The crumbling of behavioral standards that we used to take for granted as everyday, common and essential societal norms continues. These days apparently it is an ordinary thing to engage in intimidation or violence when someone gets a reprimand for obnoxious behavior.
http://wsvn.com/news/local/teen-arrested-after-woman-violently-thrown-into-pool/
He should definitely be charged with assault or battery (I don’t know the difference), but I fail to understand why there needs to be a separate category of crime for those 65 and older.
Obviously a criminal assault, but I’m not convinced anything about human behavior has changed recently. There are always shocking abuses, we just hear about more of them now.
Indeed, crime overall is down greatly compared to a generation ago, but people generally believe that crime is increasing every year.
I assume it’s for the same reason that there’s a separate category for crimes against minors. The elderly are particularly vulnerable. (It sort of pains me to say that, though, because I’m 65 and I certainly don’t consider myself elderly!)
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-sb-woman-pool-toss-folo-20170509-story.html
Here’s the latest article that talks about the judge giving the kid house arrest and allowing him to keep playing basketball with his team. Watch the video to see the bruises on this woman and to listen to her description of the attack. X(
Violent crime has gone down substantially in the last few decades.
On the other hand, news at our finger tips has increased dramatically leading to this perception that behavior and “morals” are deteriorating.
That said, kid deserves the max he can get. No excuse. And the people cheering him on are just despicable.
Assault is when a person is put in fear of an unlawful touching; battery is when the touching actually occurs.
Loser with a capital “L”. We need to stop kids like this in their tracks. No excuses, no soft punishment, throw the book at them. Sounds like his Mom did the right thing, too bad the judge didn’t. He has previous discipline issues at school so there is a pattern forming, and not a good one.
Check out the “Support for Leon Balfour Jr.” FB page. Disgusting.
As soon as i heard about this, I thought, “Oh man, that’s in South FL.” Just like the fights at the Spirit Airlines counter - I just knew it was Ft Lauderdale.
There is a special category in FL for elder abuse but given that he is a juvenile, not much will happen to him.
One thing I will say about this young man, he turned himself in a couple of hours later saying something like, “I know I need to take responsibility.”
Wow–that is awful! You ask folks to quiet down a little, get knocked to the ground and then thrown into the pool fully dressed while holding the leash of your dogs and have bruises to boot! Sounds like the assailant didn’t even live in the complex. It’s a good thing no bones were broken with her being knocked to the ground and having the batterer fall on her.
^^^^That’s what I thought. They went down hard, on concrete. I’m amazed she wasn’t seriously injured.
It is widely reported his father is doing 20 years for manslaughter (killing someone with a knife in a fight).
And the youth did not turn himself in until after he was identified through social media.
What does the father’s actions have to do with the son’s? That’s just like when the young boy fell into the gorilla exhibit and suddenly the fact that his father had some type of criminal history started popping up in the story (and he wasn’t even at the zoo that day and had been a productive citizen for many years). This kid didn’t stab someone (or rape someone behind a dumpster). He did something really dumb and I believe he did not intend to hurt the woman - but yes it was stupid and he should be held accountable and punished in some way, but let’s not make this more than it is. He turned himself in. He had a responsible mother who helped him make that decision. He makes decent grades. He is not a lost cause, and could certainly learn from this and grow up to be a fine person. So just let it be.
Oh, my.
Maybe this is a case where restorative justice would have a better long term result.
I think this is a good reason to just have the resident manager deal with excessive noise instead of going yourself and asking the folks to tone it down.
Yes, perhaps restorative justice could be useful here.
The woman was on the condo board and was asking the kids to lower the music because other residents had complained.
So condo board members have to perform security duties that are normally for Property Managers? I am unfamiliar with board duties that would include asking people on premises to quiet down. Is that really expected of board members? That seems above and beyond to me–boards are supposed to set policy, not necessarily have to enforce it.
I think this was more of a normal neighborly act. According to what the victim said, the kids who lived there were very supportive.
A number of years ago, when the family next door had a son in his late teens early 20s who was planning to have a party, he came by ahead of time and forewarned us, asking that if the party was bothering us that we let him know directly rather than calling the police, and he would take care of it. Seemed eminently reasonable to me.
It didn’t bother us and we didn’t have to do anything.