I remember putting nickels on train tracks as a kid thinking they would do the same thing. The thing is, as a child, the concept of derailing a train never considered the fact people might get hurt. Trains to me back then carried coal and lincoln logs and stuff, not people. But again, that’s the thoughts of a child…one who hasn’t even considered the concept of death because they’ve never been faced with it.
Anyone able to lift a 30 lb rock over a fence and hurl it over a bridge wall isn’t the age of a first grader, and I’m guessing has a better grasp of the idea of “consequences” than your average seven year old throwing mushrooms at cars passing by the bus stop (my own evil actions of the past come to haunt me).
The act of dropping ANYTHING off of a bridge into traffic is done for one specific reason: To cause an accident. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heavy rock that ends up collapsing a man’s skull, or a water balloon designed simply to startle yet leave no damage…the result is the same: The shock of whatever hitting one’s car will cause them to panic, swirve, and quite possibly, wreck. Whether they turn into oncoming traffic, hit the railing, or just spin out is unforseen, but the fact of the matter stand, when you drop something off a bridge into oncoming traffic, shit’s going to hit the fan. That was the desired result of this action. Whether someone died or not, most likely these people didn’t care enough to think about it, and therein lies the real crime. This disrespect for human life.
Kids being kids is one thing when it’s limited to simple destruction of property. Keying cars, toilet papering houses, putting dog shit in mailboxes…all mindless fun. But when it starts to affect human life, that’s where it becomes a real issue, and that’s the issue here. Whoever did this knew that someone was going to get hurt. How bad the injury would be, they didn’t care. They should be punished and made to understand what thier actions have cost this man and his family and made to care.
The death penalty is a sticky situation. I agree with long, long, LONG term of imprisonment. The only time’s I feel the death penalty is warrented is when the “assailant” shows no remorse for what they’ve done and gives the impression that similar crimes will come about from their freedom. In this case, though, we don’t know who did it or why. Perhaps they were all drunk or stoned and upon hearing about what happened have been huddled together terrified with guilt and fear of being caught. I’d like to think that. I’d like to think that eventually they’d come forward to the authorities and the victim’s family, show their remorse and accept what comes to them. Unfortunately, people these days don’t seem that caring anymore, and most likely, they’ve forced themselves to forget about it and are working on moving on with their lives. At which point, I hope the authorities find them, expose them in the most humiliating way (pull them from work or school or whatever), and subject them to whatever the harshest punishment the law allows.
