Both stupid in different ways. Michael Brown was malicious and dangerous, Otto Warmbeir was clueless and feckless. Warmbeir’s cluelessness inflicted harm on others as well as himself. Anyone who travels to North Korea loses the aegis of U.S. diplomacy, and the nation should not spend a lot of energy trying to extricate himself from the the consequences of his fecklessness.
Both Brown and Warmbeir were let down by the adults in their lives who should have instilled in them more sense of responsibility and common sense. By making martyrs of either of them we sending an altogether wrong message to young people. As Chris Rock explained so well, “You ever hear folks sayin’ I wouldn’t do that shit if I was you? Well, this here is some of that shit.”
Don’t attack police officers.
Don’t travel to countries controlled by insane dictators.
BTW, I would not be surprised if Warmbier’s condition was the result of a suicide attempt. The Norks didn’t count on that. Once his usefulness as a bargaining chip was removed, the Norks dropped him like a hot potato. Clearly they expected the next Democratic President to send them a planeload of Obama Euros to buy him back. A US hostage is worth a king’s ransom to them and far too valuable to kill.