Bum beatings

I've been a busy blogger today...

Someone on my car club forum posted a link to the story about people beating up bums for fun...check it out...

So, of course, people had to chime in with their opinions on this. Most find it reprehensible and feel that the teens should be punished for their actions. Some felt that the 15 year sentence imposed on the kids was not enough, and that they should have received life or the death penalty. I fall into this camp. As I've said here, on at least two or three other occasions, if you kill someone (self defense aside) you should be killed. If you rape or molest a child, or anyone, for that matter, you should also be killed. Sure, I sound harsh, but hey, there would be a lot fewer murders per year, right?

So a few people have actually taken to stating that not only should the teens be punished for 15 years or longer, but so should their parents. Yeah, that's right, their parents. People that didn't kill anyone, and for all we know, were sitting at home watching 24 when their kids were out beating up homeless people. Their argument is that the parents should have raised their children better, and that the parents are directly responsible for the deaths of the bums. They're stating that not only should the parents go to jail, but they should have their homes confiscated, and auctioned to pay medical expenses and damages to the victim's families. Again...after having nothing to do with the action, the parents are to blame.

Yeah, this sounds wacko as hell, right? I mean, it's not as though the parents were sitting there, egging their kids on. Can you imagine it?

"Go on Timmy, kick that alky's ass! You want to be a man, well this is how to become one!"

If that were the case, then sure, the parents would be guilty of either inciting violence, murder (2, I think), and/or being an accessory to murder. However, that isn't the case, and yet these people truly believe that the parents should go to jail. That's like saying that because a 30 year old, married man, beats his wife, his parents should be charged with domestic violence, simply because they never taught their kid not to beat his wife. Really.

Anyway...what do you think? Should a 15 year old who killed someone or participated in the beating of a bum be punished to the fullest extent of the law? Should he or she be tried as an adult? Should they get life, death, 15 years? What? How about the parents?

By the way, the guy that posted the original story, and incited the parent blaming was the same guy who bashed me for posting about my dog's balls a couple weeks ago. He's a real winner, huh?