The back-and-forth over whether Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies should have done more to save three girls who drowned after crashing a stolen car into a St. Pete pond March 31st continues to rage.
On Thursday, activists associated with the Uhuru and Nation of Islam movements as well as the Tampa Bay Dream Defenders held a media event in which they called the deputies who failed to rescue Dominique Battle, Ashaunti Butler and LaNiya Miller from the sunken car "murderers," presumably in response to a viral video that circulated weeks ago suggesting the officers callously stood by as the girls drowned the car, which had gone into a pond in a cemetery off Gandy Boulevard. Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the video was misrepresentative of what really had happened.
After the event, Gualtieri fired back at the activists, calling their actions "irresponsible" and their claims "baseless." He said the video showing the deputies standing around as the girls drowned in the car was taken out of context and their efforts to wade into the pond — the bottom of which was coated with enough muck to endanger the deputies' lives — were left out.
Given ongoing tensions in the Tampa Bay area over perceptions of police treatment of African Americans, such debates (and, possibly, lawsuits) are likely to continue for some time.
But rather than jump to his or her preferred conclusion, some are seeking objective answers on whether, after the girls went off the road and into the pond, they really could have been saved had the otherwise unprepared officers waded into the pond.
On Friday, Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch trekked out to the site himself "to get a sense of the mud and accessibility" of the water.
Welch, a Democrat whose district includes predominantly African-American south St. Petersburg, is sympathetic to causes involving equality and leveling the playing field. But he also tends to be more about embracing objective data than shiny rhetoric (see: Pinellas fluoride debate; climate change).
So, he donned some galoshes and out he went.
Apparently holding a smartphone to capture the ease or difficulty with which he could wade into the water, he took his first step.
And that was it.
"First step and I'm already sinking. [It's] difficult to even get my foot out," he said.
Afterward, along with video and photos of the experience, Welch posted that, while the event was tragic and the racially charged debate disappointing, he hoped to help counter the "escalating rhetoric" on either side of the debate.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2016.