Quote:
Originally Posted by NoBozo
The dialog on this thread.. and the other one, is Not About Justice. It's about GET THIS RICH............. Person of Privilege.
Try this scenario: A poor Section 8 Black Women in a John Boat with two friends...fishing for food for their family. The boat capsizes in rough water in broad daylight...the water is cold... One of the friends drowns. The poor Black Women operating the tiller on the outboard motor is the "Captain" ....NO..?? She IS responsible for the death of her friend.......NO..?
She (The Captain) made a wrong decision to go out this day. The boat sank. She didn't read the weather right. Should she go to Prison for this offence...? Other than sincere sympathy for ALL the women on the boat....we wouldn't be talking about this incident...would we..???  NB |
I'll do you one better, based upon my own experience:
In 1998, I kept my boat in Roberts Cove as I had for many years. I took 1/2 day off and went to the marina. I believe that it was a Thursday. When I got there, I encountered the harbor master, George who was with this young guy who was just getting off of a sailboat that had just dropped him off. He was hysterical about the boat that he and his family were in that had sunk on the way to their camp on Moose Island. For those of you who know the basin-and remember George, I ran around to the other side, jumped in my boat and was literally up on plane before I went past the gas dock to render assistance. George was yelling "Yah boy!, you go boy!, you find 'em!" in that accent he had with his arm outstretched pointing out of the cove as I went by. I'll never forget it. But I digress.
It can get very rough on that part of the lake where that boat went down--some of the roughest water on the lake is in that area. The search by myself, other boaters, and the Marine Patrol never found the one family member missing and that young man was never found. It to came to light that the boat had way too many people on board and way too much cargo in it for it's hull rating. As the boat went down, the few who had the opportunity to grab a a life jacket or cushion (there weren't enough on board) immediately discarded them as they were old and began to sink. There was even some discussion a few days later that the person who drowned was not a good swimmer and that the life jacket he had managed to put on pulled him under...
IMO, the Captain of that boat made not one but two cardinal mistakes: He overloaded his craft and didn't carrying adequate flotation devices for each of his passengers. As far as I know, the Captain of that boat was never charged or even accused of negligence. With all the hysteria over this case, it begs the question of what is the statue of limitations for negligent homicide?
The bigger question that comes to mind in the Diamond Island accident is would there have been legal charges brought forth if alcohol wasn't involved?