Humiliation Could Be The Best Defense
If you commit a crime that puts people at risk of death or serious injury, I figure your name should be in the story. So the whole time I've been in the news business it has bothered me that juvenile names are held back. Consider the story you've been hearing about 17 year olds throwing rocks from an overpass, striking cars on the highway below. You’re not hearing their names. Yet they’re nearly adults and the crime they committed could have, but didn't, kill someone or send them to the hospital. Oregon courts have upheld the release of juvenile criminal names and in many cases, it’s the cops and the journalists cooperating in keeping this secret. Frankly, I think if kids saw and heard the names of their classmates in the news when they commit crimes, it would be some deterrent. Instead, they see adults protecting the names of criminals. What message does that send? When I covered daily news, I always made a point of finding the name and including it. protecting them from responsibility is the wrong think to do.
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