Comments on: West Seattle Crime Watch: Teens arrested after early-a.m. burglary

By: Just Sayin'

Just Sayin' — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 20:51:41 +0000

Actually, getting up to go to ‘work’ at 4:00am is the only thing these girls have going for them.

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 15:57:52 +0000

a month or two in a marine style bootcamp would do wonders for the first time offenders, jail is nothing but training camp,lay-abouts do not like up at 4:00am hard work all day ,and the dear darling drill instructor in your face for any infraction of the rules. it wouldn’t hurt to send a few judges there also .

By: faceless

faceless — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 16:12:48 +0000

We should make them enlist in the military for their crimes. Have them do a little time in Afghanistan and Iraq.

By: Barb Korducki

Barb Korducki — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 07:21:53 +0000

I know the homeowner would love to see the girls locked away for life. But, their story is similar to boxer George Foreman’s life changing event when he was 16. He was chased by a police canine unit. He hid under a porch with the fear of God in him, he prayed. “Please get me out of this. I’ll never steal again; I’ll pay for this a million times and I’ll believe in you. He didn’t get caught. Look how much he has done for others!

By: john

john — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 04:37:00 +0000

Anyone thinks it’s possible, desirable or workable to bring back a curfew for juveniles? I know the ACLU will scream.

By: miws

miws — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 00:52:47 +0000

freemyn, you sound suspiciously like occasional commenter “Cranky Westie”. ;-)

Mike

By: freemyn;&&@z

freemyn;&&@z — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 00:06:17 +0000

We should just start executing anybody that is charged with a felony, that would be a major deterrent to crime and make our home sweet home west seattle a little more like the country presided over by our hero, adolf hitler. These 15 year old girls are clearly beyond rehabilitation, being so young they are clearly predisposed to crime. They likely have dark “souls” and our community needs to be purged of these menaces and others like them. They likely, after a slap on the wrist from silly liberal justice system in this god forsaken city of ours, have gone on to build a time machine and in fact ARE the very 12 year old girls that have committed the afore mentioned crime in that wholesome Wisconsin town. We must stop them before it is to late, these teenage girls are bent on destroying the very fabric of our society. I implore you to do as much ineffectual whining on a hyperlocal Internet news platform, it is the only way they will be stopped…

By: WS_mom

WS_mom — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 22:15:46 +0000

@Jason-Well said.

Most teens are going to get into varying degrees of trouble. I think if they are set up with a good foundation of knowing right from wrong, they will generally grow out of the trouble-making phase and become solid citizens. And a positive foundation usually doesn’t depend on social class.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 21:40:37 +0000

No I did not have a warrant, you are right I don’t know everything about this situation I’m speaking generally about how we treat kids that get in trouble -you may be right in the no bail warrant I don’t know exactly how that transpired or if she ever had seen real trouble yet. If so then yeah she needs more trouble. Maybe the kid she was with still has a chance to get it together – hopefully.

By: 2 Much Whine

2 Much Whine — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 19:15:11 +0000

Jason, Did you have a no bail warrant out for you when you got in trouble? At least one of these “kids” has been in trouble before and didn’t learn from it as you did. . . . . there is a consistent pattern in this case that it appears you may not have experienced. I think that you are right, there are a lot of kids that do stupid things that get caught and turn their life around. There are also lots of people that just continue to do stupid things over and over and over again. I would think the chance to turn things around was when the no bail warrant was issued.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 17:42:34 +0000

@Eric, I think some of the people in here suggested hard time, the OP suggested life haha but I think he was having an (understandable) emotional outburst.
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I agree they need to be in trouble, of course they do. Certainly not hard time but some form of restitution, community service, probation and it probably wouldn’t hurt for them to spend a bit of time in Jail, separately from one another, at least a week or so. It might not seem like much time to a lot of you folks that think people should get really hard time but it can be really eye-opening and can help a kid realize they don’t want to keep doing what they are doing.
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When I was younger I got into some pretty big trouble and I grew up in the suburbs in an upper middle class family – I was so lucky to have gotten a good attorney and didn’t end up in prison but I was on probation for 3 years and had enough community service to make my head spin. I also paid a huge amount of my earnings toward restitution every month for those 3 years. The judge gave me a second chance and I snapped right into shape. It may not work for everyone but it does for some so I think everyone should get a chance to turn things around.
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I have spent years trying to be a mindful, conscious and generally better person because I felt that I owed somewhat of a debt to the people I hurt (stole from) the judge, pre-trial officers, and probation officers that treated me in a firm but respectful enough manner that I didn’t give up on myself, and let me tell you it’s very hard work to fulfill all of your obligations when you are on probation. In fact that may very well be the hardest I’ve ever worked and it was pretty humiliating at times.
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I now spend a lot of time, money and energy and frankly I work my a$$ off trying to help and support people and do the right thing. My only point is that not everyone is a criminal for life, they’re not all pieces of garbage to be thrown away. Sometimes they can become functioning members of society and these events can be life-changing lessons that set them in the right direction.

By: helridge

helridge — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 17:09:51 +0000

Very difficult to raise children in this state when at age fourteen they have the right to say no to intervention. I have a tough teenager, had to file an At Risk Youth petition just to get the courts to order him to get treatment. His lawyer told him he could get him a later curfew if he wanted – 11 pm, on school nights even!! WTF! Forget moving out of WS, I’m considering moving out of state :(

By: JanS

JanS — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 17:03:09 +0000

Mike…you do realize that half the people posting on these comments are asking themselves “Who the hell is Kerry Killinger?” How soon we forget…

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 16:44:59 +0000

Why is it when someone says the girls should be held responsible and punished for what they did, the reaction is an over the top ” fine give them 10 years”!

Can’t people be held responsible without going to extremes of the right and incarceration for life or to the extremes of the Left and giving them awww shucks poor person, you just need a little time out. There is a middle ground in all of this

By: WSB

WSB — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 16:39:35 +0000

In reply to miws.

This often happens in the court system. As I mentioned earlier, information about juvenile cases is more difficult to obtain – and I disagree with the commenter who said that’s a good thing – I abandoned the response I was writing at the time, but bottom line, the community has the right to know what happens. We don’t publish names until people are charged and in juvenile cases, we NEVER publish names unless they are charged as adults. But I can’t get case information without names; names of suspects, whether adults or juveniles, are redacted in the reports provided by SPD. Often I get names via the Jail Register; the juvenile system’s register is not online. The ultimate disposition of felony cases DOES turn up in brief on the Washington Court Search site – but it’s only searchable by name or case number (not the SPD case #). I’m going to try an alternate way to find their names – again, not for publication, but so I can track the case via inquiries – TR