Ain’t that the truth.
A year or two in prison might actually do this kid some good. With the restraining order and other events related to the case, he had ample warnings to get off his self-destructive path. He chose not to heed them.
There are only two possibilities here:
One, he’s incapable of adjusting his behavior, controlling his actions and emotions. In which case, he just ain’t fixable. After his initial prison term, he’ll be back. Like OJ. Typically, guys who stalk their exes and then beat their asses all over the house, aren’t fixable. Often, they don’t really think they did anything wrong. “It was all her fault.”
Or, two, he was just too stubborn, immature, arrogant, whatever to learn from the red flags waving in front of his face. So he does a year in prison, comes out a wiser man. He won’t be able to play in college, but there are plenty of other places to play - minor leagues in the US, pro league in Europe and Oz. Most Div 1 bball and fball players don’t graduate from the colleges they attend anyway.
If you don’t want people to think you’re defending or excusing him you should stop implying that three years is too harsh a sentence for man who kicked a woman in the head multiple times. When caught, not only did the asshole not apologize, he threatened to hurt her again even worse.
At one point you actually ludicrously wrote (post 26):
If you don’t want to sound like you’re excusing then don’t write shit like that. If you physically attempt to beat the shit out of someone you’d damned well better be prepared to be put in a fucking cage for a while until you learn not to pull that shit.
I am not a law and order Republican lock them up and throw away the key kind of a person. I hate the death penalty with a passion because I think it is the height of barbarism. I think many sentences are too long. But after reading what this spoiled brat did, I am not particularly sympathetic to your rather silly assertion that we should hand him probation for a nasty physical assault that he has not even admitted was a terrible thing to do.
I figured out he was mocking while I read the very sentence it was in, and I can be tonedeaf. Maybe you might want to turn up the tone on your hearing aid, too.
Yup.
If this is what you call a “mistake”, I’d hate to see your idea of a serious offense.
These kinds of “mistakes” unfortunately, have victims, and have legal consequences. If people can’t accept the consequences of said “mistakes”, they’ll never learn from them.
Otherwise, why bother making laws in the first place?
Wait – because you were assaulted and nothing happened, you think nothing should happen in this case? Do you agree with the result in your case?
Did you read the story you cited? The drunk driver received 8 years for the vehicular manslaughter. The 30 months was for driving drunk after he was released from prison.
In this case I think 3 years seems perfectly reasonable for his actions and subsequent lack of remorse. If I had been assaulted, it’s what I would have wanted to happen to the perpetrator, regardless of his career prospects.
I think it’s probably true that 18-year-old male brains are not fully developed in some important ways that govern behavior. Some evidence suggests actual structural and chemical reasons that an 18 year old male might be more emotional and less likely to foresee consequences than he will be a few years later. And I can see why some view this as a powerful argument against capital punishment for young males (I save time by just being against it for anybody).
But this is not to say that prison is inappropriate. First, immature, emotional, impulsive brains refrain from violence all the time even though they’re bad at assessing consequences for themselves, because the ability to foresee consequences is not the only governor of behavior: the reason most people don’t go around brutalizing smaller people is not because of a sudden visualization of the potential consequences, it’s because most people have been taught and have internalized the lesson that it is wrong. What can send things haywire is if we provide enough counter-examples demonstrating to a particular kid that he will not have to worry about consequences – then his real-world experience will more than compensate for the brain maturity we hope and expect he’ll achieve. Second, intelligence and maturity exist on a long continuum even in adults, and I don’t think we will (or should) ever get to the point, absent actual pathology, where we punish according to individual states of psychological and emotional development. Let’s face it: “Don’t hit girls” is an awfully low bar for anyone, even if his brain is still a few years away from full physical maturity, to hurdle. A seventy-year old is, on the statistical evidence, even better able to avoid domestic violence than a forty-year old: what sort of concessions shall we make in punishing the latter for beating his girlfriend?
I’m also unsympathetic to the argument that the punishment is unduly harsh because it takes away something – a potential, if uncertain, college and professional career in sports – larger than a mere three calendar years suggests. For one thing, I simply do not find the prospect of another future wealthy and successful professional athlete who mistreats and threatens women necessary for my vision of a perfect world. Second, I would view any university which knowingly enrolled a man, at whatever age, whose brain development admitted of physical and emotional violence against women, with a great deal of alarm, and if they did it on account of his prowess at sports, I would add outrage and disgust to my reaction.
Er, not that Farmer isn’t going to have a terrible terrible time in prison, but can we agree that he’s not going to run into a whole lot of people in this world who are bigger and tougher than he?
To answer your questions: 1) Yes, worthy of jail. His actions are pretty much the dictionary definition of worthy of jail. It’s the reason we have jails. 2) I do not know if Farmer can or cannot function in society for the long run. I truly hopes that one day, he does. But right now, nope, he’s flunked himself straight on out of society. 3) Yes, that sounds reasonable.
Speaking as a black man who’s seen female friends & family victimized by other black men–occasionally under color of “ball players are important, we must protect them!” I have to say that I this this punishment was entirely appropriate.
On rewatching the video, I have to say the fainting spell is hella drama queeny.
No hitting allowed. My children knew that when they were a lot younger than 18.
I do hope this young man will learn that lesson.
He fell out like he got the Holy Ghost. I was halfway expecting some old ladies in white gloves to come out and fan him.
Hahaaa! Those little ol’ ladies were always on time, weren’t they? Man, they never get recognition for making sure no one ever hits the floor without quick attending to with a Martin Luther King or Blonde Jesus cardboard fan.
That’s it!
If he ever gets to the NBA, his nickname will be Church Lady. 
I don’t think anyone thinks he should go free because he is good at basketball. But there are alternatives to jail time. Whether his situation merits alternative sentencing is certainly not clear from the minimum facts shown. What he really needs is a good lawyer. When have you ever seen someone appearing for sentencing in a serious situation, in their orange prison jumpsuit? This appears to be a case of someone who has absolutely noone in his corner, for whatever reasons.
As a former victim of a violent asshole, this son of a bitch should do every hour that he was sentenced to!!! He’ll probably get out and re-offend when this is all said and done…
I’m kind of appalled at all the people who are focusing the discussion on his future (and I’m not necessarily looking at anyone here; I’ve been reading other comments other places on the Internet). Let’s play the What If game. What if Farmer and the young woman had never met before, but he needed some money and decided to mug her. The attack and robbery played out just like we saw on the video, but all the hitting, hair-pulling, and kicking were not inspired by some relationship vendetta but were only intended as a means of separating her from her keys, phone, bank car, and computer.
I can’t imagine that anyone would think that three years served was too severe in those circumstances even for a first time offender, so why is it too harsh a sentence for a domestic violence incident? Hell, I do not know if anyone would be saying anything short of “them’s the breaks” if Farmer was some enterprising young dope slinger or car thief caught and sentenced to serve three years.
And 18-year-olds who sling dope or steal cars or even mug people in a violent fashion are far more likely to reform than 18-year-olds who hunt down, beat, and terrorize their partners/ex-partners. The latter kids just age into 30- and 40- and 50-year-olds who continue to stalk and beat and terrorize (and very occasionally, kill) their partners/ex-partners.
Thats a very good and interesting post there Sugaree. Yeah, the whole dangerously attacking some you know is somehow generally socially more acceptable than attacking a random stranger is a bit odd when you think about it.
Kid is damn lucky (and so is she) he didn’t do some serious or permanent damage to her and then spend a good fraction of his life in jail.
Got a cite for that statement?
The most recent stat that I could find is a 1992 Department of Justice report, summarised in the wiki article on Laws Regarding Rape:
So, average sentence for rape is close to 4 times the sentence this guy got, and the average time served is 2.4 years more than this guy is sentenced to.