Given that Governor Scott was shocked by a video of boaters dragging shark through the water and that he likes interjecting himself into the criminal courts...
Why not take the Cocoa depraved indifference to death case (with the kids watching and shooting video of a man drowning while refusing to render aid or call for help) from our State Attorney and hand it over to Aramis Ayala in Orlando?
Oh, the shark dragging video is shocking enough, I'll grant you. But what a bad headline only a week or so removed from an even worse example if humanity! No, I'm not changing my position on the desth penalty cases Ayala refuses to prosecute, but I am making note of what draws our governor to the microphone for commentary.
There is and should be no comparison in the two videos that show the worst side of us as a people. Yet, an internet search for comments by the governor shows no results in the Cocoa drowning case. A similar search for the shark dragging story resulted in no fewer than 19 stories in the first two pages of reports.
If ever a situation called for a reaction by government officials it's the Cocoa drowning story. Don't misunderstand, both stories shock our sensibilities. But when you make a living watching and commenting on our society you notice things.
Authorities in the drowning case have noted the most likely charges to be filed relate to failure to notify authorities of the discovery of a dead body. The latest reports on the shark abuse case has authorities perusing law related to the acts and seeking ways to strengthen the law regarding such incidents.
Officials in Brevard immediately spoke out on the drowning case and they are also seeking to create a law that covers the demonstrated indifference to a man's death. That's commendable, but too late for justice to be had. In the shark case, there may yet be law that addresses it (and it's a bit surprising that wildlife authorities don't know if there is or not).
The governor's comments regarding the shark case are lauded as the right thing to do. His silence in the drowning case is deafening.
The implications for our society in either case are damning. Life is precious. How we handle life and death speaks to our very core as a people.
While we have been properly shocked by both cases, what we can do about them has little to do with the law. It goes much deeper. The situations have already played out and the law that existed at the time will either address them properly, or it won't.
Examining how those involved developed the mentality that their actions were not only proper, but good for posting for social media consumption by the masses, will take us much farther in providing a solution to the obvious ills of our society.
What do you say to that, governor?