Innocent Until Proven Guilty? Not in Philly.
I’m horrified by the so-called vigilante justice meted out by enraged community members yesterday, putting a “person of interest” — who has not been charged with any crime, nor officially named a suspect — in critical condition in a hospital. Police are searching a man who raped an 11-year-old girl, and distributed this person’s photograph to news outlets. Once found, he was beaten with sticks and fists by a mob, like something out of a Flannery O’Connor story. From the Philadelphia Daily News:
DEMETRICE REYNOLDS said she had one wish for the thug who brutally raped her 11-year-old daughter: “I want him dead.”
Her wish may as well have been broadcast across Kensington.
About a dozen neighborhood residents flew into a rage yesterday afternoon when they cornered Jose Carrasquillo, who police said they had linked through physical evidence to the heinous Monday-morning rape of Reynolds’ daughter.
The justice-seeking mob rained fists, feet and wooden sticks upon Carrasquillo, 26, for several minutes until police intervened at Front and Clearfield streets.
When the dust cleared, Carrasquillo, whose last known address was Orkney Street near York, was in critical condition at a local hospital, and police officials were thanking the locals for helping them catch a man they had pursued feverishly but identified only as “a person of interest.”
“Justice, community-style. It’s a beautiful thing,” said a resident who declined to be identified.
“The people took it [the case] to heart,” said Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey. “It says a lot about the community.”
Ramsey noted, however, that he didn’t condone the burst of vigilante justice. “They injured him pretty badly,” he said.
Hmm. It sure sounded like he was condoning it in the quote above that. Maybe if they had just smacked him around a bit and not injured him pretty badly, it would be okay.
The criminal justice system is far from fallible, especially at the start of a sensational case like a child rape. And mob violence is never acceptable, not even in Salem.
liz | 11:21 AM | violence
I agree, it’s horrific. We’ve had several incidents like that in Chicago, including cases in which someone hit another person with his or her car and then was dragged out and beaten to death by an angry mob.
Oh yeah – well try having the patience for 3 years to get a pedophile put into prison, all the while he is abusing 12 more boys. . .we did it the “lawful” way but it took way too long and more lives were ruined in the process. So I agree with what the neighborhood did to him. They know who it was. And the girl will never be the same. Her chances of ending up with a severe mental illness are magnified 100% more since this happened to her, afterall there is still a connection with childhood abuse and trauma to later mental health and emotional health instability.
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