Yep, that poor dumb kid just didn’t know any better than to attack his girlfriend brutally and repeatedly, and then threaten her several times even after there was a no-contact order! Someone really should have told him that wasn’t cool. Gosh, it’s just a shame that people are all riled up about some dumb girl getting her ass kicked. Every guy should get a freebie smack-my-bitch-up in life, right?
Yes, for me that’s a key part of the decision. Flouting your terms of bail is begging the court to throw the book at you. If this were just a random one-off A&B and “oh shit, I didn’t just punch her, did I… damn, that was stupid, I’m fucked” I would see the call for 6-12 months with the alternative of probation on e-surveillance under condition of anger management treatment, community service and stay away from her.
But given that he kept going after her for more punishment, restrained her, deliberately took her goods, afterwards made repeated threats and violated a restraining order that was part of his terms of bail, that all would tend to communicate to the Court that this fellow (a) really wanted to hurt her (b) was not sorry and not just acting on a fleeting impulse and (c) did not particularly respect the process. So he gets hit hard.
Anyway he can ask for a reduction and already the judge will review at the 6-month mark. If he’s doing what he should at that point he could then be put on probation early.
BTW if she had already called it quits with him, there was no more “meal ticket” there, so her own advocacy of mercy would be either a very generous spirit or, more likely, the well-known “I just want him to stop it, not make him angrier by punishing him” reaction.
He might but I think we’ll both agree that given two kids, one with a chance at a college scholarship and one without, the one with the scholarship has a better chance to succeed (assuming we know nothing else).
He might and I certainly hope so but is that the expected outcome?
What are the stats on recidivism for black teenagers with no (I assume) prior record? If there is no difference between 1 and 3 years of incarceration then I retract my objection.
I don’t know. I just know it’s not 100%.
I hope when he’s done doing his time, he comes out a better person–one that other people can appreciate. The problem isn’t that his ass is going to jail. The problem is that people are already writing him off. Apparently, if you’re a black male your future has only two options–basketball or prison. That’s an incredibly cynical view.
If I believed that society held such low expectations for me, I’d be falling out in the courtroom too.
I don’t think that was what the poster was implying…
Same here, his situation is really unfortunate:(
And luckily, his scholarship money is not going to be sacrificed to the volcano gods. It’s the lucky day for whatever kid just barely didn’t make the cut. Hopefully that kid appreciates it, rather than throwing it away.
It has nothing to do with ‘soft racism’. It has everything to do with statistics and the fact it’s an 18 year old kid.
First, not many kids have the opportunity to play college ball - so if this kid is in the Top 100, it’s pretty fair to assume that basketball, even college ball, was his best shot at life. Not only shot, but best shot. My boss made it out of the Baltimore streets that very same way.
The kid totally fucked up. Not everyone can be an engineer, monstro, and there’s nothing wrong with assuming that basketball was his greatest asset. I have a feeling if he was a steady A or B student, the papers would’ve mentioned it by now.
He’s a kid. His brain isn’t fully developed. He clearly had some obsessiveness going on with that girl. We don’t know a whole lot about him, but he had teachers up on that stand talking about his positive points.
I get that some people want to elevate sports stars as superheros. But I also saw that this kid seemed genuinely ashamed and sorry for what he did. I don’t know how three years “teaches him a lesson”.
Kids do stupid things. Really stupid things. Kids can also be horribly cruel. Some of you in this thread do a lot of eye rolling when bullying gets out of hand and the grown-ups come down on it, so why is this different? Because that’s what this kid was essentially doing. He was bullying his ex girlfriend. Yes, he was being abusive - all bullies are - but typically a teenage DV perp looks a lot different than a mature adult one.
I don’t know what the rate of assault is for black girls v. white ones, but I’m sure the statistics are alarming. I’m glad he was arrested and a big deal was made out of this. It SHOULD be that way. I just don’t know what his three years jail time is doing for anyone.
It depends if you beat people up or not.
Regards,
Shodan
It probably saves her life.
All of this right here. Hitting her a couple times because he saw red over some deep insult or something? You can maybe call that a mistake of a dumb teen kid. I know your brain isn’t totally formed at that point. But he kept doing vile, mean, vicious things to her, over an extended period of time. Even a court order didn’t shake him up. Maybe 180+ days in jail will.
Please. If someone committed a violent crime, “statistics” should not be used as a mitigating factor in sentencing. Age, perhaps, if it can be shown that his actions were the result of immaturity. But even then, he would need to do jail time.
It is not the responsibility of the courts to ensure someone has the “best shot” in life. I would hate for someone to look at my mugger or rapist or murderer and say, “You know what? I could throw the book at him. But if I send him to prison, he’s going to miss out on getting married, having kids, and buying a house. That’s really sad!” Future opportunities or lack thereof should not be weighed at all in sentencing. Only those factors that may explain why he did what he did (age, mental illness, abuse, prior record,etc.)
So you would have less pity for him if he was an honor roll student? He would deserve to go to jail longer if was in the National Honor Society?
I don’t understand this logic at all. Being sent to jail isn’t a gift to society. It’s a form of punishment, meant to deter future criminal acts. If it does this, then both he and society benefits. If he comes out worse, that’s possibly an indictment on the prison system. But that has nothing to do with whether or not he belongs there in the first place.
Hilarious is right- his in court performance, I mean. Gentle, downcast eyes, fainting in shock.
Oh really tough man? Fucking piece of dirt. Beat a woman up, threaten and stalk her and then play the victims who is overcome with the injustice of it all???
Three years isn’t nearly long enough. In prison, I can only hope he lives in stark terror of random physical violence 24/7 so he truly knows what he did her.
worked for Tim Allen.
I guess our views on the criminal justice system are quite different. I’m not convinced he would go around beating all future girlfriends.
I didn’t object to a year in jail. But three?
Jail is pretty horrible. I’m not sure if you just don’t care what happens when young boys go to jail or you want to be extra tough on what you think is ‘soft racism’, but I strongly disagree with you that you think prison conditions in the U.S. aren’t a factor in some Dopers’ train of thought.
I’m sure you’re aware of Southern Poverty Law Center’s research on juvy facilities for young minority boys in the South. Great. Now multiply that by three years and people who are much bigger and tougher than you.
That’s appropriate punishment?
Jail is more ghetto than anything you’ve experienced in your model minority life, monstro. Please don’t accuse me of racism because you can’t understand the implications of sending a young teenage boy to jail.
Yes.
Don’t beat people and threaten to kill them. If you do it even after a restraining order, your sorry ass deserves a 3 years in prison.
Do you not know what being beaten up does to a young teenaged girl?
:rolleyes:
He behaved like a criminal and he’s being forced to deal with the consequences of his decisions.
A minor crime is shoplifting or a single DUI or some graffiti tagging. It is not someone who beats up someone else and then sends her texts threatening to do something even worse.
What kind of a society do we have where physical violence against women is supposed to be swept under the rug because the asshole who did it can throw a ball into a hoop?
Who is advocating sweeping physical violence against women under the rug?
Stop making excuses for the guy who beat up his girlfriend and it won’t look like you’re downplaying violence against women. There are a lot of circumstances where I think our laws are too harsh. Minor drug offenses come to mind. But assaulting your girlfriend after you were told to cut it out and then doing it again and threatening to do it again isn’t one of them.
He’s nineteen not nine. I’ve taught high school kids. That’s one of the reasons I am firmly against the death penalty but especially against it for people under 22. But he’s not a small child who deserves a short sentence and a pat on the back. He’s old enough to understand what he did was completely wrong and to accept the consequences for his actions.
Maybe you’re looking at a different story than I am. There is 1 case of battery and 1 case of intimidation in the story I’m reading. He didn’t “assault his girlfriend after he was told to cut it out.”
Nobody is advocating a short sentence and a pat on the back. Nobody is making excuses for the guy. Nobody is saying he shouldn’t suffer consequences. Please, pretty fucking please stop arguing against points neither I nor anybody else actually made.