Sacramento Bee Offers Unfair Comparison
Posted by FirearmsTruth on January 21, 2010 · 1 Comment
Writer Marcos Breton of The Sacramento Bee played the race card, keeps out a few key details and tries to show that 16-year old WHITE gun owner received better treatment than an adult BLACK teaching assistant. We’ve already covered how Gary Tudesko, a 16-year-old high school student was expelled for leaving two unloaded shotguns in his pickup truck, which was parked off the school campus. We haven’t heard much about James Marchbanks, a 35-year-old graduate teaching assistant at UC Davis, who allegedly told his drama students that he had a bomb that would go off after he left the room.
Breton tries to play up this story that Tudesko, despite being a sometimes unruly student, has gotten an easier time in the media, as well as support from the community, while Marchbanks had to spend four days in jail.
But is this just an issue of white and black – the author of this article made a big deal out of it – or could it be that two people made stupid mistakes. Why is race even a factor? Both were punished far more than they deserved is how we see it. Marchbanks didn’t deserve four days in school, but he’s an adult and dangerous speech is not protected by the constitution. Yelling “fire” in a movie theater will get you throw in jail too, so telling students there was a bomb wasn’t a good idea.
What bothers us more is that Breton not only plays the race card, but he tries to imply in his editorialized story, which for the record appears to have run in the Our Region section rather than Opinion section, that Tudesko actually parked on school grounds:
“Gary Tudesko, a 16-year-old Glenn County high school student, left two unloaded shotguns and ammunition in a pickup truck parked next to the tennis courts of his school.”
As we have covered, Tudesko was adjacent to school property, and the school board claimed that the school zone covers 1,000 feet of school – thus even the school board acknowledged that he was technically off school property.
So in the end there is really nothing else to say, except that this is a tale of two mistakes. Nothing more.
Thank you for putting out this article. Marchbanks continues to teach acting classes. Although the quote “I have a bomb, this is the last time I am ever going to see you. I am going to leave class before the bomb goes off but you are all going to stay here until it’s done” was never said by Marchbanks, but told to the police by the complaining students. This shows the bias that the police had against him. They never heard his side or what he actually said or did. I hope the Davis Police finally understands that people aren’t always the way they seem and that their focus should actually be about finding the truth, before arresting people.