From the article, the young man, Travon Gray, was playing and swimming with some friends at the lake, but were swimming beyond the buoys and other reckless actions.
The kicker is when one sees why they were able to do this and why it took so long to get to him and retrieve his body (emphasis mine):
[South Shore Fire Chief Bill] Bouma says lifeguards were eliminated this year due to budget cuts.The article doesn't make it clear why the budget was cut. It could have been due to Scott Walker's malicious slashing of shared revenue or some local politician's petty tyranny, but it doesn't really matter anymore.
"We've had a number of problems in the past with this lake," Bouma says. "This is a problem lake for us. It's a deep lake. Visibility is terrible and now with no lifeguards it's a real problem."
The fact is that to appease some corporate overlord or a more local teahadist, just so they could have the illusion of saving a whopping 78 cents on their property tax, there is now a young man lying dead, his family and friends grieving their tremendous loss. There are also the passers by who made the call to 911 and the first responders who have to deal with their feelings on this senseless tragedy.
That makes the "tax break" nothing more than blood money.
>And no, not one RWNJ took a moment to mourn the loss of this young life. Nothing better shows their true colors.
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My guess is no RWNJ cares because his first name was Travon.
ReplyDeleteThat's just what I was going to post.
DeleteA tragedy to be sure, but lifeguards would not have been there to save him anyway.
ReplyDelete"Keyontae Howard, who was swimming beside the boy, said that their group of friends had jumped off the pier between 7 and 7:15 p.m. The boy grabbed his leg, but then did not resurface."
"Officials say lifeguards don’t work at Quarry Lake anymore because attendance is low. This is the first year Racine County has not had lifeguards at Quarry Lake. They have used them in the past, and their shift ended at 6:30 p.m. The Racine County Dispatch Center received a 911 call about Gray at approximately 7:09 p.m."
So, you're saying that because an untrained teenager could save him, a trained lifeguard wouldn't have been able to? Not to mention would have prevented his reckless behavior in the first place? I would have to disagree.
DeleteNot to be too morose, but I'll wager that the cost of the rescue effort would have funded one guard position. I guess it comes to priorities.
ReplyDelete