A Fly in the Ointment

[H2O Man]

15. Thanks!

I find myself thinking of the dichotomy of Gabby's social media post, and the film from the police camera. In the past week, I read some valuable reports on the connections between social media and depression rates among teenaged girls. As if being a teen isn't difficult enough. Having been a teenager myself was tough enough. Raising two sons and two daughters increased my awareness of how technology has amplified some of those difficulties.

All four have been employed in social work, though my oldest son burned out. The other son and both daughters currently work with teenagers. I think their jobs are more difficult than such work was decades ago.

One of the things I think is interesting is that it's not only the media focuses on a white, blonde, attractive young lady ..... surely, if those male police officers were, as well. Had it been a non-white couple, I am confident it would have gone differently. It's not just that they had enough to charge Gabby with a domestic violence charge ..... had she not been a cute, blonde, white female, it is safe to say the officer wouldn't have said she came out of the stop as the shining flower. She would have been in handcuffs.

More, any conscious investigated would have focused upon at least one of the cues in the boyfriend's behavior that indicated he was lying. Add the initial report that he had been seen slapping her, but both denied he participated in the violence beyond pushing her, they would have recognized the likelihood had he had instructed her "not to tell." Add her behaviors while being questioned, and any good police investigator or forensic social worker would have been aware that there was a heck of a lot more going on between a couple in a cramped van on a multi-month vacation.

I could go on and on, but discussions on domestic violence and race can be difficult, as you know!