To me, that’s not an argument for why we should pat him on the head and tell him not to do that any more, but rather an argument for why he deserves an extra kick in the ass. He had an opportunity very, very few people get–a chance at a completely free college education with a possibility of a horribly lucrative career in professional sports–and instead of safeguarding it by the trivially easy method of not being a goddamn thug, he threw it away with both hands. He was given a chance to mitigate the whole thing by being appropriately penitent and well-behaved after the beating, and he threw that away with both hands, too. Exactly how many chances is he supposed to get before we stop saying “He’s only a child! Won’t someone think of the children?”
Yes, it’s harsh that his life will likely be forever affected by the choices he’s made as a teenager. It’s also harsh that some boy had one episode of drinking and driving flipped his car and is paralyzed for the rest of his life. It’s harsh that that some girl slept with the wrong guy and got pregnant, dumped, and infected with HIV all at the same time. It’s harsh that some honor student had a serious episode of clinical depression and their grades tanked, costing them a shot at a full-ride academic scholarship. The world is full of harsh shit, some of it plain old bad luck, and some of it our own goddamn fault. This incident is the latter, and while I hate that this guy has fucked up his chances so royally, I can’t bring myself to feel the least bit bad for him.
So, whats your actual beef then ? Think it should be 1.5 years vs 3? Woo fracking hooo.
And this whole “its the only way outa the hood for him” BS. How many pro basketball players are there vs pretty much any other “dayum, thats a good job/career for a black kid” are there?
The kid fucked up royally. Multiple times. He lost his dream ticket. He has no one else to blame but himself (and I guess perhaps his shitty upbringing/local “culture” that made him think this sort of shit was acceptable).
What message does it send to her if he gets a light sentence? That her safety and well being are negotiable? That it’s no big deal? All this talk about the consequences on the man who assaulted her of he goes to prison. What are the consequences for her if he doesn’t?
Then fucking stop defending this guy and repeatedly implying his sentence is too short. He’s a fucking piece of shit who did this to a fellow human being:
The judge decided after doing this inexcusable shit:
This fucking bastard repeatedly physically assaulted a fellow human being and then threatened to do it again. He’s nineteen. My nine year old knows you don’t fucking do that. If he can’t figure that out after nearly twenty years on the planet he has no business whining that we put him behind bars for a while until he does.
Who cares if he plays basketball and might get a college scholarship because he can pass a ball into a hoop? If he can’t figure out that you don’t kick other people in the head he doesn’t even belong in kindergarten let alone higher education.
Since no one said he deserved just a pat on the head, I’m not sure what your point was. None? Okay.
I guess - speaking as someone who had been assaulted once and did everything “right” as a victim and there was overwhelming evidence + a confession and nothing happened - I see it as harsh.
Christ, people get less for killing people while driving drunk. Example. Either drunk driving/manslaughter laws are too light or 3 years is too much. I know Lavender Blue thinks driving drunk is minor, but I don’t.
All crimes are bad decisions, and bad decisions are mistakes. That’s already been said, but keep repeating that.
Can you guys imagine where you were 3 years ago? Yeah. Okay. Now replace the last three years of your life to that of life in jail.
Black lawyers. Doctors. Engineers. Professors. Businessmen. And a buttload of other “successful” ways to make a nice living. And for that matter, how many black kids shoot for that and come up a bit short, ending up “just” being paralegals, physicans assistants and nurses and like, or engineering techs, or lab techs, or hard working managers at the local resteraunt. Counting on the big score sports wise is dumb IMO. Because unless you make it big, you dont get shit. Nobody hires anyone for being a second rate B ball player.
Aim to be a doctor and come up short you’ll still end up with enough education and skills to make a decent living.
Perhaps this kids only shot WAS to be a pro basketball player. But that’s the lottery vision of life/career. And his dumb ass threw that away.
I’d agree with that. But it sure is a common perception (which IMO sucks royally).
I know some lady who has a kid. She is fixated on making her son the next “sport X” big name. And the kid is pretty good. But the kid is also pretty smart and hard working too. If they both put as much time and money into actual academics as they do into this sport thing the kid woud be heading toward Hawwwwvarrrrddd and easy street. But instead they are taking the lottery approach (and btw they are white).
Well, the theme here and society/culture for that matter certainly appears to me to be that the best shot for a black kid is basketball, which is certainly a stereotypical “black kid makes it good the only way he can” career path. You’ll note that I listed a bunch of careers that are NOT stereotypical “black kid” career paths that black kids can do and do do and for that matter are MUCH more likely to actually achieve. And if they don’t reach their goal, at least they got something better than some shitty trophies to build their lives on.
Don’t blame me for the “its basketball or nutin” cultural mentallity that permeates society. I’ve hated that shit for decades now.
And? If I’d beat the shit out of someone, and threatened them after being told to not contact the person, I’d have deserved those three years in prison.
Again, the judge is going to re-evaluate the case in 180 days, plus he can appeal.
I don’t. Far as I can tell, nobody else here does, either.
That’s the last time I let you bait me in this thread. Just because I don’t agree with you, doesn’t mean I’m defending or excusing him. You can’t have a civil discussion about this, because for some crazy reason anyone who doesn’t trip over themselves in their haste to prove they hate him more than everyone else does gets this kind of crap from you.
As to if a 18 year old is an adult, I disagree. The line is a little arbitrary - kids can fight in wars but not buy beer. I guess I have a hard time seeing a 18 year old senior in high school the way I do an adult. A real adult.
Do we tell our 18 year old kids in high school, “Oh, you’re an adult now…so do whatever you want”? No.
For all I know, this kid was a Class A Prick who was encouraged and pampered by the adults around him. Or…he could be a typical stupid mentally unstable teenage boy.
Whatever comes to him, I hope a strong mentor and some education also find their place in his life.
I don’t feel sympathy for a kid who got busted for beating up his girlfriend. I feel that the punishment isn’t appropriate. I also thought he was 17 at the time of the incident, but I could be wrong.
The US justice system has a well documented history of not punishing crimes against black victims as harshly as it does against white victims. So this is a win for racial equality on that basis.
If there’s a discrimination issue here, it’s doesn’t arise out of race. It arises out of the fact that the justice system punishes violence against women more harshly than violence against men. I’m not sure this is a great injustice, though. Our tendency to recoil in horror at the spectacle of a man beating up a woman is probably instinctual, and a good thing overall.
Re Kobe Bryant.
He’s not a rapist. The pretrial transcripts and evidence established fairly well that the accusation was the result of a sexual encounter Katelyn Faber pursued, and then later regretted.
(and btw they are white).