute that's on the books. But it still troubles me that they're only looking for an excuse to charge them because people are pissed off. This takes nothing away from the evil we saw on that video. These people have nothing but darkness in their souls, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that any of them grow up to become killers themselves. By the way, they're reportedly between 14 and 16. I don't know anything about their parents, but those of you who oppose corporal punishment by parents . . . do you oppose it even in this case? Are you sure?
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Dan Calabrese——

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.

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