Apr 08, 2008 02:32 pm I'm...speechless...
Some more of America's finest youths
Posted on Apr 08, 2008 02:28 pm
Walt
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
Member Since: May 10, 2002
Lakeland, Florida (WTSP) – Lakeland, Florida - The Polk County Sheriff's office released the video of a teenage girl who, as Sheriff Grady Judd puts it, was "lured so her friends could beat her."
The video shows what Judd says is the second of five beatings the 16-year-old received from people she knew. The attackers say they were upset with so-called "trash talk" the victim posted on her MySpace page, and they say they wanted to post their own video of the beating on MySpace and YouTube.
The sheriff says the victim was first beaten unconscious in a bedroom. When she awoke, she was on a couch in the living room, where the screaming and beatings continued.
"It is disgusting that the attackers find it funny and want to post something on the Internet showing someone nearly beaten to death," says the victim's mother.
Sheriff Judd is calling it one of the most disturbing videos he has seen in a long time and he hopes all those arrested will be tried as adults. They face charges ranging from felony battery, false imprisonment to kidnapping. The sheriff says the attackers "were relentless."
Even though those involved could face prison time, Judd says the teens showed no remorse after their arrests.
"When they were in a holding cell, they were all laughing," Judd says. "One of the teens arrested, who is a cheerleader, asked, 'Does this mean I'm going to miss cheerleading practice tomorrow?' The others were cutting up and said, 'It looks like we won't be going to the beach this weekend.'"
While the attackers can laugh off the incident, the victim's mother certainly can't.
"You never think it will happen to your family," she says. "To have this happen and see it... is hard to bear."
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Apr 08, 2008 02:48 pm Well, they won't be laughing for long. This is seriously messed up.
Apr 08, 2008 02:50 pm Sadly, they probably will be, these are kids that simply don't give a **** about anyone, including themselves...if they don't go away for this, they will for something later, they will end up being supported by our prison system at some point.
Ok, maybe I'm not not speechless...
Apr 08, 2008 02:56 pm They aired the video on comcast, or maybe part of it. I am thankfull I did not walk in on that. I would be in prison for sure. Watching this girl try to protect her head from the other six brought out an anger I have not felt in a very long time.
Apr 08, 2008 03:05 pm This sounds very familiar... 10 years ago and I still remember it like yesterday. Things like this make me sick!
[quote]Nov. 14, 1997 :
Reena Virk, 14, is swarmed and beaten under a bridge in Saanich on Vancouver Island by a group of teenagers, mainly girls. Battered and bloodied, she manages to get up and stagger across the bridge toward a bus stop to make her way home. Two of the original attackers drag her back and beat her again and leave her in Victoria's Gorge waterway. That's where police find her body eight days later. Witnesses later testified that one of the accused bragged that she had one foot on Virk's head and smoked a cigarette as Virk lay in the water. [/quote]
www.cbc.ca/news/background/virk/
Apr 08, 2008 03:07 pm The saddest part of this, is the fact that they found this to be arbitrary. As if their arrest was part of the joke. This story ran on the national news last night. All I could think about was BushmasterM4. I don't think that his nephew's attack was any thing like this, teens thinking that this is some how funny. But some how it seems to be a growing pattern of violence in our youth culture.
One can only hope that we find a solution to this.
Apr 08, 2008 05:38 pm Honestly, I hope the attackee doesn't retaliate. I was in the "loser" group in school and saw this happen a lot. Some of the kids that this kind of thing happened to, did things even worse...
Apr 08, 2008 09:16 pm I don't know if this is a 'loser' situation... If I learned anything in the military it would be "Girls can be evil."
I think we went to far to get kids to not fight that when they do fight, they don't know how to stop.
Apr 08, 2008 09:27 pm I think one of the issues with todays young culture is that youths are being led more and more to living vicariously through sites like YouTube and MySpace and see videos of this kind of violence and follow suit, simply because they feel it'll help them fit in.
Monkey see, monkey do. And it's more and more becoming a growingly dangerous game.
Apr 08, 2008 09:33 pm No sorry, with all due respect, no sale. Knock the girl out, then place her on a coutch to come to so the beatings can continue? Film the event to show some sort of sick prowis on the internet? One of the parents of the attackers was defending it's offspring saying the girl had posted things on MySpace that were agraviting? Psychs are babbling that youths don't have developed frontal lobes and can't precieve consequence? HORSESHIT!
Apr 08, 2008 09:35 pm I don't know about that Keith. That would suggest that they have no sense of right or wrong. Meaning that they are all social paths. Maybe the high profile ones are. But to have this many in such a short period of time. I'm leaning towards bad parenting.
Apr 08, 2008 11:11 pm Yep, the parent defending he daughter should be flogged in public if you ask me. And let the mother of the beaten girl do the flogging. This kind of crap is just plain stupid and they find it funny while sitting in jail. I'm sure some shmuck lawyer is just itching to defend these idiot children as well.
You know the one thing they don't teach kids these days is the old saying.
Sticks and tones may break my bones, but WORDS will never hurt me!
In my day smack talk was an everyday thing. If I beat up every kid that talked smack to me back then I would have been in prison.
So I'll simply state the obvious. They and the parents are thin skinned little pansies.
And ya, get pissed at that if you want. Its only friggin words.
Apr 08, 2008 11:45 pm Think of the next generation... These ***** (EDIT: someone should censor this) are already having kids!
Apr 09, 2008 12:37 am Uhhh...stop blaming the majority of todays youth for what these freaks did.
There is nothing majorly wrong with this generation and just because there is an idiot in this generation doesn't mean all of us are idiots.
In my town the whole MySpace frenzy ended and now it's just another thing on the internet (not our lives). I have never had a MySpace until recently, and it's simply so I can have a favorites list of band profiles.
Apr 09, 2008 08:15 am It's certainly not the norm, Randal, I agree with that, but reports such as this are increasingly common, you can't deny that. School shooting, beatings, stupid crime of various sorts. Even as small as in 3rd grade...
One issue that isn't commonly looked at is the fact information on the whole is increasingly available more widely as well...so it's hard to tell if these types of things are more common, or just more widely reported...I am leaning toward both.
[quote]You know the one thing they don't teach kids these days is the old saying.
Sticks and tones may break my bones, but WORDS will never hurt me![/quote]
Very true Noize, they are taught to be hurt by words...and it's sad.
Apr 09, 2008 08:44 am It is Narcissism, desencitization, self validation, ego run riot. No concept of self estime and zero persepctive of direction. Their parents are clueless, Hollywood thrives on these behaviors, the meadia has become the great inabler and society as a whole has elivated the stage of adolescence to some God-like euphoric state instead of the hormonal induced drug trip that it is.
I'm out of here. I've vented, I'm through the stages of mourning in regard to this incident, and bottom line; I don't have any answers either.
Apr 09, 2008 08:46 am I got an answer, let each of them take a savage beating like that. Maybe they die, maybe they don't...
Apr 09, 2008 09:00 am Airlift the little shits and their parents into Iraq where they will feel at home with their peers.
Apr 09, 2008 12:32 pm What the actual problem is a combination of various kinds of media has made a lot of people numb to reality. One example of this is the "It can't happen to me."
Since we can't just stop the media we have to have a counter-attack against it. I have no idea how though...Americans (and maybe some other countries) are sheltered from ever being truly uncomfortable so we've started to take everything for granted.
Apr 10, 2008 07:44 am Oh for cryin out loud...pretty soon kids will be born, wrapped in bubble wrap, then unwrapped for the funeral 90 years later.
WTF...
Apr 10, 2008 08:16 am Blahahahahaah!
Next they'll have little condums for their fingertips so they won't irritate their noses when they pick them.
I see the cutsie guy with his spandex panties, rear view mirrors on his helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, glovies, being passed by the moron with sandles and shorts on the rear weal of a crotch rocket and also say.....WTF?
Oh well.
Apr 10, 2008 11:04 pm Ya, funny thing is that is what the world is coming to. I'm thinking that kids have no sense of adventure because some parents simply won't let them be kids.
Walt, I was the guy on the rear wheel most times. Although I was a hell of a lot smarter then to ride in shorts and sandals. At freeway speeds that just stings a bit too much getting pelted by all the sand and crap from the road being flung up by other auto's.
Apr 10, 2008 11:28 pm Yes Mr. Noize, I have riden for almost 40 years now (damn I'm old) and the only thing that comes to mind is dumb-***! One fellow I knew lost it per a mechanical failure on an on ramp. Sandles and shorts. Got to take baths in the hospital for a couple of weeks with a male nurse and a wire brush to remove the gravel and sundry debris.
Of course there is the other extream. One chap decided to deposit his cart into the side of a car at 120. Lucky for the EMT's he had a helmet. Much easer to carry his head off the street....three hundred yards down the road.
Apr 11, 2008 07:58 am Well, that article sounds great, trial as adults, possibly life, thats all great, but I suspect over the time it will take for the trial, shock will wane and they will end up with a minimal sentance, or just "counceling".
I hope they get the smackdown, but who knows...
Apr 11, 2008 08:22 am I'm pleased to hear that the state attorney is doing "his" best to administer some form of justice.
Apr 11, 2008 04:29 pm not sure how i feel about a life sentence here. the fact that they were joking around in the jail cell, talking about missing cheerleading practice, pretty much proves that they didn't understand the seriousness of what they did. so from their perspective, you're just living your life one day and get on board with something that simply sounds fun and no big deal, and then you lose your entire life.
not excusing them here. but if they didn't understand exactly what they were doing, then i guess i dont think a life sentence is anywhere near appropriate. childhood may be a form of insanity.
Apr 11, 2008 04:51 pm I think a couple of years behind bars should do the trick. Life is strong in my opinion.
And maybe some time or some sort of penalty for the parents? Doubt that's possible though, not even sure if it all the way makes sense...
Apr 12, 2008 01:43 pm It would be impossible to find enough evidence to blame the parents...even if they had something to do with it or influence.
Apr 12, 2008 02:21 pm well the parents are civilly liable...
not sure about the life sentence either, but haven't seen the video... I knew a kid that raped and murdered a little girl and didn't get life.... got 20 years though... if he survives prison he'd probably wouldn't be able to cope with reality...he couldn't when he was 14.
Apr 12, 2008 08:46 pm Well maybe the parents will be stupid enough to get themselves worked up in court and get the judge pissed enough to find them in contempt and then try them for that.
Myself, ya while I agree life might be a bit much in some eyes, think about it. We are talking kidnapping here. That is a major felony charge. Doesn't matter that they are teens. They know what kidnapping is and know what the punishment is for doing it. Yet they did it! And assault with intent to harm the victim. They beat her unconscious several times. That again is something they know is punishable by law, yet they did it anyway. If you try and tell me they don't know what it is they have done or what the consequence would be I say bull **** to that! They knew full well.
Apr 13, 2008 06:10 am they dont know what kidnapping is, though. the stereotype is taking someone, tying them up, blindfolding them, etc. preventing people from leaving a house does not equal kidnapping to most minds. in fact, i learned the distinction last year. i'm 33 and have a master's degree. it was not apparent to me at all. in high school, i had the idea to kidnap our friend. we were going to seize him in the morning, blindfold him, drive him 50 miles away, and abandon him. now that's kidnappin'!
also, everyone fights. oftentimes unfairly.
not excusing the behavior here. i just think that this is the polar opposite of that judge who told those two criminals they had to learn english to avoid jail, and that they have one year or whatever to do it. that increased the good, and it made sense (although yes, some people are gonna see that as some kinda overstep, but fundamentally that was really logical because it helps those guys). this is like the opposite from that. no matter what you feel about this case, the idea that you could rob several really dumb and thoughtless kids (which is what they are) of the rest of their lives for being stupid and for basically taking a normal teenage drama and transmuting it to real violence--that doesn't make logical sense to me. it's hard to explain, but the 'script' here is the same script that's been around since time immemorial for teens, which is prolly why they didn't think twice about it. the 'script' is to humiliate someone. these teens took it way, way too far. but it strikes me that the script is very close to the expected. the 'gang-up' behavior (and the obliviousness to real harm) is what's new here, but you can see how it 'stems' from a script we all know. it's essentially an exaggeration of something we all have been through. i do not believe that these idiots understood what they were doing, and in that sense it can't really be all on them. not to the degree that they get their entire lives stolen. the fault may actually be in society, and in memes, and in bad parenting, etc.
Apr 13, 2008 06:22 am i also think half the time young peeps go along initially with plans having no idea what could really happen. usually there's a leader who everyone wants to be cool with. an alpha male or female with charisma and pull, etc. kids mostly haven't witnessed serious stuff before (except on tv) and so have no idea where the line is. i think it usually starts as a bid to impress an alpha male or female. and as they make that deal, they have no idea what it could turn into. think it's all a joke, etc. and then the drama takes over as things go out of control, and then it's a spectacle, and who knows.
Apr 13, 2008 09:52 am Forty,
All due respect, I can't buy your argument in whole.
I agree with them probably not knowing exactly what laws they were breaking and why. It is difficult for anyone to keep up with what lawmakers are up to. And yes, there is a draw for most people, regardless of age to fit in and impress. Neither of these postulates excuse people from adhearance to the law.
The "gang up" mentality is not new either, at least not in my lifetime.
This brings us to the crux of the event; "the obliviousness to real harm" (well stated by the way). From what did this total disregard of harm come from? Is it that they don't preceive the degree of harm they caused? Is it that they don't care what harm they cause? Is it that they believe they are protected by their age, can do whatever they want and escape consiquence?
Compound the event with the intent to bring "fame" to themselves by publishing their activites to the world in the form of a video and we have a serious illness here.
I don't buy the "dumb kid" label at all. From experience, I know that from early childhood years, I knew when to "get out" or "quit" when I knew I was pushing the envelope in a direction that I also knew I shouldn't be going. My wife teaches special ed children from ages 6 to 10 and they know what to steer clear of far better than these kids have demonstrated, and they probably will be iligable for diminished capacity pleas in the future should they choose to break the law.
This thread has taken on a bit of a "bipolar" flavor, life or counsoling, I agree, but there is something down the middle that fits. I pray our judicial system can find that. This propensity amoung youths needs to be turned around.
Apr 13, 2008 11:44 am Kids really haven't changed. The only thing that's changed is the availability of cheap video cameras, and the Internet. Now, children can just display their stupidity for a wider audience, and thanks to the instantaneous nature of MySpace and the media, this crap just gets more attention today.
"While it is true that age does not guarantee wisdom, it is also true that youth precludes it."
Apr 13, 2008 12:59 pm I agree with you somewhat, but there are things happening now that even the worst kid I knew growing up would never have thought of, or at least not done.
Apr 13, 2008 01:07 pm In the long run the cause doesn't matter that much...what matters is a solution.
And when I say solution I don't mean some speakers traveling to a couple of schools...a true solution is going to take a long time because you can't just make a culture suddenly change. You have to kinda coax the new ways in so that the culture evolves much like it does on its own...except with a little guidance.
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