Jennifer Porter Got Off Too Easy
Racism In Florida Court?
from
JoeUser Forums
On March 31, 2004, Jennifer Porter was driving through a dimly lit intersection on 22nd Street in Tampa when she struck four children, killing 13-year-old Bryant Wilkins and his 3-year-old brother, Durontae Caldwell. She then drove away without stopping to see if she could help the children or even taking the time to call for emergency assistance for them.
Yesterday Judge Lamar Battles sentenced Jennifer Porter to two years of house arrest followed by three years' probation and 500 hours of community service for her hit and run killing of two children.
This case is, in my opinion and the opinions of many here in Florida, a travesty of justice. The first thought that crossed my mind was "I wonder what the sentence would have been if those dead children had been white or Jennifer Porter had been black?"
Now I am not one of those people who screams racism at the drop of every hat, but this case really has to make me take pause and wonder. A young white woman hits and kills two black children with her car and then compounds her crime by leaving the scene without calling for help. Her father washed the blood off of the damaged car, supposedly "not to hide evidence, but to keep an already-traumatized Jennifer from seeing it." Yeah, right.
This woman received a slap on the wrist for killing two children and then trying to avoid responsibility for their deaths, lying to police about her involvement, and trying to destroy evidence. Justice was not served here in Florida and I really feel for the mother of those two dead children.
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Yesterday Judge Lamar Battles sentenced Jennifer Porter to two years of house arrest followed by three years' probation and 500 hours of community service for her hit and run killing of two children.
This case is, in my opinion and the opinions of many here in Florida, a travesty of justice. The first thought that crossed my mind was "I wonder what the sentence would have been if those dead children had been white or Jennifer Porter had been black?"
Now I am not one of those people who screams racism at the drop of every hat, but this case really has to make me take pause and wonder. A young white woman hits and kills two black children with her car and then compounds her crime by leaving the scene without calling for help. Her father washed the blood off of the damaged car, supposedly "not to hide evidence, but to keep an already-traumatized Jennifer from seeing it." Yeah, right.
This woman received a slap on the wrist for killing two children and then trying to avoid responsibility for their deaths, lying to police about her involvement, and trying to destroy evidence. Justice was not served here in Florida and I really feel for the mother of those two dead children.
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