Senseless Slaying Says more about America than it does about Guns

[Justaman]

This is a horrible tragedy. Hopefully all would agree but I guess a lot would disagree when I say that guns are not to blame for this. Instead, it is an extreme example of the worst elements of American society on display here. These social degenerates lack any form of conscience, desensitized against violence and holding no respect for individual life. These kids are 17, 16 and 15 years old! It makes me shudder to think that there are actually people out there who lack a conscience to this degree and what is just as troubling is that these types of episodes seem to happen in the USA a lot more than anyplace else. How and why this is the case is puzzling. Blame guns if you want but guns didn't kill this young man, American lunatics did.


http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/20/justice/australia-student-killed-oklahoma/

A random act of violence has left a promising 23-year-old college baseball player dead, a family devastated and two countries half a world apart rattled.

Christopher Lane, who was from Australia, was gunned down in Duncan, Oklahoma, while he was out jogging last week. The motive? Three teens who had nothing better to do, according to police.

"They witnessed a young man run by on the street. Chose him as the target," Police Chief Danny Ford told CNN affiliate KSWO.
Police: Teens killed Australian for fun

Charges were filed Tuesday against the three teens.

James Edwards Jr., 15, and Chancey Luna, 16, were charged as adults with felony murder in the first degree, according to Kaylee Chandler, Stephens County Court Clerk.

Michael Jones, 17, faces two charges -- use of a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon and accessory after the fact to murder in the first degree, she said.

A judge set bond at $1 million for Jones, while no bond was set for Edwards and Luna, Chandler said.

When police arrested the teens, one of them offered up a motive that made clear that Lane, who attended East Central University on a baseball scholarship, was chosen at random.

"He said the motive was, 'We were going to kill somebody,'" Ford told Australian radio station 3AW.

"They decided all three of them were going to kill somebody."

A brutal crime

Police say the teens shot Lane in the back in the town of about 24,000 and sped away in their car.

"There were some people that saw him stagger across the road, go to a kneeling position and collapse on the side of the road," Ford told KSWO.

Attempts to revive Lane failed.

Police caught the teens a few hours after the shooting. Thanks to security cameras from local businesses, police saw their car speeding down the street.

Lane was remembered as magnetic -- the sort of person who could always lighten the mood.

"Chris was a charming guy, genuinely good person, with great character and had a love for life. As cliché as it sounds Chris was the kind of guy you want your sons to grow up to be and that you want your daughters to marry. It just breaks my heart knowing how much more he could have brought to this world as a husband, father, son, brother and friend," said Sam Malchar, a former ECU teammate and classmate.

Half a world away

Nearly 10,000 miles away in Australia, Lane's family struggled to cope with the news.

"He's left his mark as we know, and you know there's not going to be any good come out of this, because it was just so senseless," Christopher's father, Peter Lane, said. "It's happened. It's wrong, and we're just trying and deal with it the best we can."

Lane's girlfriend, Sarah Harper, posted an emotional tribute on Facebook, saying "you will always be mine and in a very special and protected place in my heart."

Friends and strangers alike posted condolences on another Facebook page, honoring the slain baseball player.

"Such a sad waste of a young man's life," one poster wrote.

"Know that many Americans are sorry for this tragedy and want justice for Chris," wrote another. "God bless."

:crying:

 

[Wilhelm_Scream]

ridiculous. they had posted on facebook they were thinking of getting number 2 now. good job on police getting them fast and red handed. what is wrong with America's youth?

 

[Mr. Daystar]

Yeah, you're right. I personally think that the youth of today, have never had the respect for life, and elders instilled into them, as people of the previous generations. The problem, as I see it is, kids today think they deserve respect, as opposed to earning it. Somewhere someone told them they have rights as minors, when what they should have been told is, pat attention to your elders, show them the respect they deserve, and do as you were told.

 

[Jack Davenport]

I am going to say something and it is not going to be a popular opinion but the hip hop culture has contributed to this. It glorifies murder and criminal behavior and a lack of respect for authority and adults. Not just black kids either. White kids have no respect for adults and they listen to the shit too. I am amazed at the way kids dress when they are in the court room and their behavior. Now get the hell off of my lawn!

 

[bw18081]

I am going to say something and it is not going to be a popular opinion but the hip hop culture has contributed to this. It glorifies murder and criminal behavior and a lack of respect for authority and adults. Not just black kids either. White kids have no respect for adults and they listen to the shit too. I am amazed at the way kids dress when they are in the court room and their behavior. Now get the hell off of my lawn!

I would hesitate to go down this road, but once it's realized that hip hop has penetrated all parts of society to some degree, we can acknowledge it has influence among all races as you point out. What I find most ironic about this is that the underlying motif of hip hop songs, and by extension gang culture, seems to be respect. The difference is that the culture believes they deserve respect at any cost. It is owed to them, as revid points out, and no one (elders, authority, etc...) can take it away. And everything, even human life, comes secondary to one's level of respect.

The level of indifference with which they carried out the murder is also deeply troubling. I'm not sure how tightly that can be related to above, but I'm confident there is some connection.

I agree with the Justaman that guns are not to blame in any of this. If their motive was purely, "to kill somebody," it would have been done with anything handy, a knife or bat or even the car.

 

[Petra]

I said this since before I worked in the juvenile detention field, I said it during, and I still say it now. As long as the punishment is a slap on the wrist for juveniles who commit cold blooded murder, they will keep doing it. With the whole rap/gang culture, lack of respect, laws keeping parents from actually being able to parent, and so on in America, kids have zero respect for themselves or the people and things around them. They somehow got this inane sense of self entitlement and do what they want, when they want.

Hell, if the only thing I'd get from murder or a school shooting is detention or juvenile prison till 18, perhaps life (and lets face it, the gang kids run their businesses from within prison. It can bring a lot of money and "respect") why not?

And, in this case I don't believe guns are the issue. I think they were all psychotic enough to find something to kill with if guns weren't on hand.

 

[Rattrap]

Every generation's favorite game: point out how awful the younger ones are. Said by probably every generation, ever. Before we get too far on the "the new generation sucks" bandwagon, just remember these kids were raised by (or failed to be raised by) the generation before, in an environment created by the generation before them.

Didn't something like this happen similarly in New York a couple years back with a British person?

 

[Philbert]

This is a horrible tragedy. Hopefully all would agree but I guess a lot would disagree when I say that guns are not to blame for this. Instead, it is an extreme example of the worst elements of American society on display here. These social degenerates lack any form of conscience, desensitized against violence and holding no respect for individual life. These kids are 17, 16 and 15 years old! It makes me shudder to think that there are actually people out there who lack a conscience to this degree and what is just as troubling is that these types of episodes seem to happen in the USA a lot more than anyplace else. How and why this is the case is puzzling. Blame guns if you want but guns didn't kill this young man, American lunatics did.

:crying:

April 2013
'Hitler child' goes on trial in Germany for 10 racist murders
Guess it's not only the US with lunatics...duh.

How many times have villagers in the East killed young girls for "honor", Chinese killed girl babies, Palestinians slit the throats of little children while the mother was made to watch?
Plenty, but the OP is trying to sound relatively scandalized and pretend he's almost smart. Not.
Those American lunatics!:eek:
Sounds like another "Americans" are worse than any one else thread...sorry, we be just like every one else and better than most.
People the world over have defective children grow up without souls or any empathy, we have a lot of ghetto rats who have lived with this type of "give a shit" attitude every day of their lives...all you need is love, the lack of which usually leads to no feeling for suffering in others.
Watch a video of necktie-ing in Africa...daily shit in the Dark Continent.
Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Germany (do we need to discuss the most famous country in the Western world for coldhearted senseless deliberate murder?)
I hate the fact but really try to keep the myopic vision of simple people (OP) from clouding the issue...cold heart no joy.
Nationality optional...

 

[sean miguel]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrill_killing

I think it says more about human beings in general and how vile we can be than it does America even though we have more than our fair share of these incidents.

Just don't call them animals. That's slanderous to animals.

 

[Justaman]

April 2013
'Hitler child' goes on trial in Germany for 10 racist murders
Guess it's not only the US with lunatics...duh.

How many times have villagers in the East killed young girls for "honor", Chinese killed girl babies, Palestinians slit the throats of little children while the mother was made to watch?
Plenty, but the OP is trying to sound relatively scandalized and pretend he's almost smart. Not.
Those American lunatics!:eek:
Sounds like another "Americans" are worse than any one else thread...sorry, we be just like every one else and better than most.
People the world over have defective children grow up without souls or any empathy, we have a lot of ghetto rats who have lived with this type of "give a shit" attitude every day of their lives...all you need is love, the lack of which usually leads to no feeling for suffering in others.
Watch a video of necktie-ing in Africa...daily shit in the Dark Continent.
Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Germany (do we need to discuss the most famous country in the Western world for coldhearted senseless deliberate murder?)
I hate the fact but really try to keep the myopic vision of simple people (OP) from clouding the issue...cold heart no joy.
Nationality optional...

^
Man, this guy sure loves to insult people! Must have some serious self-confidence issues.

 

[Philbert]

^
Man, this guy sure loves to insult people! Must have some serious self-confidence issues.

Well, that's a new approach to pissing and wailing...no, come to think of it, it's been done by some of the other lame posters who can't keep a coherent thought for 2 minutes or less, but still post crap like it matters.
Since you can't take direct criticism for lame posting, there are safe threads on FOs where you can get info on "who has the most genital warts", or "where are the most large breasted brunettes in Eastern Europe found?"
I am self-confident you will find happiness in that area of the forum.

 

[Philbert]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrill_killing

I think it says more about human beings in general and how vile we can be than it does America even though we have more than our fair share of these incidents.

Just don't call them animals. That's slanderous to animals.

While I do not disagree with you, I do take exception to the concept of "we have more than our fair share of them".
One must consider Mexico, Central and South America, a good deal of Europe. the Middle East, large parts of Asia, and the African continent to see we have less brutality rampant in our streets than most of the known world. Have we forgotten the snipers in Sarajevo?
My buds from South Africa laughed at our concept of the level of danger and brutality our ghetto dwellers display, pointing out how American Blacks wouldn't last a week or so in any African country, we don't know from "brutal and happy to kill you in creative and slow ways".
MS13 can give us all lessons how low the human race can go to "animal" levels on a daily basis.
So, when some German or Swedish peckerhead criticizes the lack of civility in the USA, I know they are most likely still living in Mama's Haus or staying close by the university...the real world is a nasty place and needs a big boy to deal with it.
The USA is nice and safe compared to the world in general.

 

[sean miguel]

While I do not disagree with you, I do take exception to the concept of "we have more than our fair share of them".
One must consider Mexico, Central and South America, a good deal of Europe. the Middle East, large parts of Asia, and the African continent to see we have less brutality rampant in our streets than most of the known world. Have we forgotten the snipers in Sarajevo?
My buds from South Africa laughed at our concept of the level of danger and brutality our ghetto dwellers display, pointing out how American Blacks wouldn't last a week or so in any African country, we don't know from "brutal and happy to kill you in creative and slow ways".
MS13 can give us all lessons how low the human race can go to "animal" levels on a daily basis.
So, when some German or Swedish peckerhead criticizes the lack of civility in the USA, I know they are most likely still living in Mama's Haus or staying close by the university...the real world is a nasty place and needs a big boy to deal with it.
The USA is nice and safe compared to the world in general.

Murder is murder and I guess it ultimately makes no difference to the victim what the motive was (they're dead regardless) but it's just exceptionally disturbing that someone would kill another human being just for "the thrill of it" which is the topic of this thread. Without looking into the stats I'd venture to guess the U.S. leads in that category which would include serial killers.


But you're right when it comes to murder and violence in general, I'd rather take my chances in the U.S. than the places you mentioned.

 

[Jack Davenport]

When Johnny Cash sang that he shot a man in Reno just to watch him die... he at least made it clear that he was paying a price for his crime by doing time in Folsom prison.

 

[Justaman]

Well, that's a new approach to pissing and wailing...no, come to think of it, it's been done by some of the other lame posters who can't keep a coherent thought for 2 minutes or less, but still post crap like it matters.
Since you can't take direct criticism for lame posting, there are safe threads on FOs where you can get info on "who has the most genital warts", or "where are the most large breasted brunettes in Eastern Europe found?"
I am self-confident you will find happiness in that area of the forum.

That's it....let it all out! Your lack of self-esteem is plainly displayed in each feeble attempt you make to denigrate others. Keep the insults coming if it helps you somehow....it's obvious to all of us that you are one more to be pitied than hated.

 

[Straight Shooter]

I am going to say something and it is not going to be a popular opinion but the hip hop culture has contributed to this. It glorifies murder and criminal behavior and a lack of respect for authority and adults. Not just black kids either. White kids have no respect for adults and they listen to the shit too. I am amazed at the way kids dress when they are in the court room and their behavior. Now get the hell off of my lawn!

BS. After Newtown all I heard was that we should blame the violent movie and video games as the cause of all this gun violence. The U.S isn't the only country with violent music, movies and video games. Don't the Canadians, Brits, Aussies, etc all have the same violent music, movies and video games as we do?

 

[Bearded_Menace]

April 2013
'Hitler child' goes on trial in Germany for 10 racist murders
Guess it's not only the US with lunatics...duh.

How many times have villagers in the East killed young girls for "honor", Chinese killed girl babies, Palestinians slit the throats of little children while the mother was made to watch?
Plenty, but the OP is trying to sound relatively scandalized and pretend he's almost smart. Not.
Those American lunatics!:eek:
Sounds like another "Americans" are worse than any one else thread...sorry, we be just like every one else and better than most.
People the world over have defective children grow up without souls or any empathy, we have a lot of ghetto rats who have lived with this type of "give a shit" attitude every day of their lives...all you need is love, the lack of which usually leads to no feeling for suffering in others.
Watch a video of necktie-ing in Africa...daily shit in the Dark Continent.
Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Germany (do we need to discuss the most famous country in the Western world for coldhearted senseless deliberate murder?)
I hate the fact but really try to keep the myopic vision of simple people (OP) from clouding the issue...cold heart no joy.
Nationality optional...

I am going to surprise some people in here and agree with Philbert on this. Fucked up shit happens all over the world every second of every day. It has been that way since the beginning of human civilization and doesn't show any signs of going anywhere anytime soon. People who don't believe this have obviously spent every waking second in the bubble. Name me one people, one culture, one region of the world that has not exercised some manner of brutality against their fellow man and I will show you someone blinded by naivety.

I am saddened by the death of an innocent young man and absolutely sickened by the actions taken by these no good sons of bitches. I can't even begin to imagine the agony the victim's family and loved ones must feel knowing that this man's life was cut short for someone else's amusement. America certainly has its problems and is far from perfect, but lets not pretend like this is the only place were such savagery occurs. How soon we forget Anders Behring Breivik's rampage through one of the most peaceful, clean, and wealthy countries in the world.

Every generation's favorite game: point out how awful the younger ones are. Said by probably every generation, ever. Before we get too far on the "the new generation sucks" bandwagon, just remember these kids were raised by (or failed to be raised by) the generation before, in an environment created by the generation before them.

Didn't something like this happen similarly in New York a couple years back with a British person?

I agree with this as well. I lost my taste for hip hop over a decade ago and I will be the first to point out it's many failings, but the same shit that is said about hip hop and it's influence on young minds has been said countless times before in every generation. People's need to condemn music is uncanny. Hip hop is public enemy number one today, but yesterday it was deth metal, the day before that it was grunge, the day before that thrash metal, and the day before that it was rock and roll. So my apologies, but I don't buy "It's the music's fault" excuse.

 

[georges]

I said this since before I worked in the juvenile detention field, I said it during, and I still say it now. As long as the punishment is a slap on the wrist for juveniles who commit cold blooded murder, they will keep doing it. With the whole rap/gang culture, lack of respect, laws keeping parents from actually being able to parent, and so on in America, kids have zero respect for themselves or the people and things around them. They somehow got this inane sense of self entitlement and do what they want, when they want.

Hell, if the only thing I'd get from murder or a school shooting is detention or juvenile prison till 18, perhaps life (and lets face it, the gang kids run their businesses from within prison. It can bring a lot of money and "respect") why not?

And, in this case I don't believe guns are the issue. I think they were all psychotic enough to find something to kill with if guns weren't on hand.

Post of the week :clap: , because all the truth has been said

 

[BCT]

I said this since before I worked in the juvenile detention field, I said it during, and I still say it now. As long as the punishment is a slap on the wrist for juveniles who commit cold blooded murder, they will keep doing it. With the whole rap/gang culture, lack of respect, laws keeping parents from actually being able to parent, and so on in America, kids have zero respect for themselves or the people and things around them. They somehow got this inane sense of self entitlement and do what they want, when they want.

Hell, if the only thing I'd get from murder or a school shooting is detention or juvenile prison till 18, perhaps life (and lets face it, the gang kids run their businesses from within prison. It can bring a lot of money and "respect") why not?

And, in this case I don't believe guns are the issue. I think they were all psychotic enough to find something to kill with if guns weren't on hand.

Absolutely. Well said.

 

[StanScratch]

Every generation's favorite game: point out how awful the younger ones are. Said by probably every generation, ever. Before we get too far on the "the new generation sucks" bandwagon, just remember these kids were raised by (or failed to be raised by) the generation before, in an environment created by the generation before them.

Didn't something like this happen similarly in New York a couple years back with a British person?

Exactly.
Trying to group each generation together is the task of the weak minded. In the last few years, a "me first" and "greed is good" persona has invaded our nation's mindset, starting out in the political arena, now moving into the real world. "Kids of today" did not start that destructive behavior, but have watched it become accepted by many of our society's elders to use it themselves.