Do you think the officers should be convicted in the boot camp death in Florida?

Question

I have been in a juvenile boot camp before and that is why it is so tragic to me. This is nothing new. I was abused and beaten when I was there but was afraid to call the abuse hot line because it put my word against their's and I had already seen them get away with it. Plus if they rule that your claim is fake you get charges added to your record. They sit together and do the reports together to make sure they all have the same stories. These people are and have always been high on power. I have seen a officer stand on a 15 year old boy's head while applying all his weight. I have had my body bent to the point that the back of my ankles touch the back of my head. There is no way that things like this are legal. But they know where all the cameras are and they all work together to protect eachother. It is just sad.

He is only 14. Obviously you don't understand what really goes on behind closed doors. And it's people like you who see everything without sympathy that do this type of thing

Answer 1

I think that decision is best left up to the judge/jury who hears all of the evidence.

Answer 2

I am a white man who trys to see things for what they really are and i usually end up siding with my race, but what happened here is beyond any of that, what happened to that child was morally and legally wrong, and these people need to be punished and some one need to do something about it if the law wont. It doesn't mater if they knew about his disease or not a child should never be treated that bad, and ya boot camp is good for un-ruly children it gives them a taste of what is to come if they continue, however they are still children and we should be protecting them not destroying them. These people with their power trips and lack of real social morals and communication get off on pushing people around and should never be put in charge of children.

Answer 3

They should but they were never going to be.
And now they aren't.

Universal acquittal.

Not surprised. But it's all there on videotape. This will not die and pictures speak a HELL of a lot louder than words.
There are those who will say only blacks will protest this decision but with that videotape I guarantee you whites, asians, latinos, middle easterners, indians, and every other nationality in the world will see this for what it REALLY was.

Unruly teenager? Perhaps.
Teenager that deserved to be murdered? Not a F'n chance.

John Lucas

Answer 4

Court TV is showing testimony in the case right now, such as the results of the autopsy, and what each of the officers in the video said they did.

I suggest that people interested in the case, find out on what channel in their area is Court TV, and watch the case for themselves.

I think the important issues include:
* Are these boot camps effective in what they are supposed to be accomplishing?
* Is there an effective process for policing the system to avoid abuses?
* What kind of psychological testing is needed to prevent bullies from ending up in jobs like these?

Most people think most people are more or less honest, and the police are doing a good job ... and people who make up stories about the police are really criminals ... then the nation gets to see a few video tapes of police abuse during some arrests & begin to ask if those are abberations or typical behavior. We hear that adrenalin rush in high speed pursuits can contaminate good judgement at the end of the chase.

I know many people will not believe what I am about to say, so here are some links to recent news stories about the problem.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-10-boot-camps-inside_N.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/10/AR2007101000825.html?hpid=topnews
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/312177.html

The professional organizations, that work towards improving the profession, they claim that the complainers are a few bad apples, former criminals, etc. etc. but the evidence is mounting that the boot camps include a hell of a lot of bad apples, and if the profession cannot police them, the entire profession may need to be outlawed.

Check the C-Span schedule for replaying hearings. ... The Education & Labor committee of the US House of Representatives www.edworkforce.house.gov is holding hearings called "Child Abuse at Private Disiplinary Facilities" which is an understatement ... thousands of American children are dying (for profit) at Nazi death march camps in US states ... they get in trouble & they move to another state under another name & open up shop again, until more trouble ... 50 states to go. The personnel at these places cannot tell the difference between a medical problem and a discipline problem, which is how come so many kids get killed.

The GAO reported on a preliminary study of 10 deaths at 10 camps ... in the most recent one, a child got bitten by a spider. If anyone of the personnel had had any medical training, they would have recognized the symptoms and called 911. Insstead they beat him up for being lazy, and he died. The camp where this happened is still in business. Of the 10 deaths investigated by the GAO, only one of the people in charge served 2 months jail time, all the rest got community service, time served during trials, and got to move to another state and start another camp under another name.

Here is a link to the GAO report
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/gao_report_troubled_youth_101007.pdf

If you turn on C-Span in the middle of the hearing, you'd think we were hearing news out of Burma or some other 3rd world place that has no respect for human rights ... if any parent, teacher, coach did any of this stuff, they would be in jail and the kids taken away from them, but this stuff there's a black hole in US jurisprudence.

One of the experts testifying was a licensed clinical psychologist who found hundreds of cases of children at risk ... she called the child abuse hotlines in the various states and got the runaround..

Parents who want to send their kids to one of these camps. There's good places & there's nazi places and there is no way whatsoever to know which has truthful marketing and which is a pcak of lies. It is totally buyer beware & we have this kind of problem all over America,

The concept of registered sex offenders needs to be extended to these child abusers, so as to prevent them from continuing their behavior in another state under a different corporate name.

There's a mortgage crisis in this country where people are losing their homes. There are companies found to be responsible for causing the trouble. They get kicked out of one state, move to another, resume same stuff under another name.

So ... we need to ask our legislators if they have been paying attention to this, and what they are going to do about it, if they want to be re-elected.

Answer 5

Definitely There is a limit to how much you push people.

Answer 6

No. He had a blood problems that caused his death. Poor criminals complaining that their punishment was too hard.

edit: He was a criminal and old enough to know better. All he had to do was stop and listen.

Answer 7

No, they likely saved someone who would otherwise have been killed by the thug in a few years.