
[Raquel]Nelson, 30 and African-American, was convicted on the charge this week by six jurors who were not her peers: All were middle-class whites, and none had ever taken a bus in metro Atlanta. In other words, none had ever been in Nelson’s shoes:
They had never taken two buses to go grocery shopping at Wal-Mart with three kids in tow. They had never missed a transfer on the way home that caused them to wait a full hour-and-a-half with tired and hungry kids for the next bus. They had never been let off at a bus stop on a five-lane speedway, with their apartment in sight across the road, and been asked to drag those three little ones an additional half-mile-plus down the road to the nearest traffic signal and back in order to get home at last.
And they had never lost control of an over-eager four-year-old as they waited on a three-foot median for a car to pass. Nor had they watched helplessly as a driver who had had “three or four” beers and two painkillers barreled toward their child.
That’s right: Because Nelson did not lug her exhausted little ones three-tenths of a mile from the bus stop to a traffic signal in order to cross five lanes of traffic, she is guilty of vehicular homicide. Because she did as her fellow bus riders, who crossed at the same time and place, and because she did what pedestrians will do every time – take the shortest reasonable path – she is guilty of vehicular homicide.
The drunk driver has a history of hit and runs. He served six months in jail. Nelson faces three years in jail. Justice?
this is what I’m talking about when I say that mothers get harsher sentences than the person who actually killed the child does.
(via manif3stlove)
Please read and sign petition guys.
Well that’s complete and total bullshit.
What in the fucking fuck is this fucking shit.
post. The American legal system at work, ladies and gentlemen. Spoiler alert: it sucks.
Hm. Black, low-income mother of three charged for the tragic death of her own child, when the white, middle-class...