Posted on 05/12/2008 6:09:59 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Thadd McNamara was at the helm of his motor home on a cross-country trip in 2005 when his cellphone rang and a neighbor gave him the news: His grown son, Sean, was in trouble with law -- again.
...
It turned out Sean McNamara was accused of burglarizing his father's home and attempting to make off with a baseball cap bearing the logo "Snap-On Tools."
It was classic Sean, his father would later say. Nothing serious. Just another knuckle-head move from an overgrown kid who drank too much beer, didn't pay his bills and, essentially, refused to grow up. Thadd even had a phrase from his Catholic school Latin that he used to describe Sean -- puer eternus -- or eternal boy.
This time, McNamara decided, he wasn't going to bail out his son.
He pressed charges, banking on a prosecutor's assurance that Sean would be ordered to undergo alcohol counseling as a condition of his probation, if he was convicted.
"You don't want to see your kid in jail," McNamara said in a recent interview. "But I felt that him being put in rehab was going to be good for him."
But Sean never made it to rehab.
He was nearly beaten to death in a Los Angeles County jail after being placed in dorms with about 200 fellow inmates, many of them violent members of the Southsiders gang. McNamara was attacked when the guard who was supposed to be watching them left his post.
The attack, in which inmates allegedly jumped from third-tier bunks onto his head as he lay on the floor, left him with permanent brain damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
“Here, kid, read this and understand what we’ll do if you get out of control...” :)
Not quite. But it does explain what a society must do to be responsible and protect itself.
Yes, it was. Most of the perps in there are gang members and they pimp and molest those under 18 anyway. They were simply looking for a victim, just as they do on the outside.
"...if someone decided to pass the word."
No guard would have done that, because they know the contents of the place and wouldn't deliberately kill the guy. They just put him in there, because he was sent to them. The place just apppears to be short staffed and the murderous thugs took advantage of that.
“But to have him arrested over a ball cap? Just seems like there are other ‘tough love’ things you could do. Unless, again, there is more to the story.”
It’s not about the baseball cap. Throw it away and forget you read about it.
The “child” in this case is 41 years old. It’s about possibly 20 years or more of lies, deceit, cheating and stealing. That’s what it’s about. The “straw broke the camel’s back”.
Sometimes, people need discipline because it makes for a less chaotic and structured environment.
Sorry for the error...meant to say: “makes for a less chaotic and a MORE structured environment.”
Yes, sometimes things ARE unfair. Upside down anymore it seems to me.
I was thinking that if had pissed of another con then that person might have spread the word. Guards wouldn’t have any part in that.
Just kidding around a bit...
That’s one of the bible passages that those on the left really freak out about and use as an example of how “barbaric Christiainity is”.
Good book.
I know the context. The ancient Israelites couldn’t long countenance a habitual troublemaker. And they didn’t have jails.
Of course this was the last resort seeing the parents had already chastened the bum.
As I recall, the last firing squad was WW 2 for a repeat deserter. Might have the details wrong.
They say the punishment was very effective.
In order for the system to change, people will have to accept some difficult realities. Like for example, that not every social ill has a solution involving jail time.
Yours is the smartest post here.
Just think of one fact alone: how the gangs are coddled in prison. Who makes the rules about who is put together? Why, it’s the gangs. Imagine what life would be like if each crip had to share a 2-person cell with a Blood, or each Hispanic was rooming for years with a black guy. I think the world would be a better place. But no; the system rewards “gang loyalty.”
And yes, wayward teens need SOME consequences, but leave the law out of it unless they are serious dangers to themselves or others.
It’s something I never understood either. Why do they need to gather in jail yards? Why do they need to all eat in a lunchroom? Why do they get weight rooms? Why can’t there be little cells with a cot, sink, and toilet, and enough room to do jumping jacks and pushups for exercise? It’s supposed to be JAIL, not a college dorm.
Good book
You recognize it. So few people do.
barbaric Christiainity is”.
How reality based Christianity is...
Yours is the smartest post here.
I am going to frame that!
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