The Stupid Groundhog and Other Stuff...
Here we are ...half way through February. 2015 seems to be flying by faster than Superman bolts through the skies of Metropolis.. the Holidays came and went.. New Years' Resolutions made and no doubt already discarded by many..and yesterday we were all celebrating ooooey goooey love with roses, chocolates and all the ecoutremont of Valentine's and that creepy little Cherub Cupid and is arrow of love.... and we are working as hard as ever trying to get sponsors going for Baby Cooper's Law and the BCL Educational Packages published for Vet's, and Pediatrician's Offices as well as Hospital Nurseries. A couple of weeks ago I joked with Sam Champion over Twitter that stupid groundhog Ole Puxatawny Phil after seeing his shaddow predicting 6 more weeks of winter ( Incidentally, General Beauregard Lee, Atlanta's Groundhog didn't see his shadow.. so either there's decension in the Groundhog nation or they're neurotic animals that live in holes in the ground) needed to just stick his dern tongue to a flagpole to see if it would stick. Gosh knows the folks in the Northeast are probably cussing the litte guy under their breath as the environs looks more like the tundra like planet Hoth from the Empire Strikes Back as opposed to you know.... a city.. Friends Facebook posts from that neck of the woods reads more like SOS pleas for help laced with cabin fever induced psychoses from being trapped in their homes for days on end with kids who haven't been back to school in almost two weeks. Being someone that suffers a host of medical maladies that DO NOT especially enjoy cold weather even thought ole Phil might make a better fur stole ( not something any animal lover as myself would ever normally think about ) but even I have been felled down here in Bama after days and days of subzero temps. In fact as I make this entry... grocery stores statewide are being wiped clean of all bread and milk supplies as the weather guys who here in the land of the Crimson Tide revered nearly as much as Jesus have said that ugly and repugnant SNOW word in their forecasts for tomorrow through Wednesday morning. With all that said.. within a few minutes of realizing we were in for 6 more weeks of Winter blah.. I was relieved that maybe...just maybe I had 6 more weeks to really push hard to get a lot accomplished in rounding up volunteers to find sponsors, and distribute the awareness packages, and get the plans in place for our Evening With the Stars Gala to End Weather Related Vehicular Death. I mean with the lightening speed I've been able to move to get the Bunky's Resqme Window Blaster out there, this amazing website and blog, as well as our Facebook page and celebrity help on Twitter all with your help... surely 6 more weeks of Winter..( the first time in my life ever I have been excited about a prolonged Winter I assure you) would be plenty of time to really bust butt to get a lot accomplished. I WAS WRONG.
Since 1998 when hot car deaths, and vehicular heat strokes have been recorded statistically, no one has been recording cold car incidents. Here at the BCL movement, we decided that 2015 would be the year and we would start keeping those statistics.. two days later an infant would be left in a subfreezing car as his parents attended a wine tasting in the District of Columbia. As if that wasn't enough 3 days later another mother and her companion were charged in Philadelphia for leaving a 4 month old baby in a 35 degree vehicle while shopping inside an adult book store. Fortunately in both cases observant bystanders got involved and called law enforcement to effect rescues and both children were treated and released from local hospitals for mild exposure issues. In D.C. the couple was charged with 2nd degree attemepted neglect. Punishable as a class C Felony.. the couple there faces upto a $10,000 fine and upto 10 years in Prison. The Philadelphia case was a class E misdemeanor punishable by upto $1,000 fine and 1 year in Prison. Surely the case in D.C. was worse right??? Surely with that kind of possible fine and prison time..it was much worse.. has to be...right? If you thought that.. you'd be wrong. What's the difference you ask? The difference between Federal and State statutues is all the difference.
D.C. isn't a state. D.C. " by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States" (U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8). The U.S. Constitution, with this proclamation, left the legal formation of a national capital up to the U.S. Congress." What does this mean? It means the penalties for crimes against children are punishable under federal law. Under federal law clearly the penaties are harsher and have more teeth.it means the folks in Philadelphia who did the very same thing will more than likely not get any where near the punishment the folks in D.C. will get. In the District of Columbia.. leaving a child in a cold or hot car is a felony period, a misdemeanor in Philly. This is the kind of penalty we can hope for if we can make BCL a reality.. In reality both of the couples charged will probably plead out to lesser charges.
Yes.. you read that right... plead out to lesser charges... with BCL we need the federal law so we have congruent charges and penalties. While as I said no doubt both couples will plead ... the Federal Prosecutor in D.C. will no doubt also have more leverage in making sure the wine tasting couple will see stiffer requirements to complete that plea agreement than the prosecutor will have in Philly against the adult book store couple...and many times its those prosecutors that bear the ire of angry citizens and family members of crime victims when sentencing doesn't quite seem to fit the crime..What folks don't often understand is that under the law the prosecutors hands are tied. Tied hands lead to failures to convict.
Remember the Casey Anthony case? Im sure many of you sat there watching every minute just sure Casey Anthony would be found guilty of killing her beautiful little daugter Caylee. Finally reporting her missing only after many, many days.. Anthony no doubt became the most hated woman in America for callously partying and getting tattoos not to mention repeatedly lying to law enforcement about the circumstances regarding Caylee's disappearance. We all just knew that Casey would be convicted and sat slack jawed in stunned silence when she was acquitted. The blame fell on the prosecutors who did at times stumble.. however the failure to convict didn't fall squarely on their shoulders. Who is to blame you ask? No one is the answer.
The penal code of Florida is why Casey Anthony went free. The burden of proof for capital murder is very high in the State of Florida. Many of us heard the jury say in interviews after they believed Casey Anthony was guilty but couldn't convict of the charges they had to chose from because the way the law was writen it was next to impossible to prove she intended to kill Caylee even though many including this writer felt like whether she intended to in that particular instance and given the circumstantial evidence that she drugged little Caylee she absolutely was without a doubt guilty... under the standards of the Florida Penal Code.. she simply wasn't. This is also why we must have a uniform standard to charge and punish hot car death. We must untie the prosecutors hands.
As is evidenced in the differences in the D.C. and Philly cases its clear that there is great disparity both in the type of charge and penalties. We can't expect the impossible from our prosecutors who work tirelessly to achieve justice on a public servants salary. WE MUST PROVIDE THEM THE PROPER AND NECESSARY TOOLS TO UNIFORMLY CHARGE AND PUNISH WEATHER RELATED VEHICULAR ABANDONMENTS AND DEATHS OF KIDS AND ANIMALS STATE TO STATE...LOCALITY TO LOCALITY.. In coming weeks we will explore the other aspects of BCL and why the application of federal law is important to those parts of BCL... and in other news...we are working on sponsors for our Gala during which we hope to raise the vast majority of the funds needed for us to travel to D.C. and go door to door on Capital Hill for support of BCL. We are also actively seeking business sponsors to help us with our Weather Vehicular Death Prevention educational pamphlets and packages for distribution to new parents in hospital nurseries as well as veterinary, and pediatricians offices... TOGETHER WE WILL END THESE DEATHS #TOGETHER4COOPER
