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Uhuru members protest Porter's sentence
One member of the group says if Porter had been black, she would have been "put away."
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published November 8, 2005
TAMPA - Days afterward, the decision still stings for some. When a judge sentenced Jennifer Porter to probation and house arrest for her role in an accident that left two children dead, some labeled the decision racist, while others called it fair.
On Monday, however, several members of the Uhuru movement took to the streets to call on the judge to reconsider his ruling.
Hillsborough Circuit Judge Emmett Lamar Battles early Saturday ordered Porter, 29, to serve two years of house arrest and three years probation and to complete 500 hours of community service. She had pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident involving death.
The March 2004 crash killed Bryant Wilkins, 13, and his 3-year-old brother Durontae Caldwell and injured their two siblings, Aquina Wilkins, 8, and LaJuan Davis, 2.
The accident ignited a months long debate over whether race would be a factor in determining the former Muller Elementary School dance teacher's fate. And on Monday it appeared that fallout over the case is not over.
Uhuru member Connie Burton, 49, asserted that if Porter had been black she would have been "put away."
"What this sentence has done has moved us to the point where we're regressing not progressing. It shows that black people's lives have no value," Burton said.
[Last modified November 8, 2005, 02:15:36]
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