The Gantt Report, By Lucius Gantt

Years ago when The Gantt Report said that brutality by authorities was coupled with a "code of silence" policy, many people said I was crazy.

Now, when news report after news report details how a North Florida teenager was "beaten" to death at a boot camp, perhaps it is time to revisit how times have changed and how times have not changed.

As I’ve said before, during slavery days in America, one white boy could control five or six Black men just by raising his voice. In 2006, apparently it takes five or six law enforcement officers strapped down with nine-millimeter pistols, tasers and billy clubs to control one teen aged Black child.

What is this country coming to? Nothing that it hasn’t already been!

White media institutions like to write colorful stories about Black History but only the Black media will tell the story about differences in the way that Black and white persons are treated by the law.

Much of the anger about the boot camp death has been directed towards the correctional officers and the nurse that stood idly by while the child was allegedly beaten to death.

Is that all that should be considered? I think not!

Who is the prosecutor that sentenced the Black child to the death penalty? Who is the judge that rubber-stamped whatever the prosecutor sought as punishment for the child?

You see, is it just me or does it seem wrong for a prosecutor and a judge to send a child to a boot camp where boot camp correctional officers can just run wild and beat all the youthful inmates that they want to beat. Could judicial system employees that arrange for Black youth to be sent to unsafe boot camps be labeled as co-conspirators?

Now don’t ever think that your lawyer, no matter how much money he will make off of your child’s death, will accuse a judge and a prosecutor of complicity in a boot camp killing. Sometimes, you have to take care of the business and honor your child yourself.

Another thing, why does it always seem that white officers are involved when Black people are brutalized by law enforcement? We never hear about four or five Black officers beating a white person to death.

But we do hear silence. When investigators ask what happened when an inmate is killed while in custody, oftentimes the Black law enforcers don’t say anything. I wonder how many Black boot camp employees stepped up to tell the truth about what happened in Panama City?

People that enjoy brutalizing Black youth will not stop the brutalization unless they are made to stop! Power never takes a step back, only in the face of more power!

My prayers go out to the family of the child that went to the boot camp alive and left the boot camp dead or dying.

My anger goes out to the accused murderers! (Contact Lucius at theganttreport@comcast.net