(The driver faced no charges.)

🙄

Let's play the colors game.

What color is the child? You guessed correctly!!

What color is the DA? You guessed correctly!!

The same DA did not press felony charges for a man who left his gun out for two kids to play with, one of them ending up dead.

The father's black, the mother's white, the prosecutor is a Republican, and this is North Carolina. And this is The New York Times, so the parents' race isn't even mentioned. Wouldn't know it's a mixed marriage if the paper hadn't included a photo, but you can bet District Attorney Travis Page knows.

"Why don't kids ever play outside anymore?!"

Headlines:

jesus christ. what kind of of dystopian times are we living in? I'm only in my 40s and this would never have happened when I was growing up. in fact the opposite was more the norm. kids being monitored 24/7 was just not a thing like it is now.

how could such a dramatic change happen so quickly? and why?

Its amazing how absolutely adamant America is to refuse to hold parents accountable for all shit they are actually responsible for with their children, but are willing to throw the book at the parents if the kid goes outside and anything happens to them as a victim.

What grand jury permitted these charges? This is insane. The driver should be arrested not the parents.

"Gaston County’s district attorney, Travis Page, has not explained why he brought such high charges"

North Carolina? I suspect we all know the answer to that one...

https://travispageda.com/

Fuck anyone (and there's a lot of them) who think kids shouldn't be allowed to walk and ride bikes or scooters or play outside. That the parents should get anything but condolences from this is absurd.

The high bail seems particularly cruel in this case. The purpose of bail is to ensure the defendant comes to court to answer for the charge, which these parents seemed inclined to do given they want to regain custody of their other children.

Wow. I was still in kindergarden when my mom sent me to the shop to get some milk and stuff. And nobody considered this evil or criminal. Are American kids that unindependent?

How lovely to deal with your kid being run over and then get charged with a crime. There's no guarantee it would have not happened if they were there, too. Would the driver be at fault then?

Why? They didn't do it on purpose, and it will never happen again. They just lost their kid. They're going to be miserable for life, without the sentence. What point does the punishment serve?

"North Carolina is about average for national pedestrian deaths. But in the United States, that average is bleak, three times that of the rest of the developed world. The death toll of Americans on foot rose by 58 percent in the decade leading up to 2022..."

"A common response to the death of a jaywalker — whether an adult or a child — is to blame the victim: Why didn’t the boys cross at a traffic light, less than five minutes away?"

23 months ago a unhoused pedestrian was killed in hit-and-run just around the corner from me in a place I walk for exercise multiple times a week. It blew my mind when I fully considered how few people (especially officials) care when a pedestrian is killed. Sure enough when talking about it with family one of the first things I heard was "What was she even doing near the road" I mentioned the bus stop was only a couple yards away.

I was hit at a crosswalk a year before that by a lady pulling out from stop sign in traffic but at least she was coming from a dead-stop. I watched another guy one or two years ago roll off of some college kids hood because he was crossing at a crosswalk and the kid just made a left turn directly into him... -I'm beginning to think pedestrians need better protections from careless drivers, and I reside in what's supposed to be a more pedestrian friendly town already.

So if I walked home but on my way got hit and killed by a car, I would've committed suicide?

Community rhetoric aside for a moment, I cannot imagine hearing one of your children tell you over the phone their sibling was struck down in front of them. How traumatizing for them all.

Crazy how they don't even name the driver, like actually crazy and intolerable. I'm very curious just who the 76 year old is, and if that played a role in how charges fell at whose feet.

I really miss when the phrase, "Look both ways before you cross the street," was drilled in every kid's head. Now, I just see so many people (especially teenagers with living next to a high school) completely ignoring where they are walking, ignoring the signs/signals, with all their attention on their phone.

Then we have the new law (at least in California) that says pedestrians don't have to use a crosswalk if they think it's safe to cross. 9 times out of 10, they don't bother looking until maybe thay are halfway across.