So others get the message.
On Friday morning, police said they’ve identified the girl. She’s a juvenile from San Antonio. Because she’s a minor, her identity is protected under the Texas Family Code.
The case will be turned over to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
Lufkin police said Friday that they don’t intend to charge the teen with tampering with a consumer product.
It’s not clear if juvenile justice authorities may charge her.
Before it was known that she was a juvenile, Lufkin police said the suspect could face a second-degree felony charge of tampering with a consumer product. The charge comes with a two- to 20-year prison term and up to $10,000 in fines, according to Texas state penal code.
Video of Girl Licking Blue Bell Ice Cream Linked to Store in Texas
One of the things that the USA has done very right is food safety. From refrigeration to packing to food handling, this country has never stopped trying to keep food as safe as possible. You do not hear a recall of a few pounds of a suspect item, but the whole tonnages of a batch. U
So when I see stupid thing like this (which by the way is the new viral thing among teens according to the Democrats need to be able to vote) it boils my blood. She is gonna not only skate out of trouble but her identity be protected because she is a minor.
Rewind a century. Back in the late 1890s, wrecking trains became a thing. Mostly for profit, some because the actors were insane but what amazed everybody back then was the cases where it was done for fun to see the big machine full of people crash in an spectacular fashion. In April 1896 there was a trial of one of three minors named Hildreth who cause the wracking of the New York Central Express train causing death and they were charged with murder. He was found guilty and was given a lenient sentence of Life in Prison. The other two immediately pleaded guilty and were given 40 years. Late the year before another train wrecker, an adult who also caused death, was given the death penalty and back then there was no 15 year wait to execute, he was “hemped” almost immediately. In other wreckers’ cases years before that did not cause death but injuries and the obvious loss of property, were given terms between 30 and 40 years vacations in the Big House. After the Hildreth case, train wrecks already becoming scarce, became pretty much inexistent after that. The message that society considered very uncool to screw with the safety of its citizens for thrills and giggles was sounded quite loud and the message heard.
Now, I am not advocating 30 years in the pen for the stupid girl, but a plea of guilty and at least 366 days behind bars appeal to me very much as I see it a way for her to pay for disgraceful and dangerous behavior.
It’s still a body fluid (saliva) being put on a product someone else would buy unknowingly. While a person probably wouldn’t become sick or infected by her actions (just a lick), there’s a slight chance they could.
Second-degree felony of tampering with a consumer product is the correct charge, unless there’s an “intent to harm” part in the statute, that would be hard to prove.
The 2 to 20-year prison term and up to $10,000 in fines would be excessive, especially if the 2 years is a mandatory minimum, but how many times do we see police and prosecutors using the judicial process (time, lawyer’s fees, court costs) as the punishment.
Charge her with tampering with a consumer product, put the scare into her, let her plea deal to a lessor charge that is a painful punishment, but not excessive.
Don’t forget to go after the guy as well as an accomplice… telling her to do it, then telling her to put it back… he needs to be facing the same charges.
Apparently that’s not a nose ring beneath her nostril, but mucous. Still think there’s only a slight chance of illness?
My update:
1) turns out she is a juvenile.
2) Texas law states:
Texas Penal Code § 22.09
(a) (2) “Tamper” means to alter or add a foreign substance to a consumer product to make it probable that the consumer product will cause serious bodily injury.
3) So with “probable” and “serious bodily injury”, I don’t see the lick meeting the law’s requirements for second-degree felony of tampering with a consumer product.
4) It will be interesting to see what they do charge her (and possibly him) with.
See The Volokh Conspiracy article:
https://reason.com/2019/07/05/the-law-of-the-ice-cream-tub-licker/
She intended to pass along her flu by doing this. I’d say it meets the laws requirement.
It has been reported she was ill with the flu when she did this. She was also encouraging others to do the same. Remember the Tide Pods challenge? How about the Tylenol Poisonings in the 1970’s?
What if someone contracted the flu? Maybe they are sick a few days; or maybe they are unlucky and are immunocompromised or have a pre-existing condition and die from the flu? What happens if someone else with HIV or hepatitis or norovirus tries this?
She should be tried as an adult felon, and if convicted, sentenced to the full twenty years; with nineteen and a half suspended dependent on good behavior. Give her a reason not to do anything stupid until she is in her forties. Same sentence for the idiot that was running the video.
Publicize the sentence. Give every other idiot a reason not to do stupid stuff like she and her buddies did.
We learned in training that to catch HIV from saliva, you’d literally have to drink gallons of it from an infected person.
Sentence her then make her instagram every day in prison as a warning to other stupid teens.