maybe I’m just caught up in emotions while trying to process all this still.
being out once they turn 21 (and most likely earlier than that) is not punishment enough imo. And most people don’t seem to realize that’s what’s actually happening. They’ve already been offered the plea deal. I’m sure they’ll be advised to take it.
Is this justice? Is that punishment enough to deter other kids in dc to think twice before doing some dumb **** like that moving forward?
Fine you are emotional, cool you think the sentence you will get is not enough, but you are acting like everyone that disagrees with you is operating from a place of ignorance or stupidity. That is not what is happening, rational people are seeing this situation, and coming to a different conclusion than you.
Laws in DC are a response to the tough-on-crime era which resulted in juveniles (especially black kids) all over the country being charged as adults, this was the error when the phrase "superpredator" sprung up. All of over the country draconian laws have condemned tons of young teenagers to life without any sort of redemption. The American Bar association is against life sentences for juveniles. So yes, maybe in this instance DC laws err in one direction and might not give a suitable enough penalty for this crime, but lets us remember that for much of the country, for decades, the opposite has been happening. And we see little outrage for that.
I think what they did was ****** up, think they should face punishment, but I am not gonna indulge in some of the thinking others are doing because they see how it dovetails with some more destructive ****. Your whole deter crime rational sounds right out of the Tough on Crime era. I am especially not gonna do it if it depends on me being reactionary.
Long prison sentences don't deter crime.
LINK. So kids in DC, and other places will continue to do dumb things and not care about the punishment because..... they don't think they will get caught. The fear of getting caught is probably a bigger crime deterrent than extremely punitive sentencing.
You want to deter kids from committing these sorts of crimes in the future the harsher sentencing is not the panacea you think it is. You instead should be ranting about improving their schools, community programs, internships, general antipoverty measures, and creating a functional and responsive, make sure their drinking water and air is clean, and overall improving their economic well-being.
Instead of trying to use this one instance as a chance to advocate for bad policy that will not help the other kids in DC.