Differing Standards or Social Class?

Woman Reported Missing. This article appeared in the front page of the P & C on Friday. Katherine Peronneau Waring, 28, of Murray Boulevard, Charleston, had been missing since Friday, June 12th. Seven days later her picture appears, five days after her family reported her missing. Someone tried to use one of her checks at a local bank. She's not answering her phone. Facts not reported by the P & C: she had no car because of DUI convictions. The person trying to cash her check is a known drug dealer. The case is being handled by the City of Charleston Police Department.

Compare this reaction with the almost two-year delay in the North Charleston's police filing a missing persons report on Teista Burwell. In her case, the cell phone was left under her deserted car. She had broken off relations with a known criminal, and, as the paper so delicately puts it, "North Charleston police said they have two incident reports involving Burwell, neither tied to that time and date " (when her car was found). These involved her relationship with the criminal she was trying to shake.

The 20-year-old Burwell attended Fort Dorchester High School and studying for a GED. Twenty-eight-year-old Waring graduated from Choate-Rosemary Hall. Burwell is mixed race; Waring is white.

I'd like to believe that the Charleston Police Department took Waring's case seriously because they learned from North Charleston's mistakes.

I'd like to.