Florida teen beaten by gang of girls

[southsider2k5]

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else yet, but I was curious about other people's thoughts on this story? It has taken some odds twists and turns, and there are still some issues I haven't seen addressed yet, but I will get into those later...

 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/10/girl.fights/

 

(CNN) -- Eight Florida teenagers -- six of them girls -- will be tried as adults and could be sentenced to life in prison for their alleged roles in the videotaped beating of another teen, the state attorney's office said Thursday.

art.girls.fight.ho.jpg

 

The teenagers seen in a video assaulting a 16-year-old could face life in prison.

 

The suspects, who range in age from 14 to 18, all face charges of kidnapping, which is a first-degree felony, and battery, said Chip Thullbery, a spokesman for the Polk County state attorney. Three of them are also charged with tampering with a witness.

 

Everyone involved in the case was under a gag order imposed by a judge. The only attorney for the teens who has been publicly identified did not return calls from CNN, and his assistant cited the gag order as the reason. The teens are scheduled for their first appearance in court Friday.

 

The video shows a brutal scene: The 16-year-old victim is punched, kneed and slapped by other girls. She huddles in the fetal position, or stands and screams at her attackers, but the assault continues. Authorities say the eight teens said they were retaliating for insults posted on the Internet by the attack victim.

 

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd called the March 30 attack "animalistic."

 

"I've been involved in law enforcement for 35 years, and I've seen a lot of extremely violent events, but I've never seen children, 14 to 18 years of age, engage in this conduct for a 30-minute period of time and then make these video clips," he said. Police say the teens planned to post the video on YouTube. Video Watch the disturbing video »

 

The victim, a 16-year-old from Lakeland, Florida, was hospitalized, and still has blurred vision, hearing loss, and a swollen face, her mother told CNN on Wednesday.

 

The video shows only girls doing the beating; Judd said the boys acted as lookouts.

 

The idea of girls administering a vicious beating so they can post the video online may seem shocking, but it's becoming an increasingly common scenario, according to experts and news reports. Video Watch why more teens are putting fights online »

 

A search for "girl fight" on YouTube gets thousands of results, and a suggestion to also try "girl fight at school, boy girl fight" and other search terms. There's at least one Web site devoted exclusively to videos of girls fighting.

 

In 2003, 25 percent of high school girls said they had been in a physical fight in the past year, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The figure for boys was 40.5 percent.)

 

A Justice Department report released in 2006 showed that by age 17, 21 percent of girls said they had assaulted someone with the intent to cause serious harm.

 

Frank Green is executive director of Keys to Safer Schools, a group that studies and tries to prevent school violence. He said he's not sure whether girls have actually become more violent, or whether there's just more awareness of their fights.

 

"In one respect, girls have always been more vicious than boys," Green said. "Their violence is of a personal nature." He said boys usually have some focus and a concrete goal when they fight. "But girls want to cause pain and make the other girl feel bad," he said.

 

Judd, the Polk County sheriff, said an important part of the plan in the Lakeland attack was to post the video of the beating on YouTube to humiliate and embarrass the victim.

 

"It's the next stage of cyberbullying," psychologist Susan Lipkins said. "They want to show what they're doing."

 

"Our kids are being peer pressured, in another sense of a trend, to put these shock videos out there at other peoples' expense," said Talisa Lindsay, the victim's mother. "And I hope that it doesn't come to the point where there's more people's lives that are being affected by having to take a beating for entertainment, or possibly being killed." Video Watch mother describe how the victim is doing »

 

The suspects didn't have a chance to post the video online before police moved in and seized it, Judd said. The Sheriff's Department made it public, and it wound up on YouTube anyway. Judd recognizes the irony.

 

"In a perverted sense, we were feeding into exactly what the kids wanted," he said. "But according to Florida law, [the video] is public record, and it's going to be in the public domain whether we agree with that or not."

 

Judd said the suspects showed no remorse when they were arrested and booked.

 

"They were laughing and joking about, 'I guess we won't get to go to the beach during spring break.' And one ... asked whether she could go to cheerleading practice," he said.

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Lipkins, the psychologist, says there's a "disconnect between their actions and their thoughts."

 

"They think the entire society is doing it, and they think it's funny. So they put it on YouTube. And I don't think they expect kids to get really hurt, and they also don't expect to get really caught." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

 

CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.

 

[southsider2k5]

For those who have not seen it, here is some of the released video, taken by the girls themselves.

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1...dex=2&hl=en

[tonyho7476]

When are people going to learn not to tape their crimes. Silly teens.

[Harry Chappas]

When are people going to learn not to tape their crimes. Silly teens.

 

They taped it for the intent of posting on-line to humiliate the girl. There were a couple of mothers on the Today show telling some odd tales about how the victim was to blame and that she actaully was warned not to go in the house. It is an interesting case but the two girls that really took it to her should be hit with really nice jail time. They girls were joking about it when they were arrested and hoped to be out for cheerleading practice later that day.

 

I believe this was actually the second time these girls attacked her but I could be mistaken.

[StrangeSox]

They taped it for the intent of posting on-line to humiliate the girl. There were a couple of mothers on the Today show telling some odd tales about how the victim was to blame and that she actaully was warned not to go in the house. It is an interesting case but the two girls that really took it to her should be hit with really nice jail time. They girls were joking about it when they were arrested and hoped to be out for cheerleading practice later that day.

 

I believe this was actually the second time these girls attacked her but I could be mistaken.

 

2 of the girls were on probation for trying to run someone off the road.

[kjshoe04]

I like that the one girl was yelling dont hit the shelf. Wouldnt want to ruin the nice shelf. But blood stains are ok.

[southsider2k5]

My biggest question is would there have been girls out on bail if they were either boys and/or minorities in this case?

[Brian]

Like OMG, video sounds like a drama on the WB.

 

 

[Soxy]

My biggest question is would there have been girls out on bail if they were either boys and/or minorities in this case?

Depends on how good their lawyers were.

[SoxFan562004]

Depends on how good their lawyers were.

also depends on their records. If 2 are on probation then they likely will/did have a rough time. However, if this was a first offense and they have any kind of roots to the area I imagine a reasonable bail/bond, possibly with an explicitly written keep away, would be expected.

[The Beast]

I hope all of the people involved go away for a long time---that isn't right to be bullying someone and beating someone like that. Try them as they are, but don't lighten the penalty because they are under 18.

[WilliamTell]

My biggest question is would there have been girls out on bail if they were either boys and/or minorities in this case?

 

Yeah I see where you're coming from. I hope there isn't a double standard here either.

[DrunkBomber]

I heard on the radio the other day that Dr Phil posted the "ring leaders" 30k bond in order to secure the exclusive story from her. This is such a tough situation. By no means can you let these kids slide. Especially with things like school shootings becoming more popular. You need to make kids scared of punishments again but its also sad for these kids to ruin their whole lives for a mistake when they are 15-16. All over some stupid s*** on Myspace too, thats sad.

[T R U]

I hope that wasn't the full video, because if it was that was the lamest s*** ever

 

No one got "beat up" and it was just girls b****ing at eachother

[IlliniKrush]

I hope that wasn't the full video, because if it was that was the lamest s*** ever

 

No one got "beat up" and it was just girls b****ing at eachother

Right...

The victim, a 16-year-old from Lakeland, Florida, was hospitalized, and still has blurred vision, hearing loss, and a swollen face, her mother told CNN on Wednesday.

[Texsox]

Right...

That's not like really getting beat up . . .

[GoodAsGould]

Right...

 

To be fair usually the victim and especially victim's mother will make the injuries seem worse than they really are. But regardless the fact she needed to go to the hospital and that it was a group beating not even a fair fight makes me want to see these kids go to jail for a long time.

[Jordan4life_2007]

I'm sorry. But I was LMAO.

[SoxFan1]

I hope that wasn't the full video, because if it was that was the lamest s*** ever

 

No one got "beat up" and it was just girls b****ing at eachother

You're saying that from guy standards. According to reports, this chick got f***ed up.

[StrangeSox]

I hope that wasn't the full video, because if it was that was the lamest s*** ever

 

No one got "beat up" and it was just girls b****ing at eachother

 

They knocked her unconscious, waited for her to wake up, and then continued beating on her. They're saying she may have some permanent hearing loss.

Edited April 18, 2008 by StrangeSox

[southsider2k5]

I hope that wasn't the full video, because if it was that was the lamest s*** ever

 

No one got "beat up" and it was just girls b****ing at eachother

 

It wasn't. The full attack was 30 minutes long, they knocked the girl unconcious and then smacked her around somemore to "wake" her up. They haven't released the whole video yet.

[StrangeSox]

I heard on the radio the other day that Dr Phil posted the "ring leaders" 30k bond in order to secure the exclusive story from her. This is such a tough situation. By no means can you let these kids slide. Especially with things like school shootings becoming more popular. You need to make kids scared of punishments again but its also sad for these kids to ruin their whole lives for a mistake when they are 15-16. All over some stupid s*** on Myspace too, thats sad.

MySpace will be the downfall of society.

[southsideirish71]

MySpace will be the downfall of society.

 

 

Another reason why I block social networking sites at work. We blocked it when our marketing team decided to have myspace sites, of them getting drunk at the bars with coworkers. Nothing like telling everyone you work for a company, and showing the director of marketing doing body shots off his secretary.

 

 

 

[RockRaines]

LOL at the fat friend being the enforcer.

 

Kids these days are seriously demented. Watch some of the freaks on the Real World, or any reality show on MTV, sweet sixteen, the show where the kids boyfriend or girlfriend yells at their parents. Parenting has become hands off, just buy the kids things, and this is what comes of it. It sounded like not only a myspace issue, but a boyfriend cheating issue was the root of this incident, absolutely retarded. Honestly the girls probably dont deserve serious long jail time since they are young and just need to mature, but since they are going to set a precedent, these girls are finished.

[T R U]

It wasn't. The full attack was 30 minutes long, they knocked the girl unconcious and then smacked her around somemore to "wake" her up. They haven't released the whole video yet.

 

Well thank you for being the only one to realize I said I hope that wasn't the FULL thing and that I wasn't dismissing the whole event