Re: Father of teen charged in Florida school bus beating says son is 'sorry'
No one is stating that they didn't understand right from wrong. What I and others are saying is that we as a society recognize that children do not have the same mature mental capacity to make reasoned judgements which is why we don't allow kids to drink alcohol, gamble or vote. It is hypocritical to treat them as if they have mature mental capacity for some things but not others.
Same argument I heard back in the nam days about drinking. "If I'm old enough to fight and die for my country, shouldn't I be old enough to buy a beer?"
I think we all know, and pretty much agree, that punishment for breaking the law should vary depending on many factors, age being one of them. The problem here is, we have 15 year olds, old enough in more serious cases, to be tried as adults, beating the **** out of a 13 year old, who hasn't even started to grow hair on his balls yet.
Now, if the 15 year olds were adult, it would be a second degree felony and rack them up some big years in the big house. No one is suggesting that. But this, "Bad boy! Don't you do this again for nine months or we MIGHT put you in jail," simply is not enough.
Then again, if the 13 year old were my son who was jumped and pummeled, I would be wanting these punk ass pieces of **** to get their head's torn off so I could defecate down their neck. Then I would file the max civil charges I could on the parents.
But if it was my 15 year old "child," doing the "naughty deeds," I would be wanting all the mercy the court could sling his way.
But none of these kids are mine. So I'm going to side on behalf of the 13 year old and wish that the 15 year old's get sent to preparatory prison (a.k.a. juvenile detention,) until they are 18 years old. That's the education these young men need. Because I have a feeling, given their parenting and court coddling, that's where they are headed.
But the prosecution only wants 9 months probation. It doesn't matter what we think.
