Attorneys for some of the young people who were at a New Year's party that ended in a murder would like us to believe that their clients should not be held in jail while they await trial on charges that they lied to police about what they saw. They were kids, after all, and they were afraid of the police or of getting involved or of gang intimidation or of being called snitches or whatever. But Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter is absolutely right to ask judges to lock up anyone who makes the streets of our cities and towns more dangerous because they lack the courage and the character to do what not only basic citizenship, but basic humanity, requires: Make sure that those who commit crimes against others are not allowed to get away with it. Scores of young people supposedly were at the party at the County Street duplex in New Bedford where someone shot 15-year-old Edwin Medina in the early morning hours on New Year's Day. And when police asked some of them what they saw, these young cowards sputtered their denials right up until the time that police showed them photographic evidence that they had, in fact, been at the party where Mr. Medina would be shot and then die a few days later in a Boston hospital. The anti-snitching code that is practiced here is an offense to all of us. And it is encouraged by not only teenagers but by people who know better. How many murder cases would this aggressive district attorney's office be able to solve with even a bit of cooperation from people who know what happened, know it was wrong and yet lack the moral courage to tell what they know? Ask the Lopes family, the De Pina family and so many others here who have seen their loved ones taken from them and who know there are people out there who could help the police put the killers in jail, but who have chosen to shut up rather than fess up. Meanwhile, a lot of New Bedford blames the police or the prosecutors or the judges when the system doesn't work. The police should find the killers, these people reason. They just shouldn't expect to get any help from the very people most likely to be victimized by the thugs who hold the community hostage. It's sick and it's sad. We're with Mr. Sutter on this matter. If you lie to police in a murder case, you belong in jail. Maybe that will help teach the lesson other grown-ups should have taught these young people a long time ago.
SoutCoastToday.com
Posted by: Delta784
When the President of the United States (Bill Clinton) is allowed to lie to a grand jury with impunity, does it really surprise anyone that young people think they should be allowed to get away with it also?
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