[ddlove01]

Some people can be so heartless. Don't people care anymore?

Originally Posted by C0NFUS3D

I went on yahoo this morning to read the whole story, it was serveral photos with captions on them one read," so a lady was raped, big deal."

[Lisa_from_Debary]

How sick and twisted can people be?

I don't understand the mind set at all.

I get when you need money for your drugs...I get when someone makes you mad, you kill them...its all wrong but at least it makes sense in a twisted way...

BUT to brutalize for the fun of brutalizing these people...I have NO understanding for that AT ALL.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by fort lauderdale

This story has been posted several times, and West Palm Beach is starting to remind me more of a third world city than Miami at times. I think the class division there is even more stark than Miami.

The difference is that the class division in West Palm Beach is historical, while Miami is creating its own by means of immigration.

West Palm was originally created as a "service" settlement for the Island of Palm Beach. Blacks were kicked off the Island and settled just across the river. Over time, the neighborhoods deteriorated further and further.

Originally Posted by fort lauderdale

It just has a feel to it. The sparkling clean downtown, but all of the restaurants offer free bottled water at City Place because the tap is hardly potable (At least they did when I was there two years ago),

You sure that wasn't after a hurricane? I have never been served free bottled water in a Cityplace restaurant. And I live here so I eat at Cityplace restaurants frequently!

Originally Posted by fort lauderdale

some of the shanty towns out in the Belle Glade/Phaokee region remind me of third world slum,

Think "old south agricultural economy." I actually have never even met any white people from Belle Glade or Pahokee......

Originally Posted by fort lauderdale

as do some of the neighborhoods off of Southern Blvd and throughout Central PBC. The middle class there seems to be even more excluded then it is in Miami, with all of the sparkling glitz and McMansons being built around the areas and in little enclaves, and the bars on the windows throughout the city. At least you have your occasional well-cared for established Miami neighborhood.

In all fairness, West Palm Beach South East of I-95 and South of Okeechobee DOES have its established historic mixed neighborhoods. The problem with THOSE neighborhoods for me is that you can have a beautiful restored Spanish mission home right next to some unkempt, cars-in-the-yard, unlandscaped, dead grass bungalow.

Originally Posted by tallrick

I don't know what can be done. My view is that government subsidized apartments are not fit places for people to live.

That's probably generally true. But there is nothing per se wrong with an apartment complex that is subsidized. There IS something wrong with the types of people who QUALIFY for government housing. The mother that was raped was by all accounts a decent person who just happened to be poor with little options.

Originally Posted by tallrick

What can be done to stop this culture of violence? Eliminating drug prohibition would cut off the profit motive to be in the drug business, but that will not happen.

I definitely agree with the elimination of drug prohibition. Make it legal, make it corporate, tax it to death, and take the common street criminal out of the equation (with enough money left over for rehab clincs and educational programs)

Originally Posted by tallrick

Welfare has to be eliminated.

I'm not sure how eliminating welfare will do any good? It's not even like Welfare is a big deal anymore after Clinton's welfare reform in the 90s removed the incentive to make it a lifestyle choice. And please, let's address the REALITY of human nature instead of what everyone HOPES will happen if Welfare programs were done away with (I.e, formerly deadbeat and absent fathers will realize the error of their ways and come rushing home.... or people will *stop* having sex when they are poor).

As a matter of fact, if it were up to me I'd do like FDR and re-organize the Citizens Corps to give and and all able-bodied unemployed people PROJECTS to do around their neighborhoods. Pay them to revitalize, clean up, reconstruct their neighborhoods, so that maybe then they'll have a motive to KEEP those neighborhoods in order.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

You sure that wasn't after a hurricane? I have never been served free bottled water in a Cityplace restaurant. And I live here so I eat at Cityplace restaurants frequently!

All of the restaurants said that the city was using Lake Okeechobee as their water supply. The hibachi restaurant gave us a letter from the city of WPB. It might of been a temporary thing. This was about 2 or so years back, or maybe a year and a half.

[tracee1967]

It gets better, I live in Miami and on the news they showed the 3rd teen coming out of the building and he was grinning from ear to ear! The news reporter asked him why he was smiling and he just laughed! What happened was the boys knocked on her door and told her that her car tires were slashed, so she opened her door and they bolted in. Animals, thats what they are and thats how they should be treated in jail. Hope they get back to them what they did to that poor lady and her 12 year old son. SICKO!

[DavidS827]

I live in VA and heard about this. I went to college in South FL and know how bad some of the neighborhoods are, but this is just beyond comprehension. There should be no trial, no jury, no jail time for these kids...just flat out execute them.

[backtofla]

i have to agree, as i dont know what another solution could be. i hate to say it, as i have gone back and forth will the death penalty myself, but these kids are beyond counseling. this was horrible. mentally, they are scarred for life. thank god they are still living.

[sunrico90]

How can we prevent this from taking place again?

Family involvement and commitment is at the top of the list....

[sunrico90]

A month after a 35-year-old Dunbar Village woman and her 12-year-old son were attacked and raped at gunpoint by a pack of masked, armed teenagers, a grand jury has indicted the three juvenile suspects as adults.

3 kids 14, 16 and 15-year-old are facing life in prison for a plethora of charges, including eight counts of sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, two counts of kidnapping and one count each of promoting sexual performance by a child, grand theft motor vehicle, burglary with assault or battery and impairing or impeding a telephone.

I hope that they get the same treatment and let the folks in prison give them a taste of their actions...

[bryan61]

I grew up in some bad neighborhoods in S Miami and I can see how this happened. Unsupervised kids running at large commit crimes. As time goes on and they get away with it they get bolder and more dangerous. I could see a bunch of teens (gang) working themselves intoa mudering raping cabal of mob mentality. We never got to that point but thinkin back we did things that were just as insane but never physically hurt anyone

I can remember a juvenile court judge telling me that the property crimes I commited during a string of BEs did not concern him but what if I would have broke into an occupied house and a confrontation left me, the owner or someone else injured or dead. At the time those words didnt mean much but thinking back on them now the point is very clear. Around this time is when mom had enough and moved us back to her home in the rural miudwest (saved my life). I dont see how kids stuck in those environments with no way out will ever change. I think they should be dealt with severely also,this is the reality of living in poverty stricken ghettos without the guidance and care that strong parenting brings.