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If you still don't think teenagers are thugs...
Read this article about the savage beating of some kid by a pack of roving teens.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43561261
I can't believe some people think these evil freaks should be allowed to vote? Try them as adults and send them to prison 
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43561261
Jogging home from a friend’s house shortly after midnight on June 20, 18-year-old Carter Strange called his mother to let her know that he was right down the street and would be home in a few minutes.
He never made it.
The next thing he remembers, he woke up in a hospital bed with a disfigured face, a fractured skull that required 15 staples to repair and a sense of shock at a night gone horribly wrong in an instant.
The victim of a brutal and seemingly random attack that allegedly occurred at the hands of eight teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 19 years old, the Columbia, S.C., high school graduate had a face so disfigured that his own mother did not recognize him at first sight. Now he is left to make sense of the senseless.
“I don’t know about forgiveness,’’ Carter told TODAY’s Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview alongside his parents on Tuesday. “I don’t really think about it that much. I try not to let [the attackers] be on my mind too much because I don’t know why I would. There’s really no reason for me to think about them that much.’’
After seeing their son suffer extensive injuries that have required multiple surgeries, Strange’s parents’ terror has turned to anger.
“This is not like it was a group of kids that went out and just did some property damage,’’ said John Strange, Carter’s father. “They almost took someone’s life.’’
Four of the suspects, including 19-year-old Tyheem Henry, have been charged by local prosecutors with strong-arm robbery, second-degree assault, battery by a mob and criminal conspiracy for the beating. Four more suspects are charged with criminal conspiracy in the robbery, as Strange’s cellphone was stolen shortly after he finished the call to his mother that night.
“These eight, group of guys, were set out to do someone in our community harm, and that is exactly what cannot be tolerated,’’ Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott told NBC News.
A kid who rarely missed his midnight curfew by more than a few minutes, Carter placed the phone call to his mother at 12:07 a.m. that night to tell her he would be home shortly. She called back three minutes later with no answer. When he still wasn’t home at 12:30 a.m., his father looked up his son’s phone and text messaging records on the computer.
The phone activity had stopped at 12:16 a.m. and then mysteriously started again at 1:09 a.m. When his father called one of the numbers, the phone was answered by a young girl who hung up on him twice until he was able to get her mother on the phone on the third try. He was able to gather enough information to determine that someone else had Carter’s phone, and promptly had his wife call the police.
“When he just hadn’t shown up and the later it got, we got worried,’’ John Strange said. “Then when we started seeing phone calls and text messages to numbers that weren’t familiar, that we knew were not friends of his, that’s when we went into kind of a panic mode.’’
At 3:30 a.m., the police put out a notice to look for Carter and immediately were informed that he was in a local hospital. Waiting in the hallway, his mother, Vicki, couldn’t help staring at a badly beaten man on a nearby gurney.
“I saw how bad he looked and I felt really bad for him,” she said. “My first thought was, ‘That poor guy.’
“As I looked at him, I realized his hair looked like Carter’s. I couldn’t stop looking at the gentleman on the gurney and his hair. I literally walked up, bent over and looked at him, saw his hands and realized that was Carter. I didn’t recognize him. I just knew him from his hair and his hands.’’
Her horror at her bloodied and bruised son soon turned to the comfort of knowing he was alive after hours of fearing the worst.
“I was relieved because I finally found my son,’’ she said. “Despite the condition, I finally found him.’’
He has since undergone one surgery to alleviate a blood clot in his brain as well as reconstructive surgery on his nose. To complicate matters, John Strange has just started a new job and does not have health insurance that covers the family. For now, however, despite his bruised and battered face, Carter Strange indicated that he is feeling better than he looks.
“I’m just as amazed as you are,’’ he told Lauer. “I’m actually feeling amazing compared to how I probably should be feeling.’’
Surveillance video from earlier that night shows the suspects walking around the Five Points area in Columbia, a popular night spot with bars and shopping. They allegedly turned themselves in after the footage was aired on local television and have since made no comments or legal pleas regarding the incident. Police say the group had tried to rob four other people that same night before allegedly attacking Strange.
The incident has prompted city officials to impose an emergency curfew on young people in the Five Points area. The curfew requires anyone under 17 to be off the streets from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. in that area west of downtown and in two parks nearby.
While the parents of the suspects have insisted that they are good kids who made a bad mistake that night, the Stranges are not buying it.
“It sounds like they’re trying to make excuses and make light of the situation,’’ said John Strange. “I think at least several of them had already been in trouble before and were on probation. It’s not their first time. To say they’re good kids when they’ve already been in trouble, I just don’t understand how they can make excuses.’’
This report contains information from The Associated Press.
He never made it.
The next thing he remembers, he woke up in a hospital bed with a disfigured face, a fractured skull that required 15 staples to repair and a sense of shock at a night gone horribly wrong in an instant.
The victim of a brutal and seemingly random attack that allegedly occurred at the hands of eight teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 19 years old, the Columbia, S.C., high school graduate had a face so disfigured that his own mother did not recognize him at first sight. Now he is left to make sense of the senseless.
“I don’t know about forgiveness,’’ Carter told TODAY’s Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview alongside his parents on Tuesday. “I don’t really think about it that much. I try not to let [the attackers] be on my mind too much because I don’t know why I would. There’s really no reason for me to think about them that much.’’
After seeing their son suffer extensive injuries that have required multiple surgeries, Strange’s parents’ terror has turned to anger.
“This is not like it was a group of kids that went out and just did some property damage,’’ said John Strange, Carter’s father. “They almost took someone’s life.’’
Four of the suspects, including 19-year-old Tyheem Henry, have been charged by local prosecutors with strong-arm robbery, second-degree assault, battery by a mob and criminal conspiracy for the beating. Four more suspects are charged with criminal conspiracy in the robbery, as Strange’s cellphone was stolen shortly after he finished the call to his mother that night.
“These eight, group of guys, were set out to do someone in our community harm, and that is exactly what cannot be tolerated,’’ Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott told NBC News.
A kid who rarely missed his midnight curfew by more than a few minutes, Carter placed the phone call to his mother at 12:07 a.m. that night to tell her he would be home shortly. She called back three minutes later with no answer. When he still wasn’t home at 12:30 a.m., his father looked up his son’s phone and text messaging records on the computer.
The phone activity had stopped at 12:16 a.m. and then mysteriously started again at 1:09 a.m. When his father called one of the numbers, the phone was answered by a young girl who hung up on him twice until he was able to get her mother on the phone on the third try. He was able to gather enough information to determine that someone else had Carter’s phone, and promptly had his wife call the police.
“When he just hadn’t shown up and the later it got, we got worried,’’ John Strange said. “Then when we started seeing phone calls and text messages to numbers that weren’t familiar, that we knew were not friends of his, that’s when we went into kind of a panic mode.’’
At 3:30 a.m., the police put out a notice to look for Carter and immediately were informed that he was in a local hospital. Waiting in the hallway, his mother, Vicki, couldn’t help staring at a badly beaten man on a nearby gurney.
“I saw how bad he looked and I felt really bad for him,” she said. “My first thought was, ‘That poor guy.’
“As I looked at him, I realized his hair looked like Carter’s. I couldn’t stop looking at the gentleman on the gurney and his hair. I literally walked up, bent over and looked at him, saw his hands and realized that was Carter. I didn’t recognize him. I just knew him from his hair and his hands.’’
Her horror at her bloodied and bruised son soon turned to the comfort of knowing he was alive after hours of fearing the worst.
“I was relieved because I finally found my son,’’ she said. “Despite the condition, I finally found him.’’
He has since undergone one surgery to alleviate a blood clot in his brain as well as reconstructive surgery on his nose. To complicate matters, John Strange has just started a new job and does not have health insurance that covers the family. For now, however, despite his bruised and battered face, Carter Strange indicated that he is feeling better than he looks.
“I’m just as amazed as you are,’’ he told Lauer. “I’m actually feeling amazing compared to how I probably should be feeling.’’
Surveillance video from earlier that night shows the suspects walking around the Five Points area in Columbia, a popular night spot with bars and shopping. They allegedly turned themselves in after the footage was aired on local television and have since made no comments or legal pleas regarding the incident. Police say the group had tried to rob four other people that same night before allegedly attacking Strange.
The incident has prompted city officials to impose an emergency curfew on young people in the Five Points area. The curfew requires anyone under 17 to be off the streets from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. in that area west of downtown and in two parks nearby.
While the parents of the suspects have insisted that they are good kids who made a bad mistake that night, the Stranges are not buying it.
“It sounds like they’re trying to make excuses and make light of the situation,’’ said John Strange. “I think at least several of them had already been in trouble before and were on probation. It’s not their first time. To say they’re good kids when they’ve already been in trouble, I just don’t understand how they can make excuses.’’
This report contains information from The Associated Press.
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