Teens Arraigned In Taped Assault On Lesbian Classmate

[ccharles000]

(Wayland, Michigan) Two female Michigan high school students who were videotaped attacking a classmate have been formally arraigned on charges of aggravated assault.

Crystal VanderLaan and Sydnee Rae Longhurst are accused of beating a Wayland Union High School classmate on June 10 as another student, who has not been charged, videotaped the attack.

The video was posted on the Internet shortly after school ended, said Wayland Police Chief Dan Miller. (story)

The attack also was caught on tape by a security camera at the school. The victim suffered bruises, according to the police report.

http://365gay.com/Newscon08/07/070308mich.htm

[MadMaddie]

1. What is it about today's teens that tape their crimes? They are

really stupid?

[aspergris]

7. teens have always been really stupid...

But now they have the technological means to easily preserve and broadcast their stupidity.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Only the technology has changed

Back in the 1970s, two teens broke into an apartment in New York City, robbed it, and raped the woman who lived there.

They were caught quickly because they took pictures of each other raping the woman and searching her apartment for valuables and then took their pictures to a drugstore to be processed.

The photo developer turned the pictures in to the police.

I remember reading this in the New York Times when I lived on the East Coast.

[aspergris]

11. yup n/t

[TheMadMonk]

12. No, we are for fostering a legal system that does not properly...

...punish/chastise youthful offenders.

A caution, small fine, perhaps a suspended sentence (repeated adnauseum) is all that a young offender will generally receive, and in their minds, (if they consider these things chastisement at all) such is a small price to pay for the kudos they will earn from their peers. Youtube and other video sharing sites are seen as the perfect avenues for making sure ones peers are in the know and able to properly express their admiration.

It is only when youthful offenders do something particularly heinous (often after years of escalating behaviour) that the system begins to take proper notice of the offenses. Or alternately if are stupid enough to have been born with the wrong skin tones. :sarcasm: (Should not be necessary, but I know I need to cover my arse.)

[MikeNearMcChord]

13. Oh they do punish youthful offenders

especially if they are African-American or Latino.

[noonwitch]

17. I'm not so sure that they will go easy on these kids

Kent County is known for having a fairly strict juvenile court system. I'm suspecting that the girls may spend some months in a nice place like Adrian Training School, or Vista Maria. It may be worse for them in the juvie system than in the adult system, where they would likely face fines and a slap on the wrist.

They won't be charged in the local court in Wayland, they will go to juvenile court in Grand Rapids. It all does depend on what they are charged with, however.

[Popol Vuh]

18. Not True if You're a Black or Mexican Youth

Remember the Jena Six? Where black students beat up a white student for hanging nooses on a tree to make a racist statement against black students. For that aggravated assault incident all those (black) youths were charged with attempted murder and faced up to 100 years in prison without parole.

Whether one wants to believe or not. This country has different rules for rich vs poor -and- white vs color and in no place is that more clear than in our courts and our work places. You can find this attitude in the news media too, which is how we get two identical pictures of Katrina victims walking through flood waters with food in their hands, but, one picture is described as looters and the other is described as victims searching for food.


http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/10/the_case_of_the_jena_six

[TheMadMonk]

21. Yes/No on they "DO" punish young offenders.

Yes they do punish, if the crime is sufficiently serious or the victim the "right" skin colour, or..., or... (well we all know what the ors are)

The US (and for that matter, most Western) justice systems are not fair and equitably just.

Provided the minorities limit their depredations to their "own kind", or the young offenders are "socially superior" to their victims, free passes abound, unless the medial gets of its apathetic, enabling behind and choses to make an issue of a particular crime.

And those "free passes" give kids bragging rights in their own circle and encourage them to escalate their behaviour.


That America is an equal opportunity society is an outright myth. It is damned near as stratified as Medieval Europe, or India of the nineteenth century.

[tekisui]

2. One day, attacks like this will no longer happen.

I seriously believe that, and look forward to that day.

So sad, and so repulsive.

[gratuitous]

3. Are we raising a generation of idiots, or what?

People have been doing this and other dopey things for generations. It's only recently that they've had the added opportunity for stupid to tape it and put it on the internet for everyone in the world to see and judge. A purely local stupid incident now becomes a national sensation, and Ms. VanderLaan and Ms. Longhurst are about to find out that being well-known is not nearly so much fun as they might have thought it was.

[bumblebee1]

4. They may be well known.

Both girls will be infamous, not famous. There's a big difference.

[Ian David]

5. If you bully and attack lesbian teens...

Look what they can become.




"Now it's MY turn..."

Her turn to do WHAT???

Oh, yeah...

http://www.progressiveu.org/104036-cheney-s-lesbian-daughter-is-she-a-hypocrite

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

19. Tax cuts trump personal wars of the conscience

It's the motto of the GOP.

[flvegan]

6. Why isn't this a hate crime?

According to the article, it may have been based upon the victim's public displays of affection, which I will assume were with another girl.

If you perform a violent act against another based upon your idiotic shit belief in regards to that person's sexual orientation, that's a hate crime, chums.

Fuck those bigot slags.

[dsc]

8. because we don't count under MI law

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_n744/ai_20078732

[ccharles000]

10. How sad

[dsc]

14. We also don't count in many other states in this regard

I think we have reached about the halfway point where we have protections in about as many states as we don't.

[knitter4democracy]

16. And with that damn marriage amendment most people didn't understand . . .

It's even worse now.

In reading through the amendment before the vote, it was pretty clear to me that it referred to common law hetero marriage, too, and I couldn't believe how many people I ran into who didn't understand that it would reduce our LGBT brothers and sisters to second-class citizens *and* heteros who live together without marriage. Now that it's law, I'm hearing people say they regret voting for it. We have to get rid of that p.o.s. law.

[Deja Q]

22. I thought all crimes were based on hate?

Beat up someone, don't piddle around - get the creep(s) reformed or locked up. It shouldn't make a difference. I can't often think of an excuse to justify such viciousness.

Still, I agree - targeting a person based on a specified aspect goes beyond the standard definition of 'hate' and should be treated accordingly.

[knitter4democracy]

25. Not really.

Greed, fear, a need for power, convenience, hunger, worry about loved ones, anger--all those can be the emotional bases for crimes. Hate is just one of the list.

[knitter4democracy]

15. This isn't that far from where my mom lives.

After having been a high school teacher before kids, I hate to say that I'm not surprised. I will never forget the day I almost lost control of one of my classes when a kid asked me if Shakespeare was gay or not. I said probably not but that it's not known for sure and that, either way, it really doesn't matter what an author's sexuality is any more than what their gender is. That's when the hate came out in force. I was truly sickened and disgusted by the things they said, and then I was worried they had fellow classmates who were in the closet and were scared, so I took them on. I asked over and over again why anyone's sexuality should matter to anyone else, that it's a purely private matter. I was assured that gays "make" other men gay and that no one's born that way. That's when I let them have it and said that I wasn't going to allow hate speech in my classroom and that they could take it up with the principal if they wanted.

Awful day. I cried all the way home and most of the evening. I still feel sick, worried that somehow I might have made it worse for anyone that day, that I didn't defend anyone enough or work hard enough to show them that LBGT students are their brothers and sisters, same as anyone else.

I well remember the hate, though. It was as bad as my KKK student in student teaching during the To Kill a Mockingbird unit. Same eyes, same vitriol, same fear and hate.

[ccharles000]

23. ...

:hug:

[knitter4democracy]

24. Thanks. I will never forget that day.

I'd never seen the pure hatred and fear in anyone's eyes until that day, and it scared me to the marrow of my bones. I can't imagine how awful it must've been for any of my LBGT students having to sit there and listen to it. *shudder*

[yellerpup]

20. What a sad story.

"The victim suffered bruises..." and plenty more than that, I'll bet. Poor darling. :hug: