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April 17, 2006

Welcome to the Jungle

The four New York City hooligans who recently chased an NYU student into the path of an oncoming car laughed as he lay in the street dying — and why shouldn't they? Their murder of this young man will have no significant consequences for them; if it were likely to, it probably wouldn't have happened in the first place. Our ultraliberal legal system is there to protect criminals, not their victims.

Prosecutor Joel Seidemann describes the killers:

They didn't call for an ambulance. They didn't call for help. Rather, they stood on the street corner and laughed.

Four days after their little joke, Broderick John Hehman died of the massive head injuries they caused him by chasing him into the street while trying to steal his cell phone. They face a maximum of 5 years in "restrictive placement." It's possible they will get off with no more than 18 months in juvenile detention — even if our loony-tunes courts manage to find them guilty. There were only 14 witnesses, so the case might be a tough one.

I had a pair of similar experiences in the same city 15 years or so ago, except I was luckier — both times I came away with only a concussion. It didn't even occur to me to call the police. My attitude at the time was that if you venture out into a jungle, it's to be expected that you might be set upon by wild beasts.

Too many people still have this attitude. We accept that the streets of our cities are no longer part of the civilized world. Mayhem thrives because it is tolerated, excused, even glorified. As a result, this young man is dead, and his four murderers can look forward to long lives of generous welfare payments and underpunished crimes.

Posted by Van Helsing at April 17, 2006 6:47 AM