Happy Slapping
Three boys and a girl were recently jailed for manslaughter after severely beating and kicking an innocent man whilst filming the attack on a mobile phone.
The boys were aged 16, 17 and 19 at the time of the attack. The girl just 14. All four came from unstable family backgrounds and spent a great deal of their time roaming the streets of London, making their own entertainment. Yes, entertainment. That's how they see the humiliation and pain they inflicted on innocent people. You see, 37 year old David Morley, wasn't the first victim they'd filmed; he just happened to be the one they attacked while the gang was being filmed by CCTV. He also happened to be the one who died.
As if what happened wasn't bad enough, UK law rubbed salt into the wound by acquitting them of murder, finding them guilty of manslaughter and conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm instead. The boys received a 12 year prison sentence each. The girl just 7 years. All have been told they'll have to serve two thirds of their sentence before being released on license. Just eight years and those monsters will be back on our streets, the thought of which makes me shudder. The girl? Just four years or so inside is all she has to get behind her before her liberty's reinstated.
What kind of message is this sending? That the life of an innocent man being taken in the most despicable manner is worth no more than 8 years loss of freedom for the killer(s)?
But what's more frightening than even the way our courts have handled these youths is the fact that it could even happen. Y'see, this isn't an isolated case. "Happy Slapping" is a trend amongst a youths who enjoy the adrenaline rush the receive through inflicting pain on innocent victims that they can re-live again and again as they watch the film at a later point, laughing at the fear their victims show.
I cry for nation that breeds these creatures and I cry for the
babes they once were. Where did it all go wrong?
What Mr. Morley's father felt about the efficiency of our justice system as he emerged from the court to be met by a group of youths directing throat-cutting gestures toward him and shouting abuse is anybody's guess.
There but for the grace of God...
Related Links:
The Origin of The Phase "Happy Slapping"
What Is Happy Slapping?
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1 Comments:
Your fears are well grounded Sharon, you see after feeding our children a diet of violence we are reaping the whirlwind. I know of children who watch public beheadings (internet) in the Middle East, this is the new entertainment. Yet how new is it, brutality, oppression and violence are common commodities, and have long been the language of many.
I certainly do not condone these happyslappers, and the punishment should have been so much more in keeping with the crime, but I fear as well.
Each generation is responsible for the one that follows it, innocence has been lost, and in many ways the full restraint is now removed. God I sound so pessimstic and it makes me weep, even as I write, for this cess pit we have created not only deepens and widens, but there is a hell of a storm within it.
We can though raise our own children with high moral and ethical values, at least we then place a heritage of right thinking into the future.
We face immense greed and mass consumerism, the possible melting of the Greenland ice cap (that may be a scare tactic to push nuclear power?) etc, but there is an answer...
we stop consuming as much, it really is that simple, every family that has two cars (me) should have one or none, industry should move back to where people live, we should buy our kids less, we should only have wholesome stuff on TV, we should....the list goes on, but sadly
the SS Utopia set sail about 40 years ago and sank sometime after...I think Edward Bernays was navigator, one of his last commands to the crew was
"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it,"
Somebody is pulling our strings, manipulating the masses through the media, affecting society. But not me, I stand free of all that...woops, gotta go, Spongebob just came on...
By
Dave Lynch, at 4/2/06 09:38
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