Girl barely in her teens and slightly older friend charged with Fenway cell-phone mugging
By adamg - 12/15/11 - 3:29 pm
Boston Police report arresting two teens, at 13 and 15 too young to have their names released, on charges they grabbed a woman talking on her phone and then ran away with it Wednesday evening.
The victim of the mugging around 7:20 p.m. at Huntington Avenue and Parker Street, managed to grab one of the girls, but was then tripped by a male accomplice. A witness told police he saw the trio running toward the Ruggles T stop, where Boston, Transit and Northeastern police converged and found the two girls - and the victim's phone.
Both were charged with unarmed robbery; the boy escaped.
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Comments
Too young to have their names revealed
to the public, but old enough to assault and rob a person. Oh wait, this was all just an elaborate "juvenile" prank and not a real crime, right?!?
If choosing not to reveal a suspect's name soley because of their age is the type of action we deem necessary to "protect" people, then we as a society really need to reassess our values.
Sorry
But children are not adults. We've figured that out a long time ago.
Troubled kids go on to lead normal productive lives, while kids fine in middle school just as easily can turn into dirt bags later in life.
The law should and does go after the people responsible here, the legal guardians. Custody will usually be taken away if their children can't be controlled and did something like this. They will be locked up in juvenile detention if it wasn't some fluke impulse.
Question is if they'll be rehabilitated.
I don't know what third world society you want to live in, but I'd rather we not go down that path.
So, why identify suspects
accused of crimes at all, regardless of their age, if we presume they're innocent until proven guilty?
Sorry, but the governing factor in the decision to release identity should be the severity of the crime that was apparently comitted, and not the arbitrary "juvenile" vs "adult" standard we currently have.
Unless you feel it's better to protect the identity of a 13 year old accused of a serious crime like assault while exposing the identity of a 18 year old accused of a minor crime like shoplifting.
nothing arbitrary about it
A juvenile is a juvenile, and an adult is an adult.