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.

Oh, and he handed himself in and pleaded guilty. Fully grown and mature nen get less than he did for rape!

saliz He wasn't aiming it at anyone?? He was throwing it from a great height, towards a crowd. If he wasn't trying to hit anyone then he wouldn't have thrown it in the first place.

Also just a sixth former?? You mean he wasn't old enough to know better?

He was blinking lucky not to be charged with attempted murder. One metre to to the left and a family or two would be without a loved one.

No sympathy for him. If you can't do the time don't do the crime. The fact he's a nice white middle-class boy and a student don't matter one iota to me.

and his mum persuaded him to hand himself in once his face was all over TV...hardly as virtuous as it first sounds!

UnquietDad you and me both

isn't he !8?
so a man

What if he were an unemployed 18-year-old who'd fathered several children, but had no record. There would be no, 'Aw, he's just a 6th former'.

Research has shown that young people, especially young men, aren't fully aware of the consequences of their actions until they are 25. Thinking back to myself when I was that age, I did stupid things at times without really thinking them through. Then I regretted them later when I had time to think about it carefully, but in the moment, I wasn't thinking clearly.

I work with teenagers, and I would say that although they may know the difference between right and wrong, they are still influenced by mood, and do not think of the long-term consequences. To an 18 year old, it is impossible to imagine being 30. So, yes, I would stand by my original comment.

Yes, he should be punished, but I think it is unfair that it should effect the rest of his life in this way, when he is so young and so undeveloped in his potential.

I think its no much that his sentance is too long but that in other cases the sentances are too short (or not custodial when they should be). Drink driving is a good example of this. In some its sad that he is so young and this will have a big impact on life at the same time though he has bought it upon himself.

I work with people with disabilities, challenging behaviours and it frustrates me to see intelligent people who are able and equipped to know better doing stupid and dangerous things. So unneccesary.

So everyone, everywhere, no matter their individual character changes majically overnight? One day you are 17, therefore a child, and the next you are 18 and an adult. Wow. I have yet to see this.

He might be reckless but he is not a thug fgs.Young people act daft all the time(we are not always there to see what our teens do!) this could have ended very differently and thank god it didn't but people do a lot worse every day and walk away scot free.It is a bit like taking drugs when you are young you just never think it will turn out bad even though for some it does but you can get carried along with the 'crowd' mentality and take stupid risks

magically, not majically! oops!

saliz So you think that at 18 he isn't capable of realising that throwing a heavy object at a crowd is likely to cause harm?

I think 18 years is long enough to have learnt that.

salizchap. I really find some of your comments difficult to agree with. Surely it depends on the character of the person in question?

How have we within a generation or two gone from teenagers who hauled themselves into spitfires and fought off German planes to people who throw heavy items off very tall buildings then claim to have been carried away?

"when you are young you just never think it will turn out bad"

He threw a heavy object from a great height towards a crowd of people.

This isn't a situation with a small chance of harm, it is a situation with a high chance of harm. It was just extremely lucky noone was hurt.

You do not throw a heavy object at a crowd without intending harm. And if you do, then it is safer that you are kept somewhere where you cannot harm others.

Let's see. Who would throw a heavy object into a crowd off a building he'd broken into at a protest about having to pay to go to university?

A punk ass thug. The same as would throw a brick onto a motorway. A punk ass thug.

He did this, hence, he is also a thug.

You do the crime, you do the time.

You take drugs thinking they can't kill you and they do, well, the consequence of that is that you are dead.

Actions have consequences.

Look, whatever. Obviously you were all perfect teenagers and never did anything stupid when you were that age. I did do stupid things, not intending to cause damage, but it could have done if I hadn't been lucky, and I'm glad that I WAS lucky.

I didn't get caught out, I didn't hurt anybody. But "there for the grace of God go I". Maybe that is why I don;t sit on judgment on anybody.

Yes, people do a lot worse and get away with it.

OJ Simpson, for example. Whoever it was who murdered Joanna Yates. Chindamo was walking around without a care in the world.

That's life.

Doesn't mean we should just stuff and let people off the hook.

I tell my kids this all the time. People get away with murder.

Others don't.

So if you don't learn some self-control don't be surprised if life goes awry sharpish and I won't be able to bail you out.

agree with expat

I don't get the 'it could happen to anyone'

he chose to pick it up, aim and throw it

if he was drugged/drunk, so what? if it was due to heightened emotion so what ? it's not a crime of passion .. he was part of a violent faction of the protest , they were not demonstrating peacefully they stormed a building with the intent to destroy the place and clearly did not care about whether people where hurt

he hsould look scared, he should be terrified and if he's been made an example of , so much the better..

i agree with tthe concrete block/motorway bridge analogy

a bright young man should be deemed quick witted enough to know that hurling a fire extinguisher off the top of a tall building is bad

So we're not supposed to sit in judgement on anyone under 25?

Yeah, okay.

I did a shitload of stuff as a teen.

I knew damn well, however, that if I did something criminal and got caught out, I was going to be in serious trouble and pay for it.

So I refrained from hurling fire extinquishers off buildings into crowds.

That would have seemed, even to my often drunken 18-year-old self as a really really bad idea.

there's stupid things and life threatening things..

Tough, lucky he never killed anyone.

If it had hit a member of your family, would it still have been too long? In the big scheme, it is longer than someone who has raped or stole , but that is just because there is no justice. Punishment doesnt fit every crime these days, it just means others are too lenient.

My boss once hired a 30-year-old man who, age 17, had killed his girlfriend by driving 120 miles/hour whilst drunk and crashing his car into a tree.

He had served 3 years for involuntary manslaughter.

He'd turned his life around, achieved a degree, cooperated with his parole officers, been a model inmate.

With help from his parole officers, he had always found work.

Still, because he was a felon, every time he applied for a job, he had to attach explanations, testimonials from even the sentencing judge and former employers. He volunteered actively in schools to campaign on teh dangers of drink driving.

I sat in on his interview, and my boss asked him about this, how it impacted his life.

His attitude: what he had to do every single time he applied for a job, a loan, a lease on a flat, a hire car, etc. was small potatoes compared to what that girl's family had to go through every day of their lives.

As he put it, 'This didn't ruin my life. It ended hers.'

He was a wonderful employee who was soon promoted.