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Guards' Actions Were Criminal

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 16, 2007

Regarding 'Acquitted On all Counts' (front page, Oct. 13):

I read with disbelief the headlines that the seven boot camp employees were exonerated of any responsibility in the 14-year-old child's death. Just watching the video makes a case for brutality. If the kid had been a dog, the guards would have been convicted of animal cruelty at the very least.

And a couple of facts that have been overlooked: The child was in the camp for joyriding in his grandmother's car, and stress and lack of oxygen, as happens when ammonia capsules are stuffed into your nostrils, will trigger a sickle cell exacerbation.

But that doesn't matter either. The guards' actions were criminal. I have been trying to justify the verdict to myself, saying that I didn't get all the evidence that was presented in the trial. But every path I take reaches the same conclusion: they were wrong. The state paying millions of taxpayers' dollars will never justify the family's loss. Are we living in a police state?

And just for the record, I am a 67-year-old Southern white woman.

FERN WILLIAMS

Zephyrhills

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