To feel sorry for (and think the punishment is too long) for the 18 year old who threw the fire extinguisher in the protests

[LaurieFairyonthetreeEatsCake]

2 years, 8 months in jail

here

That's a looooong time. Is the reasoning supposed to be that it's a deterrent?

There are people with asbo's who cause no end of trouble and don't get sentences like this.

The fact that he threw it down onto police officers will be a factor. Violence against them tends to be punished more heavily because if you attack them it's not just attacking an individual it's attacking the police as a whole.

We expect the police to go into situations where they're heavily outnumbered and (relatively now with pepper type sprays and batons) unarmed. The uniform in itself is protection- a visual deterrent.

Won't he get free education while in prison?

If he can't protest peacefully then he deserves it.

If I stood in the middle of town launching fire extinguishers at passers by, I'd get a sentence.

Just goes to show, no amount of education will get rid of ignorance.

Hopefully the fees being risen will keep this kind of rif-raf out of universities in future.

Would you say that throwing a heavy object from a tall building into a crowd of people could have caused serious injury? Would you say it was likely of unlikely to injure someone?

It was highly likely to hurt someone. He is 18, old enough to know it was highly likely to hurt someone. With that knowledge, why would you throw it unless you were expecting it to cause harm?

On that basis, do you really think the punishment is too harsh?

It's not a case of it didn't hurt anyone, more a case of he couldn't possibly have expected that it would miss.

Similar to drink driving- you don't HAVE to kill anyone for it to be an inevitable. Or speeding (like I was caught doing just last week ).

Just a matter of time-they'll not bother next time....or they'll just try harder to prevent being caught.

Yes he will PaisleyLeaf. He'll get all sorts of training and courses thrown at him. It'll be up to him if he does them or not!

Are you for real? Would you feel the same if that fire extinguisher had hit a child on the head - or anyone, for that matter?

What an utter idiot.

Sentences are too short in this country, IMO.

He and other thugs, because doing something like this is what thugs do, should be locked up for longer.

18 is considered adult, adult enough to join the armed forces, become a parent, drive a car, know that throwing a fire extinguisher from a building can severely hurt or kill someone.

So he messed up his life? Well, he could have taken someone else's.

In that case, he's probably quite wise and managed to avoid paying the top up fees. Free education is prison, roll up roll up!

*in prison, rather.

You're right expat, I wouldn't feel the same if it had killed someone.

Given that it didn't I wonder if he may be being made an example of.

And I feel sorry for him for all the reasons I outlined. It's sad to fuck up your life so young.

He knew what he was doing. The stupid git. I don't feel sorry for him. Not long enough IMHO

He, and the members of the police and public in the Courtyard below, were extremely lucky that no-one was killed. Ok, so I know no-one was killed, but he and others need to know that it only takes 'a moment of madness' to end someone's life.

And i don't think throwing a heavy object from a great height is 'sticking up for his rights'. There were alot of other students there that day 'sticking up for their rights' in a perfectly acceptable and measured way, and unfortnately beacuse of a group of thugs, had their message forgotten in the uproar.

'Given that it didn't I wonder if he may be being made an example of.

And I feel sorry for him for all the reasons I outlined. It's sad to fuck up your life so young.'

Well, he has only himself to blame for being such a dumb ass.

Tough.

One of my family member's partner was 'made an example of'. He crashed his boss's car whilst drunk and got a 3 year ban. Poor thing. The judge made an example of him and he's young, too. But I feel FA sympathy for him. I think the example should have been harder, IMO.

Because people who drive drunk are arseholes.

And people who chuck fire extinguishers from teh tops of buildings into crowds are, too.

I save feeling sorry for people who actually deserve it, not spoiled punks like this.

Question - what do you think the intent is behind throwing a fire extinguisher into a crowd of people?

You don't always sentence on the basis only of the harm done by the act. If you did, people who had set out to do something truly dreadful (set off a bomb, for example) would have to be given relatively limited sentences because, fortuitously and no thanks to them, little or no harm resulted (e.g.the bomb failed to go off). So intention and what the offender was prepared to risk happening-while not necessarily directly intending it-is also very relevant. That's what has stuffed this lad. Arson tends to attract stiff sentences on this basis. If you stuff petrol through someone's letterbox and light it, you get a hefty sentence even though the target managed to get the fire out.

And deterrence is a perfectly legitimate aim of sentencing.

And in a way it is a genuine tragedy, in the original sense of a man being brought down by his own flaws/actions.

I always remember a (female) magistrate talking about how many teenage boys come in front of the bench and how she was so glad when her two sons got through those years without getting into trouble.

He was incredibly stupid, lucky not to have killed anyone, and deserved to be punished. But the sentence is too high. It was a one-off. No one - was killed. Unlike the newspaper seller who was killed by the police (nobody charged).

Drunk and speeding drivers could kill people too, but they don't get this sort of sentence. To put it in perspective, DEATH by dangerous driving as a first time offence has a recommendation of 12 months to 2 years imprisonment.

He'll defer his course, serve 18 months and pick up where he left off, hopefully having learned a useful lesson.

To all those saying that this will ruin his life, it will only do so if he lets it. He's young, presumably has no family to support or debts to service and there is no reason at all that he can't resume his studies when he gets out and go on to become a productive and resbonsible member of society.

Then there needs be a campaign to increase sentencing for drunk drivers.

This punk will serve 1 year, 4 months in jail, perhaps less.

Seems adequate to me.

Idiot.

He aimed and threw a heavy object at a crowd of people. How is the sentence too high?

He is an idiot.

He could have killed someone. And for what? To "protest" against a govt. policy they dont agree with. I dont agree with ANY of them and I dont take to the streets and cause criminal damage.

I lost all respect for the students "cause" when the president of the NUS declined to criticise the actions of the students at the riots and the behaviour of this student in particular.

He wont serve the whole sentance. They never do.

Personally that is far too long considering sex offenders get six months suspended.

When you compare it to other sentances where people have committed crimes against children it's pathetic.

The sentences for other crimes are too short. That doesn't mean the sentence for this crime is too long.

I think the sad (or worrying) bit is this could happen to any of our children. He isn't a feral delinquent, he is an ordinary person caught up in an extraordinary situation and made a big mistake.

Could happen to anyone.

No it couldn't.

He aimed a heavy object at a crowd. It wasn't an accident

To put it in perspective, DEATH by dangerous driving as a first time offence has a recommendation of 12 months to 2 years imprisonment.

Exactly. Taking someone's loved one away through a concious decision to drive recklessly, and them getting 12 months, it beggers belief, doesn't it?

I know we're all subjective about which crimes we deem to be more henious than others, but broadly speaking, WTF is going on with that.