It is so sad at what some of the young people are capable of these days. They just don't seem to have a soul. Makes me wonder how they were raised. I hope all of them get what is going to them.

agreed! they need to look into filing charges against the parents too, must be some sort of law they broke allowing 80 people in the house or on the property. parents need a much tighter leash on their kids and the possibility of charges might inspire some to be responsible & think twice about the liability of having a teen party on property. i believe almost all issues w/ anyone under 21 is the sole responsibility of parents, they are responsible for the existence of the offspring, so they should be held legally liable till they are 18 yrs old. too many people brush aside taking responsibility and society pays the price. ~ liz

It's unimaginable that no one came to this young mans rescue.
This was not an accident. The murderers should be put to hard labor for a very long time!

susie53, i was going to say something similiar about younger generations but just look back at our history alone. KKK, all the prejudice against every kind of immigrant from when Columbus landed, we could go on and on... it isn't new it is just published instantly to everyone, everywhere. ~ liz

I agree, they should all be charged.

You are right Liz. I dream that someday we will all get along with one another but I don't think it is likely.

That is absolutely horrible Kat. What happened to regard for a human life. What were those teens thinking? I'm glad they are being charged with murder and I hope they are tried as adults. I'm speechless. I agree that all of the spectators need to be charged as well.

bigfoot, you are so right, too. With cable news and the internet nowadays we see everything much quicker then before.. I'm not sure if this is better or worse..

OK, I'm probably going to get blasted for this, but remember it is MY opinion, and I've lived a long time to see the changes in society.

Yes there has always been violence among humans. But in my opinion I put some of the blame on our young people being subjected to violence in the movies, Tv shows and video games. After a time with repeated exposure, they build up an immunity to it. If you don't think this is true, just think about early TV when the word, pregnant, couldn't be said, then it was allowed, then some other word was shocking, but after a time we got used to it and we didn't bat an eye when hearing it. Now, hardly any cuss word is allowed and it doesn't faze us. Part of the problem, certainly not all, is we are just plain being used to seeing people being murdered and blown to bits.....for entertainment. No wonder some of the kids now days, equate violence as norm.

I agree with that dotmom, as well a s what others have stated that the parents are not doing their job . How could they stand by and let this happen is terrifying in my eyes.
Kids are protected by laws that I say add to their feelings that nothing can happen to them, they are just kids.
If I had my way everytime a time a kid got out of line the whole town would know about it,they would be admonished by their community.
Instead they are coddled and protected.

June

It's the parents of the teens that beat the young man to death that need to be held accountable.

I agree with dotmom. I also think that the teens should be held responsible as well as the parents. By the time a child reaches the age of a teenager, they should know that fighting and beating up someone else is simply WRONG! Unfortunately, violence as dotmom said is being glamorized.

I agree on the violence being seen as 'normal' these days, the other part of it (IMHO) is that no one is being held accountable. Until we have to take responsibility for our actions, and are punished for misbehaving we are not going to make any progress.

As Ellen now ends her show each day, "Be kind to one another".

The website doesn't say how old the teens were that watched (at least I couldn't find it but I didn't read it carefully.) It does look like the accused murderers are all over the age of 18. I think to charge the parents of these particular kids, would be unfair. 18 is the legal adult age after all.

I'd be curious to know how old those other kids were that watched. Possibly they were afraid that they would get what was happening to the victim? I could certainly understand that. If there's a mob, it would be very scary to step forward and try to stop it especially if they are quite young. At my age, I think I'd be more likely to step forward but at a young age of say 16, I'd be much more intimidated.

I do think that the law enforcement should check this out carefully and if it seems they were "cheering" or "supporting" this in some way, they should be charged.

about twenty years ago we had a beating where one teen was killed. The boy whho killed him hit him with a tire iron. He got two years. One of the boys in the crowd who was egging it on....got life. He gets no parole.

I'm sure there were more than one who were egging it on. I feel bad for the boy who got life. I think he and all the ones standing around the "fight" should have had some kind of punishment...but I think life was way too strong.

Nobody dares use the term "spoiled brat" anymore. It's politically incorrect. But what term better defines so many involved in this situation? A party of 10 escalated to 80, "Word quickly spread by e-mail and text". I wonder how many have jobs. I wonder if any of them know what the term "chores" means. I also wonder who pays for their cell phones. Again, we're all basing this on one article so the accuracy could be an issue but assuming it's accurate it just looks like the spoiled brat, no accountability, too much time and money on and in their hands child rearing again.

Just this afternoon a guy was on the radio talking about whether parents should control cell use and texting more. A guy called in and was talking about his kid's bill. 9,000 text messages in a month. Yes, nine thousand in one month. And what does dear old Dad do? He pays the bill. "Twer it me, that kid would have my foot planted between his back pockets. But then again, it couldn't happen with me, since I would never give a kid anything more than a prepaid cell. They'd get a certain amount and be required to be available when I want to get a hold of them, beyond that they buy (read "earn") more if they want it. But I digress. The "dad" was talking about how he was able to sign up for unlimited texting and get out of the overage bill, which to me is not really fair to others. He got into the mess, he can pay for it.

Do cell phones automatically make a kid a murderer? Of course not. But stats do suggest that kids with phones have more problems and the more texting, talking and the like they do, the higher incidence of alcohol abuse, drug use and more.

Kids have energy to burn. That's normal. I'm a firm believer that if they're required to burn it in a positive and productive way, they're far less likely to have troubles in the negative. When you're too tired to raise hell, hell doesn't get raised as often. But seems like so many believe they'll traumatize kids by making them do something productive. And no, before a couple go off the deep end, this doesn't mean slave labor, it means responsibility.

I do think TV has changed language by loosening it up a little so to speak. But then again, language used was regulated by parents in years past also. Nobody used the bathroom before Wally & the Beaver! We all wondered when Ward & June pushed the twin beds together to well, let's not go there.

I'm not in total agreement though that TV, games and the like cause that much violence. I grew up with violent cartoons. Wile E. and the Roadrunner going at it never made me order Acme explosives to use on my enemies. With my luck I'd probably get the same results as Wile E. :) Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and other westerns were constantly killing people but we could differentiate, we could be entertained by the stories yet still be shocked when it's on the news or in the headlines.

Again, assuming the article is accurate, I hope the ones that participated get a good long sentence at least. To me it's a good case for capital punishment. The ones standing around can't use the excuse of "I'm afraid to get involved". Dozens stood by and were all afraid? C'mon. With those numbers, which would be a minimum of six per bully, they'd probably stand a pretty good chance of holding them down until the cops got there. Then again, maybe nobody had access to a phone. That could be it. Sounds like a pretty bad set of morals instilled to me. Not really sure what can be done, sounds like it's too late now to try to teach responsibility.

And when you think about it, a life would have been saved had the guy smacked the little witch back. She's the one that caused the death. But she won't be held responsible either.

Cynic, you are so right. When I taught preschool for our local park district, one of my students was the son of a "pillar of the community" as well as an attorney. The kid was a brat. I was called into the head honcho's office one day and read the riot act for telling the kid he couldn't do what he wanted when he wanted. Heaven forbid, I put him in time out! Seems Mom complained that, by expecting him to follow the classroom rules and schedule, I was breaking his spirit!

I was put on probation and told to let the child have his way. Talk about allowing the monkeys to run the zoo! This zookeeper turned in her resignation the next day. There were other instances of parents complaining, but this was the straw that broke me.

The child was 3 years old when this happened. He's 19 today. And in jail for violent crimes related to drug use. I guess Daddy couldn't save him this time!

This whole situation is so sad.

I think the biggest consideration in terms of charging the observers would be their conduct. There's a big difference between encouraging a beating and being a witness. The story doesn't tell us which is accurate other than the speculation of a woman who wasn't there at the time.

A lot of people like to pretend to be gallant and heroic when sitting in the comfort and safety of their own home. Honestly, how many adults here would be willing to jump into an extremely violent situation to stop a fight? Would you honestly jump in and try to stop 4 men intending to kill another, knowing they would likely turn on you next? I'd be surprised if there are more than a few people here who would truly and honestly risk their life to help someone they don't know.

I would, however, bet that all of you would go somewhere safe and call the cops. We have no indication that this didn't happen. Since the police responded, we know someone called the police. Maybe multiple people. Maybe people who didn't feel safe enough to stop it themselves called the police.

Would that be enough? Or should they still be charged? I'm curious what people deem appropriate.