Two teenagers, one a 17 year-old high school dropout, the other an 18 year-old high school graduate, attacked three homeless people in three different Ft. Lauderdale, Florida locations last Wednesday, beating them with baseball bats, one so badly he died a few hours after the incident.
Mindless acts of violence like these just defy understanding. If you want to beat someone with a baseball bat, you might at least target someone who has broken into your home, or who has done something to you to deserve a reprisal. But to beat someone you don’t know and who has never done anything to you is just vicious, stupid, intolerable, and inexcusable. "It's senseless. If you look at these kids, it was almost like it was fun and games for them," police officer Scott Russell said of the beatings.
This is the type of wanton, cruel, malevolent violence that we must take a strong stand against. Punishment for parties guilty of such behavior must be swift, sure and severe. Behavior like this is what the death penalty is for.
However, it’s a safe bet that will happen to these lowlifes will be not swift, will most likely be unsure, and definitely will not be nearly severe enough. We will likely be treated to all manner of rhetoric about how unfortunate these dopes were in their childhood. Maybe as children a priest abused them, or their self-esteem was bruised because they lost a baseball game in school, or they scored low on a test, or their mommies wouldn’t let him go out and play when they wanted to, or other such sappy crap.
The dead man’s justice will be that his attackers will live decades longer than he did, and get three squares a day in a warm, dry place, and sleep in a comfortable bed. They will have access to exercise in a gym where they can bulk up so they can attack and overpower their guards, a library with law books so they can study up on how to beat the system, and probably have access to drugs if they decide to take a trip from reality, all at taxpayer expense. This is the face of justice for violent criminals in the United States in the 21st Century.
Technorati Tags: Crime, Violence, Punishment, Justice, Injustice,
5 comments:
Prison isn't anywhere as enjoyable as you make it out to be. But I share your worry that these kids will be absolved of responsibility. Instead the TV liberals will blame violent video games and somehow the NRA, while the TV "conservatives" will blame parents for not being strict enough and of course, the ACLU.
Welcome, Adam, and thanks for the comment. I hope you'll return often.
You're right that prison isn't a picnic. But it's better than being dead, and prisoners actually do have gyms and libraries, and better accomodations than that homeless man.
I regret that our nation has lost the will to hold people accountable for what they do, and has a soft-headed approach to punishment.
Your perspective on identifying responsibility for the younger generation's problems is apt.
Well, don't you just look all sharp! A bit like a Liberal College Professor... but, hey, who's counting the extrinsic variables?
;)
Personally, I blame the two dumb bastards that committed this crime. WTH? Talking about having an Immediate Time Preference! These fellows rationaized in their mind that their twisted definition of fun would somehow prove profitable for their existence, their one existence, on planet earth.
They deserve to die.
A bit like a Liberal College Professor...
Them's fightin' words, bro.
I thought I'd put up a pic, and that one was the only one I had in the computer. Oh, well.
hehehe
Tell me that wasn't the perfect response... I thought about making that comment on Buffalo's blog a few days ago, but decided that this forum would be much more suited for such a remark!
Well, anyway, James, I am willing to bet that you have heard worse... given your Republican Punditry status!
All jokes aside... but playing into that vein of thought...
Even though I am no longer discussing political events... I received a message the other day with this subject line: Are you a Nigger Lover?
And a message body that included these words:
I see you support the Democrat platform over the Republican? Dude you are white, how the fuck can a southern white male unless he is a crook support this shit?
I can only imagine some of the stuff you might have received!
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