Going nuts..Cheerleaders?

By now you've seen or heard about the six teen-aged cheerleader girls (read that as: felonious loons with no sense of good or evil) and their two trollish male look outs who beat an unsuspecting teen with a savagery usually reserved for clashes between the Chinese militia and Tibetan monks. The reason for the beating? The victim wrote something that hurt the fragile egos of the cheerleaders on her MySpace page. Let's hope that the state of Florida tries these criminals as adults.

None of this would have happened without the Internet and YouTube. Before you send my editor crazed emails, hear me out. Thanks to the egocentric narcissism that compels these loons, they believe that no matter how heinous their particular crime, it is worthy of public viewing on a video sharing site. Had this attack occurred five years ago, the victim would have had to prove these troglodytes were her attackers. No doubt each would have lied for the other rather than face certain prison time and possible Karmic retribution. Now, the victim can just point to the video when her vision heals. The victim was beaten so badly that she (as of this writing) still has hearing and vision problems.

But there are those who will blame The Internet, YouTube and Myspace when the blame lies with the little criminals who committed the atrocious acts and, to a lesser extent, their parents. I had violent influences when I was growing up, but I can honestly say that I never tried to eye boink my friends, push them off cliffs or drop anvils on their heads. There was the one summer when I acted like Baretta and walked around with an unlit cigarette behind my ear, but upon returning to school in September, Mother Superior broke me of the habit by smacking the smoke from my ear and leaving me with a aural ring for three days. I did not tell my mother about the incident because she would have assumed that, if Mother Superior has whacked me I must have deserved it. The point is, even as young children, my friends and I knew that the things the Three Stooges, Buggs Bunny, or the Coyote did were fantasy and shouldn't be replicated in the real world.
The parents of these hoodlums also share some culpability. Not as much, but some. The cheerleaders and their accomplices were certainly old enough to understand the difference between right and wrong. While I don't know any of the parents personally, I will go out on a limb and say they probably never said ambushing a defenseless teen and beating her into a concussion is bad, but I am sure the parents implied that in some of their lessons. The parents are certainly financially responsible for their children, as future civil suits will no doubt bear out, but I am torn on the suggestion that criminal charges against the parents are necessary. Unless raising a thug is a crime.

Christina Garcia, mother of one of the thugs, I mean girls, had the audacity to blame the victim. According to news reports, the victim made some comments on her Myspace page about the girls. Ms. Garcia, who will never win Humanitarian of the Year, said, "I just don't see why [the victim] would do that if she didn't have the nerve to back it up, what you're saying." She did admit later thather daughter should have called police.Ya think?

These monsters had ample opportunities to prevent this crime. At every stage during the planning process one of the more highly evolved among the primates could have said this is bad idea. The person holding the camera could have put it down or, at the very least, stopped recording and suggest they release the victim. Instead the little vigilante holding the camera said, "There is only 17 seconds left, make it good."

One of the accomplices, an 18-year-old high school student, was standing by the door planning to run interference if anyone tried to interupt. He could have gone for help at any time, but choose to be a thug. A word to that particular troglodyte: you are just as guilty as the girls who perpetrated the beatings. You will be tried as an adult, as I hope the the rest of the pack is; and, if found guilty, you will end up in the big boys' prison. Keep in mind that someone will be standing outside your cell making sure no one interrupts your welcoming committee.