California Gang Rape

[cnorman18]

I'm a little surprised no one has had anything to say about this:

Gang Rape in Richmond, California

There are many other stories on this crime. Report is that the rape/beating/robbery went on for two and a half hours. Other students who were attending the homecoming dance went out to watch, take pictures on their cell phones, text each other, and laugh. No one - no one at all - bothered to call 911.

I found this horrifying. When did this level of repugnant, vicious evil become something to be watched like a video game, a source of casual amusement for bored kids? What will come of this? Do these kids even feel a sense of shame after the fact?

It's not a crime in California to fail to report a crime, even in progress, against a person over the age of 14. The victim in this case was 15. The audience who cheered on the rapists therefore gets off scot free.

I don't think that this is a subject for debate, exactly; I doubt that there is anyone here, on any side of any issue, who will not condemn this horror. But what can be done to prevent this sort of transcendent evil?

[VermilionUK]

This is truly horrifying. What I find worrying is that it seems the offenders and victims in these crimes keep getting younger, and the crimes are more grotesque in nature. In the UK there was a case of two 10 year old boys who beat and sexually abused another boy, who was later found wandering the streets coated in blood. It's a shocking world that we live in.

As far as preventing it (and similar crimes) is concerned, I'd say we need to educate children on crime/punishment (maybe field-trips to prisons), and give parents and teachers more authority to discipline children. If a young child can beat up another child at school and be punished with a mere 30 minute detention (or equally weak punishment), what is he/she going to be like when he/she is 20?

[scottlittlefield17]

give parents and teachers more authority to discipline children.

Sorry if that's quote mining, lol. I agree completely with that statement. Nowadays in trying to keep children from being abused (which I am all for) I don't think adults have enough authority. Especially in the school system. It is really sad that are local High School (which is very small and calm comparatively speaking) needs an on duty police officer during all school hours.

[jwitness]

The Bible describes events and conditions that mark the last days. The sign is a composite one made up of many evidences; thus its fulfillment requires that all aspects of the sign be clearly in evidence during one generation. One of the signs is ‘Increased lawlessness accompanied by a cooling off of love on the part of the greater number.’ – Matthew 24:11,12.
A leading criminologist says: “The one thing that hits you in the eye when you look at crime on the world scale is a pervasive and persistent increase everywhere. Such exceptions as there are stand out in splendid isolation, and may soon be swamped in the rising tide.� The increase is real; it is not merely a matter of better reporting. It is true, past generations had criminals too, but never before has crime been as pervasive as it is now. Persons who are up in years know that from personal experience.

1 Timothy 3:1-5 – “But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having no form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.

[McCulloch]

A leading criminologist says: “The one thing that hits you in the eye when you look at crime on the world scale is a pervasive and persistent increase everywhere. Such exceptions as there are stand out in splendid isolation, and may soon be swamped in the rising tide.� The increase is real; it is not merely a matter of better reporting. It is true, past generations had criminals too, but never before has crime been as pervasive as it is now. Persons who are up in years know that from personal experience.

Who is this leading criminologist and when did he say this? This is good media hype, but it actually flies in the face of the facts.

Canada's crime rate lowest in 25 years: StatsCan report

Violent crime rates have been generally stable since 2004 at their lowest levels after declining from 1984-2002., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

[cnorman18]

The Bible describes events and conditions that mark the last days. The sign is a composite one made up of many evidences; thus its fulfillment requires that all aspects of the sign be clearly in evidence during one generation. One of the signs is ‘Increased lawlessness accompanied by a cooling off of love on the part of the greater number.’ – Matthew 24:11,12.
A leading criminologist says: “The one thing that hits you in the eye when you look at crime on the world scale is a pervasive and persistent increase everywhere. Such exceptions as there are stand out in splendid isolation, and may soon be swamped in the rising tide.� The increase is real; it is not merely a matter of better reporting. It is true, past generations had criminals too, but never before has crime been as pervasive as it is now. Persons who are up in years know that from personal experience.

1 Timothy 3:1-5 – “But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having no form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.

The violent crime rate in the US actually peaked in 1991 and has been dropping steadily ever since.

I remember people being certain that the Last Days were upon us back in the 70s. Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth, essentially predicted that the Second Coming would take place in 1988 (one generation, defined as 40 years, after the "blooming of the fig tree," supposedly a symbol for the foundation of Israel).

I personally have doubts about the practicality of relating every news story that comes down the pike to the Second Coming. That rather motivates people to do nothing and wait in eager ecstasy and blissful holiness, as opposed to actually doing something useful about the problem.

[Jonah]

After I was a pastor, I was a public school teacher.

I started out as a 7th grade English teacher in an inner-city middle school which resided in a neighborhood literally run by a gang. The feds came in and cleaned the gang out, but it didn't change the social context very much.

I learned a lot in my first year. I learned people "say" they want teachers to exercise more discipline, but they lie. On the parent/guardian side, they mean they want you to discipline the "other" kid. On the school administration side, they mean that the teacher should make magic in the classroom, somehow, and not send kids to the Office...and not put hands on kids who are thugs.

Ummmm. How do I put this? I was a "success" my first year. I didn't send kids to the office. I was a "good" teacher. So "good" that they made me the in-school suspension teacher my second year and the chair of the faculty building committee that negotiates with administration.

One day, my principal asked me "How do you keep your kids in line (you being a first year white guy)? Ummm. How do I put this? In a school that's a mini Afghanistan...you make deals. If you want to create a scenario where kids in hell-hole neighborhoods will just not watch a gang rape, you got to recruit them and make deals with them before hand. And that ain't nuthin' you can put in a Tony Robbins seminar.