This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
What's inside our court officers heads? Last week, prosecutors pushed to try a 17-year-old as an adult because he was almost 18.
The legal age of accountability is 18. Juveniles who commit heinous crimes should face adult punishment, but this crime was hardly heinous and simply saying "close enough" is a slippery slope, effectively lowering the age of accountability to 17 years 9 months. Eventually someone 17 years 6 months will be considered "close enough" and tried as an adult.
Had the victim in this case not died, would the prosecutor have pushed to try a simple assault case in adult court?
This week, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that a deputy can be sued by the parents of a boy killed when he crashed during a 100 mph chase.
We rely on officers to make decisions for our safety. This young man was clearly risking the public and needed to be stopped. If parents can simply ask police to find their kids but not arrest them for risking the public, that reduces them to uniformed baby sitters?
Once we allow our police officers to be sued for doing their job in good faith, they will stop doing it. Then where will our society be?
Jared Atkinson
Murray