How to not stab anyone even when under 18

When I was 17 I was an absolute twat. I mean fuck, even when I was in my early twenties I was pretty unbearable. If I just flick back through this website, I can find some articles that really embarrass me. When you’re young you’re too stupid to realise just how stupid you are. Then you get older, and you get clever enough to realise you’re an idiot. It’s completely fine - 17 year olds are twats. We’re cool with it. We look back, we think “god, what a twat I was” then we move on.

But that’s because when we were 17 most of us didn’t at any stage think “I’m going to round up a drooling pack of my facially malformed halfwit friends so we can go and lynch a nigger”. That seems a little bit outside of the realm of “things we can forgive a 17 year old for”.

The Stephen Lawrence murder led to a change in the double jeopardy law. I hope it also now leads to a change in the way we treat minors who commit crimes. Those murderers (people who killed another human being for fun) could potentially be out in 15 years. 15 years is fuck all. I’d want the person who crashed into my car and drove away without telling me to get at least 8, so for killing a total stranger I think 15 is a bit of a fucking joke. I know that’s a minimum, but the minimum for what they did should be a lot more than 15 years. They are not going to be old men when they get out. That doesn’t seem right does it? I mean hopefully they’ll have the Merry Christmas bummed out of them in the meantime, but it’s still not right.

Stephen Lawrence is no less dead today because he happened to be killed by 16 and 17 year olds. His family have suffered no less. The consequences of the actions those minors took are the same as the consequences would have been had they been carried out by fully grown adults.

At 17 you know not to kill people, so I don’t think you should get a pass on it just for being a bit young. If you don’t know not to stab people at 17, I suggest you may need putting down for being stupid on a vomit inducing level.

Of the many things that piss me off about this whole thing – and there are loads - the fact race is even an issue is high up the list. I really don’t give a fuck why they did it, and neither should anyone else. If Stephen was white the result is still the same. The reasons a hate filled retard has for being a hate filled retard are irrelevant because he’s too fucking stupid to have an opinion that matters. If they didn’t hate blacks they’d hate gays, if they didn’t hate gays they’d hate Jews. They wanted to hate because some people are just cunts who belong in prison or in some cases in a box and on fire. To me all of that shit is irrelevant because the bottom line is this – YOU CAN’T GO AROUND STABBING FUCKING STRANGERS. I don’t care what reason you think you have, it makes no fucking difference, just don’t stab anyone. Period. Not black people, not white people, not gay people, not tall people, not short people. Just not people at all. Just don’t stab people. It’s a pretty simple fucking rule, and it’s not one you can break by accident. I managed to get through my entire childhood without stabbing any people. Everyone I know managed it too. I would say that managing to not stab someone is such an easy thing to do that maybe we don’t need to be a bit forgiving when someone under 18 goes ahead and knocks out a cheeky gang stabbing for a bit of a laugh.

The infuriating thing is it’s not like anyone actually agrees with the underlying philosophy of that law. If you think about it logically, the only reason to have lesser penalties for those under 18 would be to accept that someone under 18 were unable to make a judgement not to carry out the action that the penalty applied to. Does anyone really think that 17 year olds can on occasion just stab someone, without really realising it was wrong? If that’s the case then I think we need to pass a law that says they always have to be supervised, as they’re clearly a fucking menace. The next time I ask my friend who has a 17 year old son out for a drink I will expect no less than this response - “Sorry mate, can’t come out tonight, got to baby sit Liam – you know what these 17 year olds are like, always off stabbing someone aren’t they? I don’t know. Kids!” *shrugs shoulders*

The thing with the type of crime they committed is that it’s not one you just end up in. Tony Martin was sentenced to life in prison for shooting a kid in the back as he ran from his house after stealing a load of his shit. Right - probably don’t shoot people in the back Tony – but at the same time he did rob your house, so I kind of get it. So did everyone else, so he got life in prison at first, then they just sorted it out so he could go home because everyone knew that that murder, that very specific murder, was one that was a bit understandable. Killed a man – not life in prison.

Then there’s this guy – Gary Hart. In 2003 he was jailed for 5 years for falling asleep at the wheel. His car went off the road and hit a train, causing the deaths of 10 people. That could have happened to anyone. Not only that, but if he’d fallen asleep 20 seconds later, it wouldn’t have happened at all. But it did happen, and 10 people died because of it. Fucked up, horrible thing, but let’s be honest do we really think Gary Hart is a murderer? No, he’s just a very unlucky man who needs to drink more coffee and spend less time having late night internet sex. Killed 10 people – not life in prison.

These guys went out in a pack, surrounding a total stranger, beat him and stabbed him and did it just for fun. Is being under 18 really in any way at all a mitigating factor for that? I just can’t see that it’s even worth 1 month off the sentence they should receive.