The New York Police Department has arrested an 8 year old boy for homicide. An 8 year old boy! The boy is alleged to have boarded a vacant school bus and released the parking brake, after which the bus rolled down a hill and struck a young girl, killing her.
My heart aches for the young girl's parents, but geez, folks, have we completely lost our perspective in our thirst for vengence? Must every stupid mistake be made into a crime? This is a young boy being mischevious, albeit with tragic results, and he has been charged with negligent homicide. There used to be a doctrine in the law that kids below a certain age could not be charged with criminal offenses because they were not mature enough to form the requisite criminal intent. If we are down to charging 8 year old boys with murder, I guess we've thrown that doctrine out the window. In this day and age, he must pay!
So let's lock him up and throw away the key! Let's put him in a juvenile facility until he turns 21, with the gangbangers and the real bad kids. Let's make sure he pays and pays and pays for a mistake he committed at the age of 8 for the rest of his life!
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