Yesterday in Pinellas County, FL three teenage girls stole a car from a man who had given them a ride (he foolishly left them in the running car while he went into a store, and they drove off). At some point in the early hours of the morning, the cops started following the stolen car, which the kids were driving with no headlights in pre-dawn darkness.
The cops say they weren’t in hot pursuit, simply following the car, but the kids were trying to get away and ran off the road into a weed-choked pond, where the car sank in 15 feet of water. The cops tried to get to the car but couldn’t save the girls, who all drowned.
All three girls had run-ins with the law before, including for auto theft, which is apparently a huge problem in the county. Here’s what Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said:
“We have been plagued for over a year with excessive auto thefts being committed by young, primarily black young people,” Gualtieri said. “There were 2,779 cars reported stolen in Pinellas in 2015. Between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015 juveniles in Pinellas county were charged with 1733 felonies.”
Gualtieri said there has to be a change in the system to keep young black kids from committing these types of crimes. According to their statistics, nearly half of the auto thefts in 2015 were committed by young black juveniles.
“Kids stealing them are using them for joy riding committing, other crimes like drug deals, the armed robbery, and then just dumping the cars… Law enforcement chasing these kids and arresting them is not solving a thing. The solutions need to come from deep within the community. Three dead teenagers is not acceptable.”
I agree that three dead teens isn’t acceptable. But here’s my question: What is the point of bringing the dead kids’ race into it?
Is the (white) sheriff trying to do the Bill Cosby shouty thing at the local black community, most of whose kids aren’t stealing cars? Does he think there are specific anti-auto theft techniques that would work with black kids that can’t be applied across the board to any kids who steal cars?
In short, what the actual fuck?