Trial: Violent theft

[Gohan]

This isn't world news or anything, just outta the blue, but I feel like posting about it...

 

 

There is currently a trial running here in Belgium, about a violent theft last year. This is what happened:

 

A young guy (I think he was around my age, 17-18) was at the train station in Brussels, waiting for his train home after a school day. Two guys came up to him (they were gypsies) and threatened him with a knife for his mp3-player he was listening to. The guy must've tried to defend himself and he got stabbed down. He got several stabs, one time 8cm (4inch?) deep, straight in his heart. They could impossibly save him, he died within 20 seconds.

After a search and one of the attackers brother finding them and delivering them to the police, the trial is now running.

 

The 2 attackers are trialed in a different way, they're both underage, but one was sent to the youth court, while the other is being trialed as an adult. The one that was sent to youth court was sentenced for violent theft with murder, he really was the one who pushed his friend to do the theft and assault.

His friend is hearing the result today, after the answer to the following questions will be given:

 

• Has the attacker committed a robbery?
  
• Was the attacker accompagnied by another person?
  
• Has he used violence?
  
• Has this violence caused the death of the victim?
  
• Did the attacker really want to kill the victim?
  

 

If yes to all, he will face the same as his friend, violent theft with murder. He faces a maximum punishment of 30 years in jail.

 

 

This is sort of why I just about never read/watch/listen to the news, to read stuff like this happens or whatever simply pisses me off. What kind of a moron do you have to be to place a stupid mp3-player over a life and kill someone for it?

Worst of all being, he claimed he felt threatened by his victim, who was unarmed.. what a coward this must be.

 

It didn't stop here, however, it seemed the months after that stabbing became "popular", kinda like all the school shootings.

Two months after this, a carnival in the South of Belgium ended kind of dramatically, a mob ganged up on some guy, they all stabbed him once, he died.

Another two months later, at a party a guy got stabbed.. because he didn't wanna share his cigarette..

I read in this article, a quote from a lawyer:

"I know a kid who stabbed down another because he just didn't like his face. He sat in a youth prison for a month."

 

Like aaaargh, how stupid are all these people, and in the last case, how can you put him away for only a month, that's like telling them to go out freely to do it again for another 30-day visit..

I really do wonder where stuff like this starts and how come stuff like this can even happen.

 

And where is the value of a life? It's not even worth an mp3-player anymore? Or a cigarette? Or you just take it for fun during a carnival or because you don't like someone's face?

 

I'm having it kinda hard to just bring this all to one point or anything, but what does everyone think.. I don't know anymore rly.. -.-

 

-Gohan

[robotbob]

I definitely have a much more cynical approach to this topic.

 

The city I live in the USA, a few months back, we beat Iraq for the number of violent deaths

in a 72 hour period. So the first terribly cynical thing I can say at first is, consider yourself

lucky you can count and retell the number of violent homicides occurring there.

 

I do think (not a lawyer, anyone?) in the USA, the 2nd kid would get the same or nearly the same

punishment as the killer. He would get a severe punishment for '...doing nothing to stop the felony'.

Well for that matter, kids get juvenile youth center jail for drinking a beer under the age of 18-21 (state dependent)

here.

 

How do we stop this? How do we progress from a pure animal competition for resources (cigs, mp3 players,etc)

I don't know, that answer is nobel prize worthy. But I can say, I recommend doing something to prevent Belgium

from degrading into the 'wild west' style life many cities in the USA experience, and other aggressive countries

around the world. Because in the USA, murder is a right of passage for many urban youths.

[Gohan]

Well, I must say there probably happens a lot more around here, but I rarely watch the news or hear someone one when they try to tell me about stuff going on because I know it's bound to get to me at some point. Like when I read the newspaper on this case, it just pisses me off.

 

Like a couple weeks ago a guy got stabbed down in my hometown, something with drugs... but I never would've known if I hadn't been near the crime scene with my dad, he happened to have a work to do in a house near the spot it happened at.

 

I can't discuss much on what goes around in America, I know quite little about what goes on in the world, as (I repeat once more) I don't bother with much of the news going around.

 

-Gohan