Police: Juveniles laughed after setting 15-year-old on fire

[onehandle]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Five juveniles were in custody Tuesday after a 15-year-old was intentionally set on fire at a Deerfield Beach, Florida, apartment complex, police said. Police say Michael Brewer, 15, is expected to be hospitalized for five months.

Michael Brewer suffered second-degree burns over 80 percent of his body. "He's in for a long, long recovery," Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti told reporters. Three juveniles were arrested Monday night, hours after the incident, and two others were arrested Tuesday, sheriff's Sgt. Steve Feeley said.

"A couple of them last night were laughing about it," he said. "One of them arrested today seems genuinely sorry about it."

The youths all attend school together, police said, and Brewer apparently owed one of the suspects $40 for a video game and had not paid it. So the suspect allegedly stole the victim's father's bicycle, Feeley said. Brewer reported the bicycle stolen Sunday, and the suspect was arrested that day, taken to a detention center and released to his parents early Monday, police said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/13/florida.teen.burned/index.html

---

Unsurprisingly, in Florida.

[indepat]

1. Geez, wonder who, in this f'ed-up society will be liable for surely a seven-figure

hospital/medical bill and if the kid will be kicked out of the hospital early should he max out on insurance coverage? :P

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

2. Most states have victim funds for such situations.

[indepat]

3. This nation, not just individual states, should fully fund victims' funds imo

;)

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. I concur.

[bertman]

5. Whatever happened to duking it out or even sucker-punching somebody?

Burning him alive. Sweet mother of dog!

All I can say is I hope they burn those five a new one.

[WriteDown]

8. Fiar fighting is a thing of the past...

Just listen to any hip-hop music from today.

[bertman]

9. Fiar fighting? Was that a snark, word play, or a misspelling, WriteDown? I don't listen to hip-hop

so I'm not up on the lyrics. But I take it they aren't into giving the other guy a chance.

[WriteDown]

16. Haha, that would be....

total wrist reconstruction which leads to some "interesting" typing. :)

[bertman]

18. Oooooohhhh. I hope you are recovering quickly. And have good health insurance.

[WriteDown]

19. That was years ago...

The big titanium screw that serves as a joint doesn't work quite as well as the real thing though .

[bertman]

26. Is it fiar to call it a "medical miracle"?

[beam me up scottie]

10. Fair? Shooting him dead would have been more humane.

How fucked up do you have to be to burn someone alive?

[Blue_Tires]

11. 1-on-1 fistfighting is so 1990s

nowadays, the person losing the fistfight either calls on his boys for help, or runs to the car/house and gets his gun...i've seen it happen WAY too many times (incidentally, the person losing the fistfight and going for his gun is almost always the one who instigated the fight to begin with...)

[janedum]

6. JAIL time! Attempted murder. Let 'em out in 20 years.

[The abyss]

7. This reminded me of an old article.

Nicholas Pileggi: “We Burned A Bum Friday Night And We’re Going to Burn Another One Tonight”, published in Esquire July of 1967.

I had to look it up in order to be sure. It detailed the NYPD investigation into a bunch of teenagers that had been setting fire to homeless men in the Bowery during the mid 60s.

Sometimes it is almost scary to see how these types of events repeat.

[LisaM]

22. Great, 1967. About the same time

this country erupted in riots.

[KillCapitalism]

12. Charge 'em as adults.

That's really effed up, they should do hard prison time.

[mackerel]

13. It's more than the crime that concerns me. It's kids just

blindly following the pack leaders. So few stand up on their own and stand up for themselves. It's gang and institutionalised mentality.

[raccoon]

14. Article says the victim is expected to be hospitalized for 5 months.

Whether or not victim's fund pays for his expenses, I hope his family sues the drawers off the perps' families.

They can do that, can't they, in a civil suit?

[Jkid]

17. Yes, they can.

Even if the perps are found not guilty, they can still sue in a civil suit.

[geek tragedy]

15. Try the perps as adults, lock up up for a few decades.

Sorry, but anyone who would burn another human being alive and laugh about it is beyond redemption. Human trash--throw them in the dump, not the recycling bin.

[RKP5637]

20. I agree with you. I'm fed up with this type of crap. I have absolutely no...

sympathy with them because they are juveniles. In my book the punishment fits the crime, not the age. Anyone that crosses the line to do this type of crap at that age will be a drag on society their entire pitiful lives. I know some will say bad family background and all, but I still have no sympathy... not when they do this to a kid and as I understand only one showed any remorse at all. To me there are clearly evil people in this world, just completely evil.

[ljm2002]

24. One minor quibble...

...they should be locked up for life, no possibility of parole. Throw away the key.

If any of them is successful at redeeming himself in this life, it should be from behind bars. They should not be allowed out to endanger others. Too bad they are young, but once some lines are crossed, it is unlikely that the person can ever be trusted not to cross it again. This seems to me to be one of those cases.

Let's see how much laughing they'll be doing when it dawns on them that they'll be behind bars for the next 50, 60, 70 years.

Rot in hell, young thugs. You've earned it.

[closeupready]

21. Scumbags.

:mad:

[superconnected]

23. Horrorific. Poor kid.

[larkrake]

25. all five need to be in jail for life

[mamaleah]

27. Oh, they just need counseling and more social services.

Don't put them in jail. Then they might have lower self esteem and worth blah blah blah blah.

Try them as adults and put them in jail. You would have to be very developmentally challenged to not know that setting people on fire is wrong.

[laughingliberal]

28. Absolutely horrifying

I can't think of any punishment that would be enough.