Thursday, September 16, 2004

Ahhh...The Future of Our Country

I'm at a loss for words...almost.

One of a group of evil-spirited teens who destroyed a Taunton family's home and tortured their pets is the son of a major at the Suffolk County sheriff's office, neighbors and officials said.

"They're dangerous kids. This is terrible. They destroyed everything I own. It keeps us awake at night," Bill Humphrey said yesterday while standing in his home, which has been unlivable since last month's ransacking.

The Humphreys said that while they were vacationing in Maine, the teens broke in through a basement window and killed their fish, shot one cat, egged another cat, plucked out their bird's feathers and covered their turtle and lizard with dishwasher detergent.

They also urinated on clothes, broke furniture, smashed electronic equipment and new kitchen appliances, dumped paint on new carpets and walls, destroyed kitchen cabinets and poured out food, officials allege.

The teens stole two guns, ammo, jewelry and Humphrey's correction officer badge, said officials, who estimate the damage at $110,000.

It gets worse. According to the news report last night, the kids did this to get back at the homeowner for telling them to stop cutting across his lawn. WTF? WTFF?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The two stolen guns should be enough to put them away for a while. I wouldn't be surprised to see county prosecutors pull out the old kid gloves and let them off easy (probation, no prison time, keeping it in juvenile system). If they even think of charging the homeowner with violating the safe storage laws for letting his guns get stolen, I'll go ballistic.

If someone could give me a reason why these kids shouldn't be incarcerated for a long, long time, I'm all ears.