Understandably, there is mass outrage. The beating was twofold. Allegedly, the victim, Victoria Lindsay, had posted some snarky comments about some of the other girls on her MySpace account. I initially heard about this incident from Jay at Stop the ACLU here and later from Spree at Wake Up America here.
The victim in this case is 16. She may also lose her vision in one eye and her hearing in one ear.
The offenders are:
April Cooper, 14 (dob: 06/12/1993)
MySpace: 56771231 Last Login: 04/02/2008; Mood is “chill”
West Greenwood Street
Lakeland, FL 33815
Kayla Hassell, 15 (dob: 10/13/1992)
MySpace: 130301688 Last Login: 04/07/2008; Mood is “flirty”
4575 Old Colony Rd
Mulberry, FL 33860
Mercades Nichols, 16 (dob: 01/24/1991)
MySpace: 46598429 Last Login: 04/08/2008; Mood is “numb”
6124 West Calendar Court
Lakeland, FL 33813
(The attack took place at this address while Victoria Lindsay was staying with Nichols for Spring Break)
Cara Murphy, 16 (dob: 01/02/1992)
MySpace: 142434937 Last Login: 04/07/2008; Mood is “relieved”
2762 Highlands Creek Dr
Lakeland, FL 33183
Brittini Hardcastle, 17 (dob: 09/10/1990)
MySpace: 92531314 Last Login: 04/08/2008; Mood is “loved”
1242 Thomasville Circle
Lakeland, FL 33811
Britney Mayes, 17 (dob: 01/20/1991)
MySpace: 74398264 Last Login: 04/08/2008; Mood is “sad”
421 Carlton Street
Lakeland, FL 33803
Zachary Ashley, 17 (dob: 03/11/1991)
MySpace: 85447208 Last Login: 04/07/2008 (no “mood” noted)
6116 West Calendar Court
Lakeland, FL 33812
Stephen Schumaker, 18 (dob: 10/20/1989)
MySpace: 5110994 (NOT confirmed!) Last Login: 04/09/2008 (No “mood” noted)
6020 West Calendar Court
Lakeland, FL 33812
The information published above is public information and is outlined in the press release filed by Sheriff Grady Judd for the Polk County Sheriff’s Department. It can be found here and the PCSO website is here. I have not and will not publish home phone numbers.
The MySpace information was published in a comment section at Wake Up America by a commenter. It is interesting to note all of the MySpace accounts have been slammed down to “private only”–that was not the case last night. In fact, Mercades Nichols was showing her complete lack of remorse with this blurb:
“F*CK YALL! ID DO IT AGAIN!!” or “TO ALL OF YOU HATIN B*TCH *SS N*GGAS SENDING ME BULLSH*T HATE MAIL…F***CK YOU. ILL BEAT YO *SS TO! BRING IT B*TCHES DONT BE JUST SAYIN IT! AND IF YOU GOT SH*T TO SAY TO MY MOTHER THEN F*CKIN SAY IT TO HER. SHELL KICK YOUR *SS TO!
It has since been taken down, but it also showed a little “flag” saying “Fuck You I’m Famous”.
I got the above information, again from Wake Up America here. The rant on Nichols MySpace was PDF’d by Republican Ranting for just such a contingency. That can be found here.
These young adults are facing felony charges of assault. Three are facing felony kidnapping charges. The victim, Victoria Lindsay, will be home schooled.
There has been a lot of outrage and speculation, hoping these people face jail time, some have called for boot camp, some have said they would personally like to beat on these kids for a bit. Some have blamed the parents, the internet, the removal of God from the public sector and society becoming more secular. There is little doubt this story has sparked nationwide outrage.
The fact is, however, beatdowns have been going on for years. This story is different for many reasons. The first reason, of course, is this was purposely staged for YouTube and MySpace. The second is this was done by girls, and frankly, people don’t expect girls to be as vicious as boys. The third reason was the outright ferocity of this attack.
Now, who is at fault here? Who do we point our fingers at and say, “It’s your fault?”
Several people. First and foremost is the parents. Before all you parents start howling, shut up and listen. Parents these days don’t take the time to even know their children, much less know what their children are up to. It’s much easier to let the tail wag the dog, as it were. You buy off your kids with the latest toys–phones, computers, ipods, whatever. Because you don’t want to hear your child whine that “everyone else has or does”. You gave up your parenting rights.
You let the state take care of your children. How many of you even know what your child’s school curriculum is? Have you ever taken a look at their textbooks? Seen their class schedule? Made a point to know their teachers?
How about when they come home from school? Are you there?
Whose car is your child riding in? Do you know this person? How about his or her parents? Do you have a phone number to this person’s house? How about your child’s friends? Do you know them? Or their parents? When your child leaves the house, do you know where they’re going to be? Are you sure?
Do they have a computer in their room? With webcams and speakers? Do you monitor their web presence? Do you know each and every site your child goes to? Who they’re speaking to on IM? How about email–do you even know your child’s email address?
What kinds of movies do you allow your child to see? Books to read? Does your child even read a book or know what one is?
Do you ever–or have you ever–given your child any kind of a religious foundation? Any kind of faith or belief structure?
No? You don’t do any of that? Then shame on you. You are just as guilty as these children for this attack.
By not “vetting” anything, everything and every person your child has contact with or potentially will come in contact with, from friends to textbooks, you have failed your child. By not censoring and monitoring their online presence, you have given up your parental rights. By not taking the time to know their teachers, their schedules, their friends, where they go, who they go with–every little aspect of their lives, you have failed as a parent. Period. You have voluntarily given up your parental responsibilities. You have no one to blame but yourself. If you haven’t given them a foundation of religious belief and faith, you have taught them they are the final rule. Not God. Not a Higher Power. You’ve bought into the secularism. Congratulations. Here’s another question–how many of your children are using drugs and engaging in sex? How about drinking? Don’t know? Or do you think YOUR child would NEVER do that. Are you sure?
You have failed your child.
By failing your child, you’ve left them open to predators on the computer–and allowed them to become predators themselves. Your lax attitude in raising your child has simply exacerbated the influence of the social networking sites. The sites themselves aren’t good or evil–they are simply there. How they’re used is either for good or evil purposes. How many of you even knew your child had a MySpace account? Show of hands? Why didn’t you? And why didn’t you monitor their accounts? Especially in light of the predators popping up on such sites? Do sites like this help problems like this? I don’t know–I sent them an email yesterday asking for their policy. We’ll see.
As a parent myself, I fully understand you can be the most diligent parent in the world and still have rotten kids. But, these eight? No, these are kids whose parents flat didn’t give a damn. These are tails wagging the dog. And if the parents don’t like being seen as such, well, it’s a little late to care now, isn’t it?
I do not advocate hate mail to these children or their families. I do advocate contacting Florida’s State Attorney and letting him know exactly how you feel about this incident and submitting your input for punishment for these children. His website is here.
In the meantime, pray for the victim–and pray for these children who have been so grossly neglected by their parents–neglected by their parents allowing them to be the tails wagging the dog. Then pray for the parents, as they face the fruits of their failed parenting. These children are perfect examples of the lunatic, leftist fringe idea of “not hurting your child’s self esteem” and “not disciplining because it harms”. Yeah, right. Who got harmed? Not YOUR children. But someone else’s child, who became a victim of your animalistic children.
Also posted at Digg! here; GOP Hub here; Real Clear Politics here (unless they’re still censoring me).
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