Give 'Em Hell

I was watching the following story on the Today Show this morning:

Go ahead and watch it. I'll wait.

Ok, are you as outraged as I am? Towards the end of the story they talk about how the attackers are "good kids who just made bad decisions".

In case you missed it, they nearly beat the victim to death and planned to rob him. They also tried to rob several other people that same night. After that, they don't get the title "good kids" anymore.

After watching the clip, I feel like the defense is going to try to just get the attackers a slap on the wrist. After all, they were crying during the first hearing, they've got to be sorry right?

Just scared of the trouble they could get in is more like it.

I am so sick of us defending people for making bad decisions. When we do this, it just enables them to make more bad decisions. And what message does that send to the victim? "Sorry that they almost killed you, kid. But we're going to make sure they apologize and promise not to do it to anyone again."

That wouldn't work for me.

I think they need to throw the book at those kids. They need to be made very uncomfortable and so do their parents. Yeah, it sucks, but they also NEARLY BEAT A KID TO DEATH!

And if they were such "good kids" why the hell did that sound like a reasonable thing to do? I was a good kid and I knew that if I made a bad choice, the consequence would be quick to follow. I had to decide if that choice would be worth the consequence.

You can't tell me that these kids didn't know there would be a lot of trouble from beating someone up. Not "good kids" like those kids.

So, Judge and Prosecutor, I ask that you give those "good kids" hell. Because no matter what you decide, you're sending a powerful message out. You might want to make sure it's the right one.