You Can't Escape Consequences

My opinion

No one should be able to escape the consequences of his or her actions, no matter what his or her background or childhood was like.

Every action or choice comes with a consequence to match, you can’t escape it and no one should take it away. According to msnbc.com,

"A juvenile court judge deciding if four teenage boys should be tried as adults in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl who was lured into a Southern California park bathroom ordered the Probation Department on Monday to prepare reports on the suspects.

Riverside County Judge Robert J. McIntyre said he wants the reports by April 25 as he considers the case against the defendants, whose ages range from 15 to 17.

The teens appeared one by one at the hearing in orange jumpsuits with their ankles and wrists bound in handcuffs.

The charges against each teen include rape, sodomy and committing the crimes to benefit a criminal gang. Three denied all of the charges through their attorneys, the equivalent of a not guilty plea in juvenile court. The fourth teen will be arraigned April 15."

These boys according to many should be put in prison for life, according to others the parents of these boys should have to stand before the judge also. However, there are some who are willing to say that these boys probably come from difficult homes and should be psych evaluated.

Though I do agree that there are probably varied reasons for the boy’s actions, they were still actions that they chose to commit. Those boys chose to rape an 11-year-old-girl. I don’t care what the circumstances were or the reasons they have, or the excuses they give; those boys need to be brought to a realization of the real hard-hitting consequences that come with actions such as this.

Consequences, whether they are good or bad, can be life changing. Those boys should feel the full force of the consequences of their actions… they should be life changing. People learn from the consequences of actions. A child learns the concept ‘hot’ when he or she touches a stove burner after being told not to touch. The consequence of that action is that the child has a stinging burn. You can’t immediately rewind the clock and act like it never happened: if you did then the child wouldn’t learn anything. The child learns the consequence of touching something hot by dealing with the pain.

The scenario is no different here; those boys cannot be lightly slapped on the hand with a ruler and be expected to never again repeat the act. Why wouldn’t they? The first time went by with no consequence so why not do it a second time?

Consequences teach.

And sometimes hard lessons need to be learned.