Justice in America

[laylo]

Originally Posted by macallan25

I'll agree that 10 years may be a little overboard, but yeah, he should have gone to jail, absolutely. She's 15, I really don't care if she was a willing participant. Just because she is willing doesn't make it right.

To believe he should go to jail means you believe that anyone who sleeps with any 15-year-old should go to jail, which would take out a pretty huge chunk of the teen population. Throughout human history 15-year-olds have always had sex and they always will; exceptional contexts of our current society have made it suddenly immoral. I personally advocate abstinence, so I would appeal to 15-year-olds themselves to make that decision, not for the criminal justice system to waste its resources locking up their classmate partners.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by laylo

To believe he should go to jail means you believe that anyone who sleeps with any 15-year-old should go to jail, which would take out a pretty huge chunk of the teen population. Throughout human history 15-year-olds have always had sex and they always will; exceptional contexts of our current society have made it suddenly immoral.

That's attributed to the "protect the children" movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. It started off as a moral movement and then became political and state-monitored.

If we were looking way back in the history of THIS country (since we're not taking an across-continent approach) we'd find that children were once considered little adults who could do, and be treated as, people twice their age.

What's the middle ground? Should society advocate children having sex or not and should age dynamics matter? If we do advocate it and age doesn't matter, should they then be able to drive, drink, and do other stuff that requires a level of reasoning. Then we have to wonder if the gov't should legislate this type of stuff.

Originally Posted by laylo

I personally advocate abstinence, so I would appeal to 15-year-olds themselves to make that decision, not for the criminal justice system to waste its resources locking up their classmate partners.

I agree with you here. But society has safety cushions for everything else. We could go around speaking against drunk driving but without the legislation people would be more able to do whatever the hell they choose. Morality and legality.

[macallan25]

Originally Posted by laylo

To believe he should go to jail means you believe that anyone who sleeps with any 15-year-old should go to jail, which would take out a pretty huge chunk of the teen population. Throughout human history 15-year-olds have always had sex and they always will; exceptional contexts of our current society have made it suddenly immoral. I personally advocate abstinence, so I would appeal to 15-year-olds themselves to make that decision, not for the criminal justice system to waste its resources locking up their classmate partners.

Oh come on, are you serious? Please tell me you aren't going to compare what was socially acceptable in the 1600s and 1700s to today's time. Hell, forget the sex, lets just let 13, 14, and 15 year olds marry, have kids....sounds great. While we're at it, lets reinstate burning at the stake and stoning.
Once again, this guy was on videotape, in a gangbang, smoking pot and boozing it up. Some of you people almost act like this is just fine, normal behavior. Immoral is an understatement. The guy should have gone to jail...though, probably not for 10 years. Acting like this is some injustice because of the criminal justice system is ridiculous.

[laylo]

Originally Posted by macallan25

Oh come on, are you serious? Please tell me you aren't going to compare what was socially acceptable in the 1600s and 1700s to today's time. Hell, forget the sex, lets just let 13, 14, and 15 year olds marry, have kids....sounds great. While we're at it, lets reinstate burning at the stake and stoning.
Once again, this guy was on videotape, in a gangbang, smoking pot and boozing it up. Some of you people almost act like this is just fine, normal behavior. Immoral is an understatement. The guy should have gone to jail...though, probably not for 10 years. Acting like this is some injustice because of the criminal justice system is ridiculous.

Yes, I am serious. And yes, I do make connections between what is socially acceptable across time and cultures.

I absolutely did not say that our ethics ought to resemble the ethics of any other time or place. Nor did I say that the behavior was good. I plainly said that I advocate abstinence.

I did say that 15-year-olds in every place and in every time have been sexually active, demonstrating that the activity isn't likely to stop according to our new morals.

You needn't convince me that the act was immoral. Not everything immoral equals prison time. I think that imprisoning highschoolers for sleeping with each other is pointless and a waste of resources, including the resource of their potential.

[macallan25]

Originally Posted by laylo

Yes, I am serious. And yes, I do make connections between what is socially acceptable across time and cultures.

I absolutely did not say that our ethics ought to resemble the ethics of any other time or place. Nor did I say that the behavior was good. I plainly said that I advocate abstinence.

I did say that 15-year-olds in every place and in every time have been sexually active, demonstrating that the activity isn't likely to stop according to our new morals.

You needn't convince me that the act was immoral. Not everything immoral equals prison time. I think that imprisoning highschoolers for sleeping with each other is pointless and a waste of resources, including the resource of their potential.

Considering what was happening on the tape......I think he deserved it. 10 years? No. That is too much. But some prison time was warranted. This, to me, wasn't the same thing as a two highschoolers highschoolers having sex behind closed doors.

[Munchkin03]

Did anyone else read where he was sexually active at 13. Ummm, ewww? 13 year old boys are gross, and I felt that way when I was 13.

It's one thing to actually do this stuff, quite another to videotape it. He would be in college today playing football if it wasn't videotaped. 10 years is ri-freaking-diculous for getting a hummer from some HS ho, but not to have any sort of sanctioning at all is just as reproachable.

How much of this is related to the "athletes are gods" mentality that is so common in public high schools? To actually think that this behavior is okay, cute, and fine to videotape shows a whole hell of a lot of arrogance on the part of the dude and his friends.

I wonder how many black baby-daddies the "victim" has now...

[amycat412]

I don't think any prison time was warrented as both girls in the story seem to have been consensually participating in activities.

Now there is a line where consent becomes null and void if she is too wasted to give consent. But come on. they were all peers, it was a party. none of it IMO was intentionally malicious. Edgy, sure. But so what?

He did not deserve prison time, the branding of being a child molester, and I am disgusted that the GA judicial system has treated him so completely unfairly. It disgusts me, frankly.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by amycat412

I don't think any prison time was warrented as both girls in the story seem to have been consensually participating in activities.

Now there is a line where consent becomes null and void if she is too wasted to give consent. But come on. they were all peers, it was a party. none of it IMO was intentionally malicious. Edgy, sure. But so what?

He did not deserve prison time, the branding of being a child molester, and I am disgusted that the GA judicial system has treated him so completely unfairly. It disgusts me, frankly.

Thats interesting... What do you think the outcome would have been if all people involved where 22? And since when is "raping" your peers ok? Doesn't most cases of date rape happen at parties between peers?

[macallan25]

Originally Posted by amycat412

I don't think any prison time was warrented as both girls in the story seem to have been consensually participating in activities.

Now there is a line where consent becomes null and void if she is too wasted to give consent. But come on. they were all peers, it was a party. none of it IMO was intentionally malicious. Edgy, sure. But so what?

He did not deserve prison time, the branding of being a child molester, and I am disgusted that the GA judicial system has treated him so completely unfairly. It disgusts me, frankly.

So what if the black guy was five or six years older? Do you think a 23 or 24 year old on tape gang banging a bunch of freshmen and sophmores is acceptable behavior?

So you are telling me if you saw your 15 year old daughter on a video giving head and screwing a bunch of guys in a hotel room while chiefing it up and getting wasted.......you would be fine with it?

All of those kids parents should be locked up too.