Internet comments about girls’ deaths should horrify us all

Have a look in this mirror. I hope you have a strong stomach.

The news story was the deaths of three Florida girls, two ages 15 and one 16, who allegedly stole a car in the early hours of March 31, and then, while fleeing police officers, drove the vehicle into a pond and drowned. Controversy arose when first released police dashcam videos seemed to show that officers decided against going into the marshy pond in the dark to attempt a rescue, even though they could hear the girls screaming. Videos released later were inconclusive.

There are legitimate issues here that reasonable people can debate: Do police officers have an obligation to put their own lives in danger to save any civilian, much less criminal suspects? Was the department's first account of events, which suggested that the officers attempted a heroic rescue but failed, misleading? What social or family issues might have led three adolescents to steal a car, something they allegedly had done before?

But this column isn't about any of that. It is about the visceral, raw ugliness of so many of our fellow Americans who commented online about this story and its implications. These model citizens not only cheered and celebrated the girls' deaths, they mocked their grieving parents. And the racial hostility that dripped from their online lips was concussive. Here is a sampling from one YouTube channel, each example offered verbatim:

'Three-run homer for Darwin.'

'The mothers are hoodrat morons who raised little hoodrat criminals. No sympathy whatsoever.'

'At least we didn't lose anyone of value to society.'

'The only thing that cop did wrong was not to light a cigarette and take a selfie in front of the sinking car.'

'Wipe out these three future teen mommas before they had a chance to breed.'

'Yes! The planet is a better place now.'

'The inquisition was onto something. If they were innocent, they would float.'

'Don't feel the least bit bad. Good riddance.'

'I'm sure momma will bang out six more in no time.'

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. Comments like these were the norm on the site, not the exception.

I get that Internet trolls aren't representative of the great majority of us, and the comments weren't quite so relentlessly toxic on other sites. But what about this news story is not tragic?

I am not shocked by nasty, offensive and ugly comments when the topic is, say, politics, where passions typically run high. But in this story, three children are dead. No child is born bad, so some combination of unfortunate existential circumstances misled them into believing that stealing a car was a good idea. It cost them their lives.

This makes some people happy? I simply can't fathom how anyone hearing about this story could be so soulless as to find joy and satisfaction in it.

Who are these commenters? How did they reach maturity so utterly bereft of compassion and empathy? Is it possible that not a single one of them knows, or was himself, a teenager who broke the law, perhaps by drinking alcohol or doing illegal drugs or shoplifting or starting a fight or groping a classmate or bullying someone, or any of the myriad other ways teens get into trouble that sometimes leads to tragedy?

And why do they see this as the ideal opportunity to attack the victims' race, which becomes an unprovoked attack on everyone who shares their race? Do they reflexively take personal responsibility and publicly flog themselves in penance when someone of their own race commits a crime?

Finding mirth and revelry in the deaths of three teenagers is a sign of serious mental and emotional dysfunction requiring urgent professional intervention.

The rest of us should be cognizant that these vacant souls are walking among us, undiagnosed, every day.

Robert Steinback is a freelance journalist living in Miami. From the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.