Jackson Free Press

WAPT is reporting that Jared Foster has been indicted in Madison County Circuit Court for selling steroids and released on a $5,000 bond. He pled not guilty and waived arraignment.

Foster was arrested in Oxford in January after allegedly selling anabolic steroids to an informant on Oct. 5, 2007. He was dismissed from the University of Mississippi football team in January.

Previous Comments

ID

129638

Comment

I'm guessing he got kicked out of MENSA, too. LOL

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-12T13:59:47-06:00

ID

129640

Comment

I can't stop myself from wondering where are all the outraged voices about his parents doing such a poor job raising him. I really hate hypocrisy.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-12T14:04:59-06:00

ID

129645

Comment

I can't stop myself from wondering where are all the outraged voices about his parents doing such a poor job raising him. DING DING DING DING DING DING! Except for a few extreme cases, like Columbine, white parents are not asked to take responsibility for their children's actions in the way in which black parents are. I also wondered where were Foster's parents the first time he got in trouble for steroids.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2008-05-12T14:30:52-06:00

ID

129656

Comment

Outraged voices? It's only been news for a few hours. Plus, there is an unfortunate distinction between "street drugs" and "performance enhancing drugs." What these people don't realize is that both will kill you. I'll never forget watching an anti-steroids video made by Lyle Alzado as he was wasting away to nothing.

Author

QB

Date

2008-05-12T16:00:25-06:00

ID

129667

Comment

It's sad. When an African American is convicted of drug use or sales, people have one of two reactions: blame the parents (if mom/dad had done a better job raising him/her or if he/she had had a dad in their life) or inevitability (oh, well, it was going to happen anyway). When it's a Caucasian, it's somebody must have led him down the wrong path or he/she must have just made a bad choice. Race relations arent going to improve as long as we have different opinions/ideals/standards. And, as Fat Harry said, both street drugs and steroids will kill you. Drugs are drugs. A prescription drug will kill you as quickly as either of these. He went to Madison Central. I think the train depot theme must have derailed his train of thought. (just kidding!)

Author

Lady Havoc

Date

2008-05-12T16:58:41-06:00

ID

129670

Comment

at least this didn't go directly to being about race....

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-12T17:25:04-06:00

ID

129672

Comment

Well, the fact that the guy sold or used illegal drugs certainly isn't about race. But the reaction, or lack of the same reaction, is most certainly about race. And we need to point out this level of hypocrisy every damn time we see it!

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-12T17:26:43-06:00

ID

129674

Comment

Thanks, Donna. I hoped I saw your point. :)

Author

Lady Havoc

Date

2008-05-12T17:29:37-06:00

ID

129675

Comment

I'm a little confused- it was all over the local sports talk shows this afternoon. What exactly would the correct reaction be? It's kind of old news. I remember when this happened.

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-12T17:40:28-06:00

ID

129677

Comment

I for one am outraged!

Author

Rico

Date

2008-05-12T18:48:20-06:00

ID

129685

Comment

As well you should be. It's about time something bad happened to all those racist people who choose to live in Madison rather than in Jackson....

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-13T07:44:49-06:00

ID

129686

Comment

I'm not outraged about how his parents raised him. He was 18 the first time he got arrested and is 19 now. He's an adult. How about outrage on how he made his own decisions and let his parents down.

Author

BubbaT

Date

2008-05-13T07:49:25-06:00

ID

129688

Comment

Sure, I can go along with that, Bubba, and believe that, too. But our point here is that the same approach is not applied to black families by so many very vocal people -- even when the kid is 18 or older when they're caught doing something wrong. There is a massive double standard, in other words.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T08:00:05-06:00

ID

129689

Comment

And Reximus, I'm not sure where your comment came from. No one here said that people who believe this way only live in Madison. There are plenty in Jackson as well. This isn't a city-vs.-suburbs issue. It's bigger than that. The funny thing is that comments such as yours always pop up to cloud the issue whenever some of us try to point out this double standard when a white kid gets in trouble for similar crimes as black kids, but don't get the same kind of response (I'm guessing that Larry Nesbit hasn't called for this young "thug" to be hanged on gallows in front of the Capitol, yet?) You could easily search the archives on this guy and compare the kinds of responses to those that black kids caught dealing drugs get to see what we mean. This is a double standard that needs to be exposed andd stopped. It won't happen overnight, but it is necessary to keep raising awareneess even with the inevitable snarky comments coming up in response to us daring to point out the double standard.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T08:04:10-06:00

ID

129690

Comment

Yet I feel to see the double standard, I mean the kid was arrested,and indicted. What more do you want? Trial w/ no jury? I'm sure the parents up that way are plenty outraged that this kid was doing this in their midst.

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-13T08:08:57-06:00

ID

129692

Comment

Double standard? This guy is all over the news. Street level drug dealers don't even make it into the newspaper when arrested.

Author

QB

Date

2008-05-13T08:31:21-06:00

ID

129693

Comment

I think what she meant was that he wasn't being villified enough because he's a white kid from the burbs, whichmakes him eligible for additional disdain.

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-13T08:34:14-06:00

ID

129694

Comment

I think what she meant Reximus, don't try to speak for me. Ever. What I meant is exactly what I said. But to clarify for the hard-of-hearing among us, I don't think he should be villified more than he is. But the only way to point out the double standard is to talk about a situation where he and his family and his neighborhood and his city and everything else associated with his race would be if he were of color. The point is not whether he is in the news; the point is how people (including yourselves) are responding to it. The fact that some of you do not wish to see this is *precisely* the point. But the evidence is everywhere in news archives. Live in blissful denial if you wish, but my suggestion is to quit belittling or shutting down discussion that makes you uncomfortqable. If you haven't figured it out, won't work here.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T08:47:20-06:00

ID

129695

Comment

There is also another double standard at play here that has less to do with race. Steroids is the drug of choice for many men in this city and its bedroom communities. But it hasn't been taken nearly as seriously as other illegal drugs.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T08:57:11-06:00

ID

129696

Comment

ok, then, here's how I'm reacting to it- I'm not surprised in the least. The way that some parents push their kids in athletics is just pathetic. I've even seen it at the 9 yr old level and it makes me glad that I'm not the dad screaming at his kid when he strikes out looking in little league. There may be a double standard in some instances, but I fail to see one here. For example, when the Bibbs kid at NW Rankin got caught selling crack, it received about the same amount of press /public reaction. I think you were just a little quick playing that card.

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-13T09:01:14-06:00

ID

129697

Comment

I can see how race (or at least economics) might figure in here in the way people observe this situation, but I can't quite see it the way that you seem to see it. If anything, I give the parent(s) more of a free pass if the kid is raised in the 'hood than I do if the kid is raised in the 'burbs.

Author

Rico

Date

2008-05-13T09:03:39-06:00

ID

129698

Comment

My responses, Rico, are based on almost-obsessive monitoring of the media's coverage of young people and juvenile justice for years now. One of my areas of focus in my graduate was coverage of youth (and I include 18-year-olds in that), and I even had a six-month fellowship to look at this stuff. The issue isn't that people are necessarily responding in correctly to this crime; it's that they respond over-dramatically to crimes by children of color, including non-violent ones, and even justify police brutality and such. This kind of response/coverage/naivete about it then leads to harder policies against kids/adults of color for the same or lesser crimes. The evidence is there on this; I'm not making it up due to some race obsession. "Everything" is not about race, but you also cannot intelligently assert that nothing ever is. One of my most interesting findings during my Casey/Packard fellowship was that when it comes to discipline policies such as zero tolerance, it is bad in today's world for all kids, regardless of race. But you can't stop there, and understand the whole picture. Part of the reason it is getting worse for white kids (arrested for taking a plastic knife to school or some such) is because discpline (and public response) has long, long been disparately unequal against kids of color, and for a long time that was socially acceptable. In today's world, though, that is being called out, as it should be, as racism. So the response is to be harher on white kids, too. It's binary thinking that hurts all kids regardless of race. Note even on this thread that the kneejerk (and incorrec) response to my comments was that I wanted the white kid to be treated the same as kids of color! The discussion goes there, rather than to a more intelligent place of using the responses to white crimes as a guage to uncover society's more harsh response to (and expectations about) kids of color. This tendency -- to lower the bar to the harsher level when caught -- is precisely the wrong one. What the thought should be is how do we respond more fairly and humanely and intelligently to crimes by people of color -- not how we pretend and/or actually start treat white crimes just as poorly. Yes, this more enlightened approach will not happen overnight. But it will never happen if we do not force these conversations into the light of day.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T09:15:23-06:00

ID

129699

Comment

And, again, Reximus, I am not talking about the "amount" of coverage necessarily, and certainly not in this case. If you are going to try to engage me in a conversation, you are going to need to pay attention to what I'm actually saying. If you are unable, or unwilling, to do that, I will simply start ignoring you because you are wasting my time.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T09:16:50-06:00

ID

129701

Comment

Donna, I was merely reacting to YOUR kneejerk response about "where is all the outrage". Everything seems to go back to race here. The kid screwed up, and now has to deal with it. If, however, he gets a slap on the wrist sentence, then by all means shout it from the highest mountain.

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-13T09:25:23-06:00

ID

129703

Comment

The white crystal meth heads, manufacturers, and pushers do waaaay more damage. However, the response is the same as it is for black drug dealers/manufacturers/users (i.e. "grew up in a trailer park and never had a chance"). I see it as more of a class / socioeconomic status issue.

Author

QB

Date

2008-05-13T09:32:44-06:00

ID

129705

Comment

Nope, that wasn't a "kneejerk" response. We're not hearing the same level of outrage about him and his poor upbringing, blah, blah, not even from some on this site, as we do about young criminals of color, regardless of what they do. And we're not likely to; it doesn't work that way in today's world. That's exactly what we have to work on by raising awareness. And it's much more complex than just what sentence he gets, although that should be watched as well. I'm talking about the tone of people's response and whether or not they look at a white kid as a "a good kid gone bad" or whether they look at kids of color as if they aren't surprised by their crimes. For instance. Nothing about this is kneejerk; in fact, just the opposite. You have to actually spend time thinking about it in order to get it and try to help change it. In order to do that, you need to care about whether it's true and have enough intellectual curiosity to challenge yourself to look at it through a different lense. Most people, sadly, aren't willing to do that.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T09:34:48-06:00

ID

129710

Comment

There is outrage, but there isn't the kind of castigation with him as if it were to a black kid. LH pointed this out in her post: when black kids get into trouble, it's as if they're destined to do so. White kids...well, it's almost a boys-will-be-boys deal and that peer pressure played a role. Just this morning, The Today Show on NBC was talking about a murder in San Diego that may've been gang-related. Meredith Viera asked an FBI prolifer if the suspects fit the description of a gang because they were more well-off financially and more well-dressed than a "typical" gang. That tells you then and there that society "expects" differently of people according to race and class.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2008-05-13T10:17:39-06:00

ID

129711

Comment

I'm sorry- not trying to be dense or argumentative here, but I just don't understand where this stuff is coming from. White suburban kid busted for selling drugs. It was on the news last night, and it is in the paper today on the front page of the metro section. Are you guys upset that this made the news? Are you upset that when a kid from the 'hood is arrested, it makes the news too? Are you upset that when a kid from the 'hood is arrested, it doesn't make the news? And as far as outrage goes, should we be more outraged when it is a kid from the suburbs? Less outraged? Equally outraged? I'm sorry, but I just don't understand the point that you guys are trying to make here...

Author

Rico

Date

2008-05-13T10:30:41-06:00

ID

129712

Comment

Rico, I and others here have explained *exactly* what we're talking to and don't need to repeat. Read the damn posts. And if you really want to understand, just try looking at it from a different direction temporarily. Jeez. How hard can this be? Your questions are absurd, considering everything we've said already. Please try to read and think here before coming out with a response that proves you're not listening to a damn thing we're saying. It proves the point, but it doesn't move the conversation forward.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T10:34:44-06:00

ID

129714

Comment

Are the news reports blaming bad parenting in this situation? It all seems pretty objective to me. I realize the point you are attempting to make but I think this is a bad example. A better example would be when kids get busted in the 'burbs while smoking dope. That's when the whole "kids will be kids" thing comes about. An 18 year old SELLING drugs is a totally different story.

Author

QB

Date

2008-05-13T10:40:29-06:00

ID

129715

Comment

Are the news reports blaming bad parenting in this situation? Not that I've seen. That was my original point. I think I've beaten my head against the wall enough on this for now. When you guys have read and considered the posts enough to actually know what they say well enough to try to refute them, and show that in your own posts, I might chime in again. Right now, you're too busy trying to refute to understand what is being said. That's useless.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T10:46:59-06:00

ID

129718

Comment

Ok, I did go back and re-read this entire thread. Guess that the part that I am having trouble with is the assertation that in the poorer areas, the parents catch the blame more than in the more affluent areas. It seems just the opposite to me. I blame the parents much more in this case than I do when some poor kid whose choices are much more limited, gets busted for selling crack. I have no doubt that if you have done a lot of research into this, then you are a much better authority on this than I am, but I'm just calling it like I see it...

Author

Rico

Date

2008-05-13T11:21:09-06:00

ID

129719

Comment

. Guess that the part that I am having trouble with is the assertation that in the poorer areas, the parents catch the blame more than in the more affluent areas. Really? Media studies do not back up your premise. Is it possible that you just haven't been paying attention? Many people don't (that's why they give people like me fellowships to study this stuff and report it!)–and if you don't have those attitudes as you say, then it clearly is just falling beyond your radar. There is no shame in that, although there is shame in just denying it happens because you haven't noticed it personally.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T11:37:07-06:00

ID

129721

Comment

It is very possible that this is something that I just haven't noticed. That is why I am asking all of the questions! Not doing it to get your dander up ( this time anyway)... I honestly don't see how it is possible for a single parent of limited means to be able to raise a child up to be anything but a crack dealer or car thief, but the large majority of these people somehow manage to do it. In Jared's case, maybe if he hadn't been bailed out of trouble by his parents the first time he was arrested, he wouldn't be in trouble now.

Author

Rico

Date

2008-05-13T12:14:15-06:00

ID

129722

Comment

I don't mind questions. My dander gets up when people are so quick to want to refute that they don't even pay attention to what someone has written. You haven't been the worst offender of that here, though. ;-) And you're Rico, one of the long-time curmudgeons; you know there is little you could say to really get my dander up. I think you dig being yelled at a bit, frankly. Some guys are like that.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T12:18:51-06:00

ID

129724

Comment

Like being yelled at? Never! Spanked maybe...

Author

Rico

Date

2008-05-13T12:22:35-06:00

ID

129726

Comment

Ah, Rico is being a bad boy. A bad, bad boy. ;-D

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T12:26:12-06:00

ID

129728

Comment

I'm worse... do I get a spanking too?

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-13T12:43:33-06:00

ID

129730

Comment

Get on the waiting list, Rex.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T12:46:41-06:00

ID

129732

Comment

I'll get out my "Gimp" costume- LOL

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2008-05-13T12:49:17-06:00

ID

129733

Comment

Icky. Now that song will be going through my head the rest of the day! OK, let's get this back on-thread -- I'm scolding myself here -- and allow me to finish a story! Ciao.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-05-13T12:50:28-06:00