Social or Societal Homicide, this is clearly the result of lawmakers laws, and the failure to make laws, because they are afraid of losing their jobs. We see this far too often in sex offense cases, nationally.11-15-2010 Michigan:
The response has been overwhelming -- from parents, students, attorneys, and I fear, victims.
The case of a 14-year-old girl who had sex with an 18-year-old boy from her high school and later called it, alternately, rape or a wish to lose her virginity, has brought front and center the Michigan law that makes it illegal for teenagers to have sex.
That is the law. Repeat: It is illegal for young teenagers to have sex.
Problem is, parents don't teach it. And sometimes, prosecutors don't buy it. And since our entire social culture right now treats sex like grabbing an ice cream cone, we have lost sight of what this is doing to our children.
In a column last week, I called prosecutors cowards for dropping charges against the 18-year-old for having sex with the 14-year-old. The girl killed herself a day before the 18-year-old's court hearing.
After the sex, after going to prosecutors and saying she'd agreed to it, after going on television and saying it was rape -- and after being bullied senselessly (notice how that sounds like "beaten senselessly"?) by her so-called peers at school, she hung herself.
Her brother found her. Her family mourns her. And still, we aren't dealing with the law.
What's definitely true here
Prosecutors are right. They weren't sure what happened, and the 18-year-old no longer could face his accuser. So, no case.
But they are wrong in their lack of zealotry.
Three things are true: Lesser cases have been prosecuted; better investigations have been done, and sometimes, laws change after righteous prosecutors argue that current law no longer is enough.
First, I can find you plenty of guys who have gone to jail on less evidence, although my plea was NOT for jail time in this case, but for a proper hearing and respect for the law. The only way to get teens -- and their parents -- to follow it is to show that the law is real.
Second, investigating the case might have turned up more evidence, more witnesses, more cases.
And third, it is time for bullying to stop in this country. Seriously. How many children have to kill themselves before we stop citing old law and create new?
Fight social homicide
In some of the dozens of letters I got calling for action, parents cited the worst part of this case and what is irreversible: that a child was driven to kill herself. One woman called it social homicide.
This 14-year-old girl was a victim of social homicide.
I challenge not just Wayne County prosecutors, but prosecutors and judges nationwide, to consider fighting for a law against social homicide. Yes, I said it. If we are going to let the Social Network decide how we live, what is news, what is culture, what is right, then let those who die by it get some justice.
If a person is bullied to death, charge the assaulters with a crime. If that is the only way to stop the cruel and inhumane way that some children are being treated, then let's do it.
If we actually take seriously the laws that we have, then perhaps we could curtail teen behavior that some parents are not regulating at all.
Someone should hold accountable those who push someone to die. Those perpetrators who insult and assault and make miserable others who are vulnerable, defenseless and sometimes already sad, may as well have pushed their victims in front of a train.
The damage, sometimes, is no less. ..Source.. ROCHELLE RILEY, DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
