Why No Arrests Made in Racial Attack on Girl?

I was quite upset to read of young Amber Jefferson and the violent racial attack on her and her friends (Aug. 10).

My first thought was for Amber and her family. Here is a young life that will never be the same. A half-white child that may come to hate part of her heritage because of what happened to her.

I was extremely distraught that no one had been arrested. That the situation was still under investigation because police could not determine exactly what happened. As if this child could have actually done something to make this assault seem reasonable.

The Australian youth admitted, apparently, that he swung his bat first because he was frightened by the black youths. Immediately I feared for my own black life and the lives of my children. At any given moment someone might feel frightened by my presence and attack me.

In your follow-up story you reported no arrests were made and that the Sheriff’s Department was not classifying this as a racial attack. I am mortified. If black youths with baseball bats and shards of glass attacked white teen-agers, would it then be a racial attack? Who can we, as black parents living in Orange County, expect to protect our children? Where can we go for the justice?

As I read Amber Jefferson’s story, I shed many tears. Tears for Amber and her family. Tears for my own black daughter who frequently goes out with her white friends. Is she expected to silently accept a similar situation? Are her friends expected to risk their own lives defending her? Why doesn’t our system of justice work in this instance? It seems to me that there was probable cause to arrest the parties involved.

The last tears I shed were for the part of me that died as I read about Amber. You see, I grew up believing the things I was taught about this country. Even on the days that I was called a “nigger,” I believed those things and I believed I was a part of the fabric of this country. Even as I watched Martin Luther King, John and Bobby Kennedy and Malcolm X being gunned down. I believed in the system and the basic goodness of this country. As I listened to Nelson Mandela speak during his recent visit to our country I believed that maybe the world was changing and I felt proud to be a link in the American chain. I shed a tear now as I am reminded a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

STEVI MEREDITH

Stanton