Convicted On Account Of Being Goth

What has this country come to when a person is judged by his or her style? The young man lives just an hour's drive south from where I live in the suburb of Dublin. Investigators most likely have never met this guy, who was a good student. Yet they have painted a picture of a monster. Many people in the Bay Area have decided that he is guilty, and he hasn't even set foot in court yet.

What frightens me the most is that this media-made monster looks a lot like the person I see when I look in the mirror.

It scares me to think of how many times that I have been bothered by police and shop workers because of the way I dress. I read about some of the things the 16-year-old has been though and how he dresses, and my life very much reflects his. We even started wearing darker cloths in the same grade. Had we been in the same school, we most likely would have been friends.

I'm not saying he is or is not the person who killed Pamela Vitale. What happened to her was horrific, and no person should have to die that way. What I am saying is that the people in television, as well as in the newspapers, should be ashamed of the way they have jumped on a minor like this -- his picture on the front page, along with his full name. What if he is found not guilty? Worse yet, what if he's innocent and still is found guilty because the jury saw on TV that a rich white woman was killed, and everyone is sure a young gothic kid must have done it to start an illegal pot-growing business? The kid was a good student, and he had never been in trouble before.

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