• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Gardening almost landed this man in jail due to false accusations.

Orpheum

Member
from nytimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/us/white-women-calling-police-black-men.html

Mr. Peeples said he returned to the neighborhood where he grew up to create a garden that could help feed residents, chip away at food deserts and teach children about urban horticulture — a personal redemptive mission after three years in prison on drug charges.
What happened next was something else: gardening while black, as his lawyer described it, another example of white people calling the police on a black person for everyday activities.

The women who complained said Mr. Peeples had terrorized the neighborhood, about 20 minutes north of downtown, by repeatedly threatening to burn down their houses and ordering them to leave because they were white.

They accused him of illegally painting trees and vandalizing houses. And in the most serious allegation, one neighbor falsely accused him of sexual misconduct.

Two months later, Mr. Peeples hosted a group of home-school children at the garden. As they planted cabbage, carrots and wildflowers, the police showed up once again. During cross-examination at the trial, Ms. Callahan admitted that she called 911 and told the police that Mr. Peeples had been convicted of sexual misconduct, according to Mr. Burton-Harris and Judge Bryant.

“These ladies testified they made the initial contact with him, not the other way around,” she said in an interview. “They testified that they called the police and the parks and recreation department and they followed him to the bus stop and said he was in a gang and had a gun. That is the definition of harassment.”

“From the bottom of my heart, I believe race was a motivating factor and an injustice has been done to this man,” Judge Bryant said.

Because of the charges, Mr. Peeples said he stopped getting temporary jobs with a janitorial service, lost business opportunities and had to hire a lawyer. He spent about $4,500. A fund-raising campaign on his behalf has generated about $27,000.

“These women are racist, plain and simple. They don’t want me here. They wanted to do this garden without me,” Mr. Peeples said. “I am boarding up houses, cutting grass, planting a garden, trying to keep riffraff out of here and they are a filing false reports against me. They did a lot of damage to me.”

There's much more in the Article, i tried to condense it as much as possible. Truly disgusting behavior by the women. I hope they face serious consequences for their shit.
 

Barnabot

Member
Those racist ladies should be arrested and held accountable for being racist and thus liars and also by trying to destroy someone's life because of their skin color. Talk about some shit people.
 
Anyone who's passionate about agriculture is pretty cool in my book. Hanging my head reading the rest of that. Would've loved to just have read about some dude gardening veg with the kids in the neighborhood.
 

Orpheum

Member
There was quite ab it of she said/he said in it, to prove beyond reasonable doubt.
However, even when it is clear, accusers are not punished:

Five Teenage ‘Mean Girls’ Falsely Accused A Boy Of Sexual Assault. They Weren’t Punished.

It's merely a civil suit they are facing, district attorney didn't bother.

This is messed up. They deliberately try to ruin someones life out of the blue without any foothold to their accusation, and don't even face adequate punishment? Jusus fucking Christ
 

-Minsc-

Member
I'm going to mentally remove the colours of skin from the people mentioned in the article. While I'd agree that one colour is more likely to be put away on false allegations than another, in the long run I feel addressing the entire issue of false allegations is better.

As for punishing false accusers. I don't like the idea of punishing anyone, even those who legitimately commit serious crimes. The problem is I don't know how to convince people to turn away from such acts without the punishments. There's a better way but we clearly haven't figured it out.
 

Doom85

Member
As for punishing false accusers. I don't like the idea of punishing anyone, even those who legitimately commit serious crimes.

I'm going to give you the benefit of doubt and assume you misspoke when saying "anyone" and really was referring to your previous sentence regarding false accusers. I don't know anyone who thinks murderers and rapists shouldn't face at least some jail time* given they clearly have proven they are not safe to be allowed in public society for now. Also, even if a person were to have the sort of mindset that no one should be punished but merely talked to or something, they have to understand that the victim and their loved ones are mostly likely going to strongly disagree with that. Heck, a truly reformed person would want to face some sort of punishment for their crimes, if they feel there's no need for themselves to face any real consequences for their actions then I highly question how much they've actually changed.

*and not a slap on the wrist amount of time, I hate those two separate stories of a judge who each gave a young man who had raped a woman only 6 months of jail time because the first judge said, "we wouldn't want to ruin his life over one act" and the second said, "society will be the real ones to punish them". The first judge, oh I'm sorry, so let's ignore how the victim's life might have been impacted by the physical and psychological pain she was given, we have to make sure the rapist's life isn't hurt too much! PRIORITIES! And the second judge, yeah most companies aren't going to hire a rapist for logical reasons, but you still have to do your job and punish him appropriately without assuming how he'll be treated when his jail time is up. Geezus, how was this a thing? Sorry, kind of a tangent and this happened IIRC a few years ago, but this sort of high-level incompetence will likely never leave my brain.
 

lil puff

Member
There was quite ab it of she said/he said in it, to prove beyond reasonable doubt.
However, even when it is clear, accusers are not punished:

Five Teenage ‘Mean Girls’ Falsely Accused A Boy Of Sexual Assault. They Weren’t Punished.

It's merely a civil suit they are facing, district attorney didn't bother.
This is where I contradict myself in my thinking, maybe we do need more closed circuit cam technology in public.

Otherwise a lot of things can be he said/she said.

When false accusers are caught, I do think the penalty should be highly punished.
 

bucyou

Member
I'm going to mentally remove the colours of skin from the people mentioned in the article. While I'd agree that one colour is more likely to be put away on false allegations than another, in the long run I feel addressing the entire issue of false allegations is better.

As for punishing false accusers. I don't like the idea of punishing anyone, even those who legitimately commit serious crimes. The problem is I don't know how to convince people to turn away from such acts without the punishments. There's a better way but we clearly haven't figured it out.

nah, heinous crimes deserve punishment. Also curious how to "legitimately" commit a serious crime, or any crime for that matter.
 
I'm going to mentally remove the colours of skin from the people mentioned in the article. While I'd agree that one colour is more likely to be put away on false allegations than another, in the long run I feel addressing the entire issue of false allegations is better.

As for punishing false accusers. I don't like the idea of punishing anyone, even those who legitimately commit serious crimes. The problem is I don't know how to convince people to turn away from such acts without the punishments. There's a better way but we clearly haven't figured it out.

Your Avi reminded me that I need to continue watching Mushi-shi :messenger_heart:
 
Top Bottom