EDITORIAL
Youths under siege
Capitalism's war against young people keeps getting
dirtier.
On March 9, a Florida judge sentenced 14-year-old Lionel
Tate to life in prison for killing a playmate when the boy
was just 12. The children had been playing in the style of
TV's popular professional wrestling shows.
Anyone who has seen kids roughhousing under the influence
of these violent--and highly profitable--shows can easily
understand how a child might end up dead or seriously
injured.
To convict a child of first-degree murder in such a case
is an outrage.
But in Florida, home of Gov. Jeb Bush and the stolen 2000
election, the outrageous can become legal reality
overnight--especially when an African American is the
accused.
Tate and the child who died, 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick,
are Black. The prosecutor and judge were white. A jury
convicted Tate on Jan. 24, but many of the jurors later said
they felt pressured and that the boy should not have been
tried as an adult.
Broward County prosecutor Ken Pado witz carried out a
vicious courtroom and media campaign against Tate and his
mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate. Padowitz simultaneously
pushed for a first-degree-murder conviction while bemoaning
the mandatory life sentence it carries to the media.
Judge Joel T. Lazarus could have reduced the life
sentence. But he turned a deaf ear to the community outcry,
claiming "the evidence of guilt was overwhelming."
Tate was to be immediately put in an adult state prison.
Bush, under pressure, had the child transferred to a juvenile
facility, but so far has made no move to grant him clemency.
Tate's attorneys and supporters are now planning their next
moves.
The number of juveniles being tried as adults is growing,
especially in cases involving youths of color. The criminal
injustice system no longer even puts up a pretense of trying
to "reform" people under 18.
The profit system has no future to offer young people,
especially the most oppressed. And the system's guardians
know that sooner or later the anger of millions of youths
will turn against capitalism.
That's why they'd rather lock up Lionel Tate and other
juveniles than provide them with education, counseling and
opportunities.
That's why they'd rather turn schools into virtual prisons
than provide students with a real future.
But repression breeds resistance. The jailing of youths,
police terror and suppression of protest rights will explode
in the bosses' faces.
In the meantime, revolutionaries and progressives must do
everything they can to oppose the war on youths while
providing an avenue of struggle for those young people who
want to fight the system, but don't yet know how.
Free Lionel Tate!
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS
:: SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page