Prep school teens were accused of massacring protected birds. Did they get off too easy?
Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold
Prep school students and grads massacred Laysan albatrosses and smashed eggs. Sentencing for one on 6th. By @blyte
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By Brittany Lyte July 5 at 8:00 AM
KAPAA, Hawaii The first of the bodies was discovered by a hiker who snapped a photo of the suspicious scene with his cellphone. Buried in a nest on the westernmost spit of the Hawaiian island of Oahu was a dead bird the size of a human child. On the ground next to it was a large stick.
State conservation officers would later determine that more than a dozen birds had been bloodied and dismembered with a bat, a machete and a pellet gun. Nearby, several smashed eggs were scattered about the craggy, lava rock coast.
That gruesome sight in December 2015 soon became a crime scene, one that eventually implicated six students and recent graduates of a prestigious Honolulu prep school whose alumni include former president Barack Obama. While on a camping trip the night before the hikers arrival, authorities alleged, the boys and young men had hiked to the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve and mercilessly slaughtered at least 15 Laysan albatrosses, federally protected birds that have been the focus of a 26-year-long conservation effort. Nearly a dozen of their eggs were crushed; six other eggs failed to hatch due to the death of a parent.
The night of destruction set conservation efforts back nearly a decade and caused more than $200,000 in damage, state and federal investigators say. It has also fueled outrage among wildlife advocates and nature lovers in Hawaii, who contend that the students who were accused of severing the birds feet to collect their I.D. bands as souvenirs and posting photos of the mutilated birds on social media have not received punishments proportionate to such a shocking, callous crime. ... This crime is absolutely heinous, said Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Chairwoman Suzanne Case. Jail time and significant community service time should be carefully considered for this kind of crime as punishment, deterrence and restitution.
Bluepinky
(2,276 posts)Killing animals for enjoyment is disturbing on a psychological level and is often a precursor to killing humans.
Igel
(35,356 posts)Mostly small things like lizards get dismembered. The kids like dogs, not too fond of cats. Just don't be a wild animal, the kids are merciless. They don't get better as they go from pre-teen to tween to teen.
These are working-class AA and Latino kids; the Lebanese kids from a few doors down watch in horror and avoid the torturers.
The parents don't seem to mind. Go and tell them that their kids are torturing and killing an animal, they look at you. First, they say it's none of your business. Then they insist their kids are good and they'd never do such a thing. Even if you can look at them 25 feet away, acknowledgement that their kids are good and innocent is more important than the truth. Then they insist that you're persecuting them and tell you to get off their property.
We keep our cats inside. And when we find a larger animal, we cage it and drop it off at a state park.
dsc
(52,166 posts)that people using small amounts of crack at their ages tended to get.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,600 posts)dsc
(52,166 posts)Let's be blunt here, that article made clear, if this refuge fails, and they likely destroyed it, the bird will die in a few decades as climate change takes its toll. Some crimes need deterence.
Phoenix61
(17,019 posts)This needs to be addressed as the very, very serious crime it is. Personally, I'd rather lengthy probation then a short jail sentence along with a whole lot of community service. I think these young men need to be monitored for quite a while. Oh, and a psych eval by a court appointed psychologist who specializes in personality disorders.
dalton99a
(81,570 posts)Goddamn assholes
3catwoman3
(24,041 posts)...is the matter with some people?
Cruelty to animal is a sign of sociopathy. If these kids are sociopaths, community service will teach them nothing.
BigmanPigman
(51,627 posts)Solly Mack
(90,785 posts)Sick fucks.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)This is when I ask aloud once again if we haven't sold our souls for the connectivity and instant internet fame/notoriety of social media, especially in light of that moron who had his girl shoot him with a Desert Eagle so he could get some hits for his youtube channel...