Affluenza

[nissangirl74]

...something none of us on this forum will ever suffer from...

I had never heard the term before this week but according to some, it is a real medical condition.

"a condition in which "his family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences"



Now, thanks to some slick lawyer - and a stupid judge - a 16 year old a$$ that killed 4 people while driving drunk, isn't going to jail. At all. He's going into a $450,000 rehab program. He blew a .24, three times the legal limit. And just because his parents have money, he gets off pretty much scott-free.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/1 ... ostpopular

What a f***ing joke

Your thoughts?

[BusyBadger]

Was wondering when this would hit GC. Hard to believe the state that loves the death penalty like Kanye loves mirrors let this kid off so easy.

He'll f*** up again though, I guarantee it (in my best George Zimmer voice). I just hope someone doesn't die when he does, unless of course he's the DIY type.

With the criminal trial over though there's sure to be a hefty civil one aimed squarely at the parents' finances. And I hope they take every penny. It's a sure cure for that affluenza bug.

[themadscientist]

Me too. I think I have the opposite malady. I worry about consequences when I really should just be an a-hole like so many other people.

[nissangirl74]

I think I'm more pissed at the judge than anyone. The kid's a punk douche, the dad is probably an arrogant SOB, and the lawyer is slicker than Owl-$h!t. The judge, however, is supposed to see through all that. I can't believe he let the kid walk.

[Bubba1]

I think I'm more pissed at the judge than anyone. The kid's a punk douche, the dad is probably an arrogant SOB, and the lawyer is slicker than Owl-$h!t. The judge, however, is supposed to see through all that. I can't believe he let the kid walk.

I agree. Tragic miscarriage of justice. Unfortunately, the only avenue left to the victims families is to sue the cr@p out of the kid and his family.

[Loki]

So we've now dropped all pretext - the wealthy abide by different rules and laws as the rest of the unwashed masses. Also, I believe there was some rumblings that the judge was very well-connected with the kid's lawyer team. 'Cause conflict of interest is just the flavor of the month.

[Jesda]

The punishment mostly fits the crime. There's a difference between murder and negligent homicide, especially when the killer is 16. There's nothing to be gained by discarding [through a decade of prison] someone that young and unintentionally violent. There's still room for behavioral modification.

However, the judge's justification is bogus.

[Dattebayo]

I am confused how anyone could believe that a 16 year old is entirely rational, let alone how someone at that age could make those kind of decisions when drunk off his little as$... Whether his family thought their affluence was his ticket out or not doesn't mean anything here because wealth does buy people out of sticky situations, time and time again. It's just a shi* fact of life in this country.

But he's not scot-free at all. Rehab programs require several levels of compliance that he will probably not be able to complete to the court's satisfaction, and you can bet that his release was conditional on him completing that program 100%. You can also bet he won't be able to go before a license review board for at least 20 years. That means absolutley no speeding tickets, etc...

Are we sure the judge really cared about the lawyers obviously laughable claim and didn't make his ruling on some other reason? Was this a jury case?

[themadscientist]

He needs to go missing. Had it been one of my loved ones, he would. They would find pieces of him all over the place.

[AZhitman]

Bah.

Four people are dead. He can have a plywood box in a cemetery in a really crappy part of town for all I care.

Screw a silly "rehab" program. Rehab is for people who have been abusing substances for years, such that it has become a part of their routine. This little a$$crack-sniffer has probably only been lit a few times, and he needs to spend the next 20 years working (and earning) restitution to the victims.

Imagine the person you love most in the world. Imagine them gone - never to come home. Now, imagine some 16-year-old putz is the REASON they're never coming home. And then tell me what kind of contribution he's going to make to society that will make you give a damn.

His buddies need to do some time, too, just so they feel the sting.

[Jesda]

Screw a silly "rehab" program. Rehab is for people who have been abusing substances for years, such that it has become a part of their routine. This little a$$crack-sniffer has probably only been lit a few times, and he needs to spend the next 20 years working (and earning) restitution to the victims.

I think that would have been a more suitable punishment.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Affluenza sounds like the name for a new midize Hyundai.

Topically, I'm long past fed up with the idea of "correction" and "rehabilitation." I've said it before and I'll say it a million times more: Draco had it right. Set the punishment to fit the crime (even Draconian law recognized the difference between homicide and involuntary manslaughter) and enforce consistently. Stop making exceptions. Only then will people draw a real correlation between action and consequence. When you can go into court hoping (however unrealistically) you'll become the exception to the rule, the ability for the human mind to pretend there is no consequence will always be there. Punishment should be deterrent, not reactive.

[AZhitman]

Yep.

Criminal Justice 101: For a punishment to be effective as a deterrent, it must contain three elements:

Swiftness
Certainty
Severity

Remove even one, and it leaves room for, as Chris said, the offender to think they might somehow "get away" with it.

I spent a lot of years in mental health and LE, and know this to be true: The truly "rehabilitated felon" is an incredibly rare bird that liberal talk-show hosts like to parade around as an example of why our CJ system is "too harsh."

This little prick needed to clean up the accident scene. He needed to help load the bodies and body parts in bags. He needs to help his now-disabled "friend" with his activities of daily living. He needs to serve the families of the victims, until such time that they decide he's served his penance. He needs to be forced to sit and LISTEN to how his stupid-a$$ decision ruined THEIR lives, and he needs to see their pain first-hand.

Anything less than that is a sham, and a mockery of the judicial system.

Also, that judge can choke on a bushel basket of dix. A meaner version of me would wish to see him hit by a drunk driver.

[Jesda]

Punishment should be deterrent, not reactive.

Inherently irrational crimes do not follow the logic of law and consequences. In the same regard, gun laws do not stop gun crime and drug laws do not stop addiction.

All the legal system can do is offer a retributive remedy. It cannot change or alter society. At best, in situations where behavior cannot be corrected, it can separate dangerous people from the rest of the population. Making murder illegal, even super duper crazy illegal, doesn't stop or discourage people from killing each other. If you want someone to die, you're going to make it happen unless they are directly capable of defending themselves.

In the case of underage motorists who are guilty of negligent homicide, there's a middle ground between 20 years of lockup and 5 years of probation. This is where the justice system sends its less violent offenders (where the vast majority end up), using strict rehabilitation, counseling, or mandatory community service to reform their behavior rather than locking them up where they tend to become hardened and learn more about criminal activity from other criminals.

Again, the law cannot deter. It can only remedy what has been done. In that regard, you can make a logical argument in favor of heavier punishment for the 16 year old driver, but you cannot expect stricter laws alone to change behavior that hasn't yet occurred. Education is far more effective.

Every teenage driver should be forced to see dead bodies and/or spend time in an ER for a certain number of hours before receiving their motoring license.

[yodawill2000]

Back in the 60's/70's that's just what they did.
And it worked.
When you have a vision of a truck driver impaled by rebar,a teenage kid cut in half, ect. You tend to be a bit more cautious.
Of course back then we got a A$$ woopin' instead of time out.
We see how well that works today.
OOiey.