Guess who's facing 21 years in prison — the drunk , rich, white one, or the sober, poor, black one?
Two cars collided last year on Cinco de Mayo.The article goes on to point out that Wilkerson should probably take the hit for freaking out and leaving the scene of an accident. Fine.
Considering the date, you might assume that at least one of the drivers was drunk — and you'd be right. Laura Varker was 17 years old, and she'd been tubing down the Salt River all day with her eight best girlfriends. Their T-shirts all read "Cinco de Drinko." Even an hour after the accident, Varker's blood-alcohol level was 0.09, over the legal limit for adults. And, as an underage driver, she was in violation of the law by having any amount of alcohol in her system.
One of Varker's girlfriends, 15-year-old Felicia Edwards, didn't drink a drop*. But it was Edwards who died when Varker's Yukon Denali hit another car and flipped over and over like a tumbleweed before coming to a horrifying stop on the Bush Highway north of Mesa. Edwards was thrown from the SUV and pronounced dead at the scene.
When sheriff's deputies called Felicia's mother that terrible day, her first question was, "Was she wearing a seat belt?" She wasn't. Instead, Felicia had been in the back of the SUV holding down the tubes — a decision she paid for with her life.
That's a tragedy.
But only in its aftermath did the collision become a travesty. That's because, even after blood tests showed that Varker was legally drunk, and even after sheriff's investigators learned that it was she and another girl who'd flashed a fake ID and bought Coors Light and malt liquor for the group, Varker hasn't been charged with anything.
Not underage consumption.
Not drunken driving.
And certainly not manslaughter.
Instead of charging the affluent white girl, the sheriff's officers arrested the other driver, a black man, a guy who wasn't even legally drunk.
Bryant Wilkerson was a 28-year-old postal service clerk with nothing on his record worse than a fender-bender. That day, he was merely making a U-turn, in a place where U-turns are permitted, when a 17-year-old party girl in her daddy's SUV tried to speed around him.
Wilkerson's life has been upended. He's been charged with nine felony counts, including manslaughter and aggravated assault. He spent three months in jail because he didn't have the money to post bail, and he lost his job because of that. Now under strict curfew and random alcohol and drug screenings for the past five months, he has to get permission from the court just to attend his daughter's band concerts in the evening.
He's facing 21 years in prison...
But the drunken, underage white-girl who uses her daddy's SUV TO KILL HER FRIEND is is all lawyered up and posting to her MySpace page while her friend is rotting in the ground and the sober, brown-skinned working-guy with a daughter making the legal U-Turn is facing 21 years?
Fucking worthless, sack-o-shit, terrorist-loving SUV drivers. It's bad enough that they hate America and want our troops to bleed and die half way around the globe. Chalk up one more dead, mangled innocent on their slate.
Remind me NEVER to go to Arizona for any reason. The jungle-half of my genes are a bit melanin-laced, and the amount of sun down there would only make it worse.**
Via
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
the_urban_monk (although with a monk-like lack of vitriol).* Studies show that it's the non-drinkers who suffer the worst in car accident because they tense up for the hit while the drunks remain loose and fluid.
The lesson seems to be "Don't get into a car as a passenger if you're sober".
** OTOH, the most menacing "Leave this bar, or we will beat your café-au-lait ass down" gaze I ever got was in Lynn, MA, outside Boston. But that's what one gets for going into a local corner bar in a town you're not familiar with.
Fuck it, maybe just don't leave Northern California. I know what neighborhoods and bars to avoid 'round here in the Bay Area.
- Location:Oaktownbootyville, CA
- Jammin' to:Mötörhead - Eat The Rich
Page Summary
- monica_lisa : (no subject) [+3]
- gwenzilla : (no subject) [+8]
- (Anonymous) : Myspace page [+4]
- (Anonymous) : It's bogus. [+0]
- (Anonymous) : I got Laura Varker suspended from our high school. [+1]
- (Anonymous) : Use to know this girl [+0]
- (Anonymous) : I'M DISGUSTED!!!! [+0]
- (Anonymous) : (no subject) [+1]
Comments
Do you feel it distorts the facts, or is just editorializing in general you don't like?
I'm not saying this piece isn't right on in calling out the seemingly disproportionate treatment of the two drivers, especially in Arizona, home of the shady, but the daddy's rich bitch idiot teen/POOR MR. WILKERSON stuff is way over the top, especially in a case where [buried down the page]
- Wilkerson fled the scene [obviously someone was hurt as the deceased had flown out of the car]
- says he initially thought the accident was his fault
- by the time he was tracked down *still* blew a .049
- admitted to having smoked pot earlier.
IMO not the most reliable driver or witness.
AND I am really not cool on naming minors as suspect [see recent initial suspects in the Alameda murder, several of whom were cleared as mistakes but not until after being identified widely in press], particularly ones who haven't been charged with anything [regardless of whether they should], and am grossed out by the demonizing irrelevant crap [of course she's on MySpace in a bikini -- she's 17], etc.
Bryant Wilkerson was a 28-year-old postal service clerk with nothing on his record worse than a fender-bender.
vs.
Just seven months earlier, as a 16-year-old with a brand-new license, Varker had caused another accident...[fender-bender].
At least one witness, a friend of Varker's who was just behind her on the highway, told deputies that [Wilkerson's] car was slowing too dramatically for her to stop; Varker had to lurch into the center lane just to avoid rear-ending him.
Varker's friends: "Their T-shirts all read 'Cinco de Drinko.'"
Wilkerson's friends: "But I had the people in my car yelling, 'Go, go, go!'"
etc. etc. etc.
He should definitely take the hit for fleeing the scene of an accident.
Whether or not he saw & registered that a passenger was ejected, I would contend, is not automatically obvious. Eyewitness testimony in general is not all that reliable when compared to circumstantial evidence (although we as a society tend to think it's the other way around).
- says he initially thought the accident was his fault
I've been on scene as a first responder at a couple of car accident. Someone whose car has just been impacted is not usually a good judge of what's happened. Adrenaline pumped into your system under fight-or-flight conditions is powerful stuff.
- by the time he was tracked down *still* blew a .049
That was 10 minutes after the accident. Unless he's some physiological freak with a metabolism outside the normal human range, that means he was almost certainly well under the legal limit at the time of the accident.
- admitted to having smoked pot earlier.
I'm not particularly concerned about the effects of smoking pot earlier that morning on his driving, given the research that's been done. I think the alcohol is a MUCH more dangerous chemical to have in your bloodstream when driving. And even then, he was well under the legal limit for how much AZ will allow you to have in your bloodstream ands till drive.
IMO not the most reliable driver or witness.
With a good lawyer, I'd bet he'll make a much more sympathetic witness than the drunken teen behind the wheel of daddy's SUV.
Unlike those youths charged in Alameda, no one contests the facts that:
-She was behind the wheel of the car that crashed and killed her friend
-She was underage AND over the limit for legal drinkers. She broke the law by having ANY alcohol in her system before she even thought about getting behind the wheel.
I would argue that there is a prima facie case as described to arrest someone on multiple charges relating to the death. Let the courts handle it.
If
daddy's sodden little rich bitchthe drunken minor behind the wheel in question couldn't slow down fast enough, then she was following too closely for the speed she was traveling.It's the following car's responsibility, just ask your insurance broker.
Personally, I have little to no problem with the inflammatory nature of the column. I think there are not enough flames under the sheriff's ass to lock young miss Varker in a cage, and I hope this piece helps stoke some anger and resentment.
It's a travesty of justice that DLRB is free to post any sort of pictures to her MySpace page.
IMHO, She belongs in a cage, and I have little to no problem with people calling for it (and her) by name.
Her being a rich, entitled, daddy's little bimbo in a fucking terrorist-loving SUV merely makes it galling, as well as typical
Edited at 2008-01-24 08:09 pm (UTC)
I am always skeptical about people offering opinions in criminal matters that haven't been to trial. When people ask me, "Do you think so-and-so should be convicted?" I always respond, "Yes, if he/she is guilty, and no if not." It drives people mad!
As a nerd with an obsession for fairness and weak social intuition, I wish I lived in a society where the same rules applied to everyone, and everyone knew what they were. I can't remember how many times I saw people blithely ignoring rules, so I did the same, only to find out that I ignored one too many and got busted (or ostracized, or whatever) for it.
I get away with speeding in Alameda all the time because I keep it under 30 (the speed limit is 25). By doing this for eight years, I've managed to stay ticket-free in a notorious speed trap of a town. But I wonder how much of this is because I'm a middle-aged cracker driving a nice-looking car. When I was an almost-middle-aged cracker driving an old, dented car, I still got away with it, so who knows? The cops can't be everywhere at all times, and my normal route to and from work keeps me away from the most heavily policed areas (not on purpose), but who knows. When I drive 25, people tailgate me mercilessly. To a nerd, speed limit means "Never drive any faster than that, and if you accidentally creep over it, slow down as soon as you can, to that speed or lower." But to most people, it means "You'd better drive at least that fast and preferably a fair bit faster, or I'm going to ride your ass so close I should put on a condom."
I feel conflicted because I tend to get away with things that other people don't because I'm white, male, heterosexual, and reasonably well-off. Do I want to stop getting away with those things, maybe take a few cop beatings? Hell no! I wish the cops wouldn't beat anyone, but if there are going to be n cop beatings per year, and there's nothing anyone can do about it, I'm glad that .999n are going to people who don't look like me. Does that make me a bastard? I suppose it wouldn't be the only thing...
Assuming these facts are true, the point of the article and the core "issue" is the disparity of justice. no matter what you think of him, if you think the situation is being treated fairly and she is appropriately left out (no charges) then I feel for you when injustice visits you.
she's real real hot and all, but it's not the Laura Varker in question. it appears that her myspace page has been cleaned out of pictures, friends and all information (probably under her lawyer's advisement).
Nothing to see here... Sorry, it's the internet at work.
I couldn't really stand the fact that I was working my butt off in that class and get lower grades than everyone who was cheating.
So one day I went into the assistant principals office and reported her. She is currently suspended and our math teacher is pushing for her to get expelled.
Gee, what a nice girl. As if killing someone wasn't enough to learn a lesson...she had to start her own high schol black market. Luckily I made sure it was stopped.
Thought you'd all like to hear that : )
Laura- bought beer with a fake ID, was driving while intoxicated,
lied to a deputy....oh yeah and killed one of her friends and she is going unpunished?? That makes me sick! Her and her parents should be punished. They allow her to think that money can get you off the hook! What about the family who lost Felicia, where's their closure? She should be locked up and take responsibilty for her actions! Her parents should be locked up for being fuckin stupid!!! Ugh...this can make you have a fuckin heart attack!!