What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. 16 is old enough to do tremendous damage and NYC has a shitload of 16yos.

    IF NY’s very tough laws (SAVAGE!) concerning 16yos means that parents have to work extra hard at making sure their kids don’t – you know set destructive fires in public playgrounds or hurt/kill somebody – then that’s fair.

    If science has proven beyond a doubt that 16yo brain’s aren’t fully developed and incapable of judging consequences and blah-blah – then wouldn’t it make sense that there should be extra controls to regulate the behaviors of what are in most cases fully grown men/women with effective mental deficiencies?

    PS – If teenage brains are so unformed then why do we let them drive, or have consensual sex with each other and other adults or marry, etc.

  2. I don’t find it horrifying at all. They vandalized a playground. I don’t think having one’s parents pay to replace it is really a strong enough message.

    However, had the entire thing happened in the bronx and none of the children gone to private school it would not even be news.

  3. Under NYS law all 16 year olds are charged as adults. If they have no prior records they may, at discretion of the judge, avail themselves of “youthful offender” status which would allow them probation or shorter sentences (1.3-4 max)and sealed records. But if your point is why is New York State so backward as to treat adolescents like adults when almost every other state sets the majority as being 18, yes New York is amazingly savage when it comes to juvenile justice.