The Sterling Family Strikes Again In Baton Rouge

There’s a tragic postscript to the long-running saga of Alton Sterling, the career criminal shot and killed by a Baton Rouge policeman in July 2016 as he went for a gun in his pocket as he fought with that policeman, which surfaced this morning.

Sterling’s death set off a wave of protests and near-riots within the black community in Baton Rouge (actually, that’s not quite fair, as much of the civil disturbances in the wake of the Sterling shooting came courtesy of people who can politely be called “tourists”), which took a truly tragic turn when an out-of-town lunatic named Gavin Long arrived in town and killed three law enforcement officers and critically wounded another just a few weeks later. The Sterling case was investigated by the federal Department of Justice, which found no criminal responsibility on the part of the policemen involved; that finding was echoed after a similar investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

The Sterling family is now engaged in a civil suit alleging wrongful death.

Along the way, the surviving Sterlings have become sympathetic figures in the Baton Rouge community of sorts, and perhaps most sympathetic has been Sterling’s son Cameron, who as a 16-year old thrust into the limelight gave the appearance of some potential to emerge as something more than his father had become…

Regardless of the distaste many felt at the opportunists using the Sterling case to heighten the racial divide in Baton Rouge and some members of the Sterling family for trying to cash in off the death of a man they seemed not to have much use for when he was alive, it was hard not to root for Cameron Sterling to make something of himself.

Which is why today’s postscript is so discouraging

The 18-year-old son of Alton Sterling is accused of raping an 8-year-old boy while he was babysitting the child last weekend, according to Baton Rouge Police.

Cameron Sterling is accused of taking the child into a bedroom, locking the door and then raping the child, according to his arrest warrant.

The mother of the 8-year-old asked Cameron Sterling what had occurred, but the 18-year-old denied anything happened, the warrant says. However, he told her that he had some type of episode at the time, according to the warrant.

Sterling was booked into Parish Prison on a count of first-degree rape.

We don’t want to say “like father, like son” here. That isn’t fair, and it reeks of a determinism we refuse to accept as Americans. But one of the many items on Alton Sterling’s voluminous rap sheet was a charge for carnal knowledge of a juvenile in 2000, the same year Cameron Sterling was born.

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The irony here is so thick you’ll need a chainsaw to cut it, only this case is even worse. An 8-year old boy?

At this point it’s best the Sterlings just go away. They’ve been a complete blight on this community and they should all leave. Forever. For their own good as well as ours.

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