4th Teen Arrested In Videotaped Beating (link to video too)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/30/national/main2411198.shtml

4th Teen Arrested In Videotaped Beating

16-Year-Old Boy Who Recorded Girls Fighting Surrenders To Long Island Police

NORTH BABYLON, N.Y., Jan. 30, 2007

(CBS/AP) A fourth teenager was arrested Monday in the beating of a girl that was recorded on video camera and broadcast on the Internet, police said.

The 16-year-old North Babylon boy, who recorded the Dec. 18 beating of a 13-year-old girl by three other girls, surrendered to police Monday afternoon and was charged with unlawful assembly, Suffolk County police said.

He was released on $100 station house bail and was told to appear in court March 22.


A 13-year-old girl cowers during a vicious beating at the hands of other teenagers. (CBS)

Earlier this month police arrested two 14-year-old girls and a 13-year-old girl on charges of juvenile delinquency and attempted assault in the beating at a high school.

FULL story at link.

[Little Wing]

1. unlawful assembly for videotaping it?

That's grasping for straws right there.

[Missy M]

3. He did nothing to try to stop it so he was part of it....

that young girl could have been seriously injured or even killed. I don't know how anyone could tolerate that behavior and the participants should be punished. Children should not have to fear going to school and bullies must be dealt with.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. How about the guy who videotaped the King beating?

Or those cops who beat the muslim kid in UCLA?

[Missy M]

6. I'm talking about this incident....

where someone was right there up close and did nothing to stop it. There should be no tolerance for any of it but I am commenting on this incident. It seems some think all of it was not that bad. If that were my child I would want punishment for those involved. What will those kids be like when they grow up.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. What will they be like when they grow up?

Probably they'll be perfectly normal, well adjusted citizens.

So what about the guy who recored the UCLA beating on his cell phone camera? He was right there too. Should he be charged?

[BushOut06]

14. see my response #10

n/t

[Dark]

8. Telling people they HAVE to intervene sounds a little despotic.

SHOULD he have intervened? Of course.

But should he be required to intervene? That's a very different question.

It's his body, and if he doesn't want to use it to intervene, that's his right. But I'd caution him that what goes around comes around, and he may need someone to help him one day.

And as for videotaping it, it obviously wasn't for commercial purposes.

[BushOut06]

10. If he's part of the group, then he's an accessory to the crime

There already laws regarding that. In the case of the Rodney King beating, the person doing the taping wasn't involved, and he wasn't making the tape for mere entertainment purposes. What if one of the officers had been videotaping the beating, and circulated it around the department for laughs? Would that make a difference?

The law has always used motive a determining factor as to whether a crime occurred.

[BushOut06]

2. There should be ZERO tolerance for this shit

There seems to be an epidemic of this kind of stuff happening lately, teenagers videotaping brutal beatings and posting them on the internet. This blatant disrespect for human life simply sickens me. Should we pass laws prohibiting websites from hosting these types of videos?

Also, why do news outlets continue to air these videos, and make them available on their own sites? It seems to me that they're giving the kids exactly what they want, publicity.

[LiberalFighter]

17. Or those teenagers in Milwaukee schools using their cell phones

to call in reinforcements during fights.

Now cell phones are banned in the Milwaukee schools.


Personally, I think cell phones should be banned in all schools. School children do not need access to their cell phone while in school.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. Not for nothing

But that really wasn't that bad of a beatdown.

Pretty much everyone I knew growing up both handed out and took a beating at least that severe - certainly when we were 14, 15, and 16. OK, so it may be "vicious," but that's a relative term. I think people who see this as a REALLY vicious beating are out of touch with what goes on among kids.

That's not justifying it, mind you. I just expected to be more awed by the "vicious" quality of the beating. Hell, that was everyday fare in the schoolyards and neighborhoods of Queens when I was growing up in the late 80's. You got that kind of beating for looking at a brother crooked. Call me when they break out the boxcutters and start slicing motherfuckers (had the pleasure of catching that kind of beatdown), or when the bats, crowbars, and blackjacks come flying (caught that too).

Verdict: TAME.

[karash]

9. .

If we all agree that you are very tough, can we get you to agree that the girl on the video shouldn't have had to endure such a terrible experience?

[Coaster City]

12. teenager Fight is National News and the Bush Power Grab is ignored?

This is news? As a kid I don't know how many fights I was in or saw, but to make this national news? Seriously, there are more important things going on the world such as the Bush power grab, senate filibuster and etc. Too funny yesterday on Faux Noise they had a story about a vulture that escaped from the zoo. A vulture? Now that is big news!

[AngryAmish]

13. Where in the hell did you grow up?

I grew up in a nice, lily white suburb. Something like that happened a few times a week in the schoolyard of my nice Catholic school.

Kids fight. That is one of the things they do. It should not be criminal until they are older.

[tkmorris]

18. I disagree

It should be criminal. I'm not saying a kid's life should be wrecked over one fight but they must learn that it is not acceptable, or even legal. How many behaviors are you aware of that would get an adult thrown in jail, but that adolescents get away with routinely?

If we simply overlook things like this we teach kids the wrong things.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. What part of "I'm not justifying it" is difficult for you?

Just wondering.

[Drum]

19. lol!

[BushOut06]

11. That is a sick attitude

But that really wasn't that bad of a beatdown.

Maybe it didn't result in serious injury, but the potential is always there. How many kids in these seemingly "harmless" fights wind up with broken limbs or ribs, concussions, etc? You do realize that even a single blow to the head, under the right circumstances, can be fatal, right?

I have zero sympathy for anyone instigating a "schoolyard" fight. This is the kind of shit that nowadays can escalate very quickly. Who knows, maybe a few more of these "beatdowns", and that girl decides to get a gun or knife?

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. OK, since I wasn't clear enough when I said, in the initial post

That I'm NOT justifying it, maybe I should say it again, louder:

I'M NOT JUSTIFYING IT.

Better?