The mother of the kid who didn’t believe he was involved allegedly also said that even if he was, he didn’t deserve a life sentence or the death penalty for it. If they were over here, those penalties wouldn’t be on the table. We don’t have the death penalty, and time and again we see murderers being sentenced to jail terms that seem out of touch with community expectations. The parole board has a lot to answer for, but so do the judges that keep handing down light sentences.
This part really made me think “WHAT!?”
Especially since I couldn’t find any mention of it in either of the articles you linked.
Some punk teenager in the US shoots one of your citizens so you boycott the country . . . how?
However, thanks to Gile’s post and having found the story on Huffington Post, I see Fischer, who is passionate about gun control (which I can get behind) is advising Australians to not travel to the US, in form of protest about lack of gun control there.
I don’t think it’s going to be effective in swaying policy or legislation in the US, but when you’re a politician championing gun control and something like this happens, you have to make some noise.
I suspect the real intent is to strengthen support for gun control within Australia. (See what happens in a country that doesn’t have tight gun laws? You don’t want to end up like them, do you!?)
Personally, I think that, yeah, this incident does highlight the need for stricter gun control, but I feel that the bigger issue is the need for better parenting and social/community support to prevent youth crime.
Also, anyone who wants to make it a race issue is (probably) a dickhead, IMHO.
(Not intended to be directed at anyone in this thread.)
The boycott proposal is stupid. I did a headslap when I saw the reference to the PM calling for a boycott. I knew Fischer had, but I hoped Rudd wasn’t that ridiculous.
Yes, but not spree killings like this. Stuff like this is quite rare.
I’m not really getting this comment but maybe that’s because I’m assuming it’s directed at me.
Which kid are you talking about? One of the three is obviously caucasian-looking - the oldest one. But the mother that’s been referenced in this thread is not that kid’s mother (or so I gather from this article linked to above). She’s the mother of the 16 year old, who is in the middle of the three mug shots. Does he look Caucasian to you?
My point was that in *addition *to the oldest kid, who looks white, the middle kid, who does not look white, also has a white parent - thus further undermining the OPs effort at race-baiting.
Just to be completely clear, Tim Fisher not only is not and never was PM (except for a couple of short stints acting while the PM was away) he is no longer an elected politician. He retired from politics in 2001 and has been an ambassador until recently.
As I said, I can understand. One of their popular citizens (although I have never understood adults playing a children’s game, or adults being excited by those who do) comes to the USA and is murdered with a gun, I can understand their anger.
As far as gun control, I dress out (an unusual term for a non sports person to use) at 110, and I cannot defend myself with a baseball bat. If someone comes into my house to kill me (as the guys who tried to rob my Wife) I would like to be able to shoot them.
And if they take the gun away from me, I will take it away from them. :rolleyes:
I think Australia calling attention to the US’s gun problems is an excellent idea. Where did these guys get the gun? It’s the elephant in the room the NRA and gun-supporters always try to avoid. It’s always bad parenting and video games. It’s never the fact guns are easier for kids to buy than cigarettes, booze and porn.
Thanks stui. I got that from Giles’ post.
To Carinvorousplant,
Don’t know if I’d call him popular, he would have been completely unknown to all the country except for family and friends, and I also don’t think Australians are generally up in arms about it either. It’s a topic of conversation, some poor young bugger attending a US college on a scholarship gets gunned down for no apparent reason by some kids. It’s tragic and a waste, but I don’t believe it’s triggering any anti US sentiment.
What it does do here is to to reinforce our complete lack of comprehension of US gun laws and arguments about gun control.
The completing appalling thing for me is the attitude of the three. “We were bored so we decided to kill someone.” How does anyone ever think something like that? From what I’ve seen these kids were just ordinary suburban teens right? Going to school, playing sports, hanging out with mates, playing video games and stuff. How is their sense of right and wrong so Fubared that it sounded reasonable to all three to, lets kill someone for shits and giggles?
Per Svejk’s observation, looks like one black kid, one mixed kid, one white kid.
The whole “hate crime” thesis currently flooding the web doesn’t quite work.
I think it’s so awesome you can tell which one is black, mixed and white.
Just a question about possible sentencing. I see that Oklahoma has the death penalty, is it likely, given precedents that the prosecution will push for the death penalty in this case?
It varies a super lot by state, but in general, the trend is and has been for a long time for minors to get harsher sentences and at younger ages. That’s especially true for serious crimes.
No death penalty for minors.
There aren’t lots of murders where people are just randomly gunned down for fun.
School’s in session tomorrow. Shouldn’t you be cleaning your gun?
After I’m done robbing a liquor store, we’ll meet up and compare notes.
So being ‘tried as adults’ only extends to which court they appear in? Not to possible punishment?
It’s about the sentence too, but in 2005 SCOTUS decided minors couldn’t get the death penalty. There were people on death row at the time for crimes they committed as minors, so some states (Texas, big shock) did it when they could.
An interview with the local Sheriff I heard on Aus radio last night said that they could be tried as adults. So I assume they may be in line for death penalty?