Chilling.. I'm suddenly very cold.

Totally true. We got sucked in and couldn't move from the TV/computer.

Thank you for your thoughtful analysis on this one here. I'm with you that there should be an investigation into all the enablers of this crime: the people at the party not intervening, being gawkers and bystanders; the coaches trying to cover it all up; the sheriff who lost all grounds on "enacting the law in his…

Nope. What I was trying to convey was that "what is the right amount of prison time" is super hard to decide. And the question of emotional toll vs physical toll, ie. what weighs more on a prison sentence...

*slow clap*

According to your post we'd have to rethink what 'right sentence times' are for all crimes then. If I - as a man - get assaulted on the streets and beat, how long should the attacker go to prison for? If I get out relatively unscathed physically - emotional toll is a whole 'nother level - how much prison time is okay,…

What the ? Holy shit. For 150$ worth of stolen goods... 5 years?

I had similar thoughts somewhere in my mind, but you put it together in a way that was clear. But yes, this pretty much sums it up.

I just recently started to be introduced to Evgeny Mozorov (on Gawker). His point was that without criminals there is no society, because society needs those elements to function as a democracy. I can't yet fully form an argument around it, since it's still twisting my head a lot, but I'll dig into it deeper and…

I do, since we ought to judge a society by how it treats its lowest members...

It does bother me, regardless of what they did. We have to hold the court/law/enactment to a higher standard, otherwise we lose any justification to enact a law in the first place.

I'm again sorry to hear this, and I do understand your feelings.

I am very sorry to hear that. Life can be cruel and random..

Human beings are complex, both in good and evil. Most adults will find themselves at least once in a situation where consent isn't totally clear one way or another. The sheer shocking numbers of 1 in 3 women experiencing rape shows that the concept of "decent human beings" isn't wide-spread...

Wonderful. Keep on.

Time for some doctors in North Dakota to perform some civil disobedience...

Exactly.

Thanks. Important points here.

I hope so too. And I have a hard time understanding all these screams for their lives to be forever fucked up. Nobody believes in people's ability to better themselves anymore? If they serve their sentence they ought to be free of any repercussions because of actions prior to their sentence. Or do I get the whole…

Since they are not adults it's by the law to try them as juveniles.