I hate mandatory minimums, I deplore 30-year prison sentences as medieval dungeoning, & this–this is just daft. They’re teenage boys! Do you know how many crackpot homicidal ideas I & other teenage boys had & never acted on? It’s not going to take 30 years to get over being an alienated adolescent, but you will steal their adulthood. For nothing.
Do people really not get what young men are like? Or do they, but this is what adult prosecutors are like?
I guess the prosecutor figures the more young men he can take out of the picture, the more young women will be available for his own sexual appetites, or his beloved son’s.
If the boys are found guilty and indeed sentenced to 30 years, I might be inclined to agree with you. As it is, they’re only charged under this law, and being charged is a long way from being convicted and sentenced.
It will be interesting to follow this case. The article indicates very little in the way of hard evidence against the boys, other than that they attempted to purchase a handgun.
Although I also deplore minimum sentences for any crime, I can’t blame officials for taking this very seriously. Multiple school shootings around the country point to the need to catch and derail such plans. The court case will show whether or not the boys intended to carry it out or were just being idiots with bloody fantasies.
Hey! Big point here! Even if they are serious, locking them up until they’re 45 is not the way to fix their problems!
Youth are a bit bloody-minded, as a rule. If a 40-year-old man were plotting this, that’s one thing. But a bunch of high school kids? They should be given the chance to grow up & get some perspective. 30 years in the joint is massive overkill. So they’re angry youths who hate hate hate, & think they want to “kill motherfuckers.” Great. The Army will love them.
Seriously, how is this not a function of four outsider guys reinforcing each other’s worse instincts? We got 'em before they did damage! Separate them, get each in some kind of healthy environment where they see that the world isn’t just the punks they know in their own local environment. In ten years, 3 of 4 (give or take) will say, “Wow, I was just a dumb kid! Good thing I never killed that (girl/teacher/whoever)!”
Chalk me up as another one who hates mandatory minimum sentencing laws. They suck.
Having said that, the charges here are lurid, but not entirely unreasonable. School shootings have happened, and if there’s credible evidence that the young men so charged here were intending to do something similar…
At the moment it’s a bit early to be decrying the DA for prosecuting the case under the laws available. If you really dislike the law, why not chastise those people who are truly responsible for it: The legislators, and the people who’ve kept them in office?
Also, while I’d had plenty of violent fantasies as a teen - I’d never actually tried to purchase or make any of the items I’d need to make the fantasy a reality. I do believe that’s a signifigant step, there, and one that takes the alleged plot out of the realm of harmless fantasy into something else. Whether it’s criminal is a question for the courts, and a jury.
Thirty years is a bit much unless they were literally caught in military fatigues advancing on the school during lunch hour.
What I think should be done with the kids depends on how serious the “plot” was. If the plot was obviously just teenage bullshit shooting-the-breeze type stuff then this is a gross overreaction.
If it appears they were serious but hadn’t actually done anything to implement the plan, then I think they should be dealt with in the juvenile system, given perhaps some counseling and removed from the school they go to and enrolled in some sort of alternative form of education.
If they had the guns and weapons already stockpiled up, then I’d probably say they deserve real jail time. Something like five years seems fair to me, thirty is too much unless they were actually caught executing their plan.
Whatever the case kids being “violent” and “boys will be boys” arguments only go so far. Those sort of rationalizations don’t cover “intricate plots to murder classmates.” IMO
Crazy. I was just at the school a week and a half ago to pick up some medical records (I was class of '03) and chatted with a 16-ish goth boy while waiting. I wonder if he was involved.
The idea of these boys being locked away for thirty years is incredibly depressing. I sincerely hope they get the help they obviously need instead of being tossed away for half their lives.
