Thursday, May 26, 2016

Editorial: Why Charges Should be Pressed Against Teen Vandals

Middletown resident Kevin Kelly with sign vandalized in broad daylight.
On the morning of May 19th, West Hartford resident, Jeff Weiss was a guest on WTIC AM 1080's, "Sound Off Connecticut", hosted by Jim Vicevich.  Jeff gained notoriety after catching two teenage girls in his driveway stealing his Trump signs and recording the encounter.  The podcast of Jim's conversation with Jeff can be heard via podcast at the beginning of hour #2.  The incident also made the news on Fox61.


Jeff didn't want to press charges because the thieves were young, and Jeff was once young "and did stupid things, too".  I can understand that; nevertheless,  I recommend preferring charges for the following reasons:

1) They knew what they were doing was wrong and REASONED they would get a pass because of their age.

2) They showed no sign of contrition and think they know how to game/exploit the system.

3) They think their parents would approve.  If that's the case, maybe the parents would also benefit from the lesson.

4) In spite of Dad's apology and promise to deal with it, it seems he did not effectively do so.  The girls didn't learn a lesson if they are bragging about the incident on Twitter and in school.  Rather, they seem to have earned a badge of honor.

5) Not doing so would teach them there are no consequences for actions and only embolden them to continue this line of behavior, or worse.

An appropriate punishment might be XX hours of community service working in some capacity with the West Hartford RTC. Such a sentence would expose them to Republicans/Conservatives and maybe they would learn through the association the we are not so bad, after all.

http://fox61.com/2016/05/17/video-shows-encounter-between-west-hartford-homeowner-and-teens-who-stole-his-trump-signs/

10 comments:

  1. Amazing! TMI staff has the ability to KNOW what a person is thinking and feeling!!
    Surely there is a better use for such a talent than concerning yourself with other people's parenting and children!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Watch the video and listen to the interview with Mr. Weiss, then submit your analysis. If you reach a different conclusion, I'll be happy to publish it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you reach a similar conclusion, I'll be happy to publish that, too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Funny, but I do't see any mention of the girls "feelings".

    ReplyDelete
  5. Funny whenever someone disagrees or criticizes TMI, there is always an anonymous comment within an hour supporting him.
    That's not suspiciously coincidental or anything... *eye roll*

    ReplyDelete
  6. Let's see, TMI has 628,305 page views, to date and may well break 750,000 by the end of this year. TMI couldn't possibly have any supporters, could it? And then, the anonymous comment at 6:28 doesn't seem exactly supportive, but merely observational. (with a typo)

    Time for you, "anonymous", to fish or cut bait. Instead of throwing cheap, baseless insults, how about submitting a well reasoned difference of opinion? Are you not capable?

    Watch the video, listen to the interview and then write about your conclusions based on what you see and hear.

    ReplyDelete
  7. EDITOR'S NOTE:

    "Anonymous", and everyone else, may have noticed that; while all comments are moderated, comments from "someone (who) disagrees (with) or criticizes TMI" are published.

    ReplyDelete
  8. A page view now equals 1 person? No.
    It is an analytic measurement of an individual loading 1 single webpage. The home page and each individual article count as different webpages.
    1 person loads 1 page 20 times, it's 20 views. This doesn't count if the page is refreshed, however.

    It also calculates the number of times the editor/staff views the page.


    Curious if that number of page views you quoted for the entirety of the blog or just since it changed hands

    ReplyDelete
  9. I never said a page view equals 1 person.

    That number, which is clearly visible on the right side of the page if you scroll down, is from the beginning. Since it's inception, the average has been 12,328 PVs per month.

    Since it changed hands, (and don't forget I was a part of the Insider for two yrs or so prior to that), the average is 12,288 PVs per month. Not bad for a little, local blog.

    I'm still waiting for that analysis and thanks for keeping up with TMI!

    ReplyDelete
  10. No problemo. It's good bathroom material.

    ReplyDelete

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