Friday, August 17, 2007

Even after threats to kill, teen ARA avoids jail time

A 17 year-old ARA in the U.K. has managed to weasel out of jail time despite issuing threats to kill researchers and police officers, according to this report. The teen was given a 12 month "referral order" ( I'm assuming this is something similar to what we in the States would call "probation" ) instead of jail time, because he suffers from "a depressive mental illness". Well, cry me a freakin' river. As if that should somehow be an excuse to not be held responsible for his actions in any kind of meaningful way. Hopefully, just hopefully, this young person will get the right kind of help, and a change of direction in life, before it's too late. If not, another young life will be wasted, and another "useful idiot" for the AR cause will be born.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Grizzly, I'm not usually one to bemoan light sentences,, and I certainly support the harsh sentences imposed on several AR extremists in the UK recently. In this case however it seems that the lad in question really is mentally ill, so I think it's fair enough that he gets treatment rather than jail time. The statistics on the number of people in prison with mental illness are scary enough as it is.

In any case the fact that an AR extremist is spared jail because he's mentally ill is hardly going to reflect well on the AR movement.

Paul