Page 10 Crack heads, drunks, and chads...oh my! Mark Merkel STArr WRITER And I thought that hang ing, dimpled, and pregnant "chad's" were bad enough. So if Florida wasn't the laughing stock of the nation already, let's throw some salt in that wound. Not only does the state have trouble counting, but it also has crack-heads on the police beat and a drunk kid suing them for his own bad decisions. Sixteen-year-old Richard L. Garcia filed suit against the Bradenton police department of Bradenton, Florida for not arresting him for drunk driv ing. The cops apprehended the teenager as he attempted to sneak into his girlfriend's house at 1:20 a.m., on Febru ary 9, 1999. Officer Robert Semler told the teen to go home. Semler made no note in ' : ■ i I Forum his report of Garcia being drunk, but Garcia's lawyer, Wade Thompson, claims that there were obvious signs. According to Thompson, Garcia was stumbling and his car had numerous empty beer cans in it. The officers alleg edly walked Garcia to the car and let him go. Garcia's BAC (blood alcohol content) was twice the limit for adults and almost 10 times the limit for juveniles. Garcia got into his car, started driving, missed a curve, and slammed into a tree, bursting his aorta. He now has a plastic aorta and medical bills close to SIOO,OOO. To make this interesting, officer Semler 'later' resigned from the force after admitting to a crack-cocaine problem. I understand how serious a trial this is because one per son has lost their job, and an other will have to live with a The Guilfordian disability for the rest of his life- but this is absurd. Weren't there any drug tests for the police of Bradenton? Can we hold the state respon sible for this accident if it was the kid's choice to get wasted and put his life in danger? Through all of this I can't help but wonder why some- Give me a break! Time has been flying Thanksgiving wasn't even here, and stores had been transformed into a Christmas setting. It's just the first of Decem ber, and the world weeks ago brought out the holiday deco rations and totally skipped over Thanksgiving. As I sat watching TV prior to Thanksgiving, the only com mercials that came on were for Christmas. In a time span of 3 hours, there were 11 ads for Christmas and only one for Harris Teeter turkeys. Thanksgiving was just a little bump in the road, yet society jumps over Thanksgiving and focuses on Christmas. v.. ■ % v-- 4 - -, ,#v. , . ..: : - :•.••• •'V;-.:.,v ; ;. . ; /'V'' JS&gßSmr HnHwfirMHjjHß I^r r .. jp x , J|| L Pa9w!i % wl BHf^- GMH !; V ' ' -' ; : . v •'■ ■ ; FTY Even Director of Security Sylvia Chilcott feels the strains and pressures of the Yuletide season. Jessie Melamed STAFF WRITER December 1, 2000 body hasn't asked Garcia who bought him the beer. Legally that person could be the re sponsible party because she or he supplied the alcohol to the minor in the first place, there fore contributing to the delin quency of minors. All I can say is, God save the soul of Florida. I was in Teeter before break, and the Thanksgiving decorations were almost invis ible, while the Christmas ones were on the way up. For start ers, the aisles were set up with candy canes and Hershey kisses with red and green wrappers, and the only visible thanksgiving items were a few balloons floating in the air. In conclusion, I would just like to point out that the world that we live in is difficult for people to live in and not get stressed about when society jumps ahead to a further holi day and skips over what's going on in the present. To quote a Hallmark card, "Yesterday is History. Tomorrow is a Mystery. Today is a gift, that is why it is called the Present!" c A M P U s c A N D I D OF GUILFORDIAN PHOTO ARCHIVES