4th Teen Arrested In Videotaped Beating

16-Year-Old Boy Who Recorded Girls Fighting Surrenders To Long Island Police

(CBS/AP)  A fourth teenager was arrested Monday in the beating of a girl that was recorded on video camera and broadcast on the Internet, police said.

The 16-year-old North Babylon boy, who recorded the Dec. 18 beating of a 13-year-old girl by three other girls, surrendered to police Monday afternoon and was charged with unlawful assembly, Suffolk County police said.

He was released on $100 station house bail and was told to appear in court March 22.

Earlier this month police arrested two 14-year-old girls and a 13-year-old girl on charges of juvenile delinquency and attempted assault in the beating at a high school.

The video was shown on Web sites including YouTube and MySpace, which are popular with young people.

After the incident, a group including the attackers can be seen running away, then laughing and boasting about how easily they overcame the girl. The image turns fuzzy, making it appear as though the person holding the camera is running with the group.

The victim's parents were initially hesitant to press charges, but chose to go ahead when the video gained public attention and was broadcast on several news shows, police said.

On Monday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said he hoped the boy's arrest would send a message to youths.

"I hope this arrest, which we expect to be the final arrest in this case, makes it clear that we are taking this abhorrent behavior very seriously," Levy said in a statement.

He said he hoped young people would get the message "that bullying or physically abusing peers is serious and unacceptable, not entertainment fodder for a Web site."

[michaure]

Someone should beat the *** out of those kids to teach them a lesson and beat the *** out of the parents for raising such monsters.

[gmcnally2]

Yes, that would be a great example of how to non-violently resolve conflict, michaure.

[nothappyatall]

Whoop te do, so they arrest some 14 year olds for the crime of the century!, the WORST they can do TO them is a slap on the wrist- they are all minors, they could have tortured, burned and murdered this girl and the worst they would get is basically juvenile detention till they turn 18.

[antoniof123]

I think they should be sent to a special school in Northern Alaska where they go to school in any type of weather. Hey they do it in Siberia now and they go six days a week to school. I think a few years up there with there parents should make all the change needed with out any beating or threats. Ha Ha Ha Ha.

[michaure]

then what do you do "gmcnally2" tell the kids "don't do it again" that's wrong now go eat your supper and go straight to bed.

I agree with antoniof123 make their life hell without violence. Make them go to school 7 days a week, for 10 hour days. No TV no computers no video games. What they do for fun is Homework LOTS of homework.
And for the parents, go to parenting school the same amount of time.

Or have em enlist in the army send them to Iraq and see what violence is really like.

[hollyt2-2009]

Technology -camera phones- video cameras and survelience cameras etc are becoming one of the most valuable tools we will have to fight crime. Smile your on "Candid Camera".

[asor1-2009]

"unlawful assembly"? I am speechless. I was always smaller than my classmates in Detroit and was smacked around regularly. Until I made friends with some older kids and told them my plight. They put an end to it! No "unlawful assembly" charges were filed either.

[bhussbhuss]

Get rid of the violent video games, tv shows and videos. Kids are getting desensitized, they see nothing wrong violence against someone they don't like. Afraid to spank your kids, but let them watch killing or do it in a game? Hah!

[candydrop-2009]

I think the kids should get jail time, held without bail, that will show a message. Who wants to have the sh** kicked out of them and embarrased in the publics eye? They need some time away to see when in jail it's not funny, it hurts and your friends will leave you and will rat on you. I think the families should pay the young girl college fund, since their kids seems to not want to go to school and live descent. As adults if we did that we would be in jail, and maybe getting life if it was done to a cop?
We need to stop break and show the kids now or we will read of them in the future doing someone else like this thinking it's funny.

[olebd]

The video reminds me of the way jackal/hyena packs attack their prey in the wild.

[katarina7-2009]

This is absurd. Kids are rotten today. They need a whipping, like kids used to get, then they would think twice before acting in such hateful ways !!

[mikefrmd]

I say make them serve community service in a shelter for abuse women and kids. Then hit the parents with a big fine....something like 25,000 for each kid....bet the parents would take notice then.

[vancouverboo]

Is this a Hate Crime or a Love Crime?

[blondmadison]

This is undeniable evidence that the members of our society are sick. Adults and children alike. How else could children come up with this except to have seen it somewhere first?

We have a sick culture----sick globe of humanity bottom line. Psycho to make money, sociopaths to walk the psych job thru. Sick. The mental patients are running the sanitarium of the globe now. Nice going. How's it working so far? Doesn't appear as though it's going over too well.

[kgdbtx-2009]

I know the liberals will want to take these kids by the hand and ask them why they feel the need to be so mean.....and other meaningless drivel. These kids parents should be strung up for raising the kids this way, and for not knowing where their kids are.

[suiteo1]

bhussbhuss: I totally agree and think all four teenagers need to be held accountable and pay for their actions!

The problem also goes beyond parents being afraid to discipline their kids, as some posts here lightly mention. I put a large part of the blame on "the system", which means the courts, people writing law books, sheriffs department and social services. THEY, are the ones that have tied parents%u2019 hands behind their backs and the kids KNOW IT too. All a kid has to do is calmly say: "child abuse" to stop a parent dead in their tracks from dishing out punishment. And let%u2019s get one thing straight; I'm NOT talking about actual abuse either. Parents that do that kind of disgusting thing to their kids deserve everything they get. I'm talking about the slightest thing said by ANYBODY that comes to the attention of Child Services and your kids are AUTOMATICALLY taken out of the home regardless. THAT, is an abuse of power! These same organizations BLAME THE PARENTS for not disciplining their children! I love that one. What%u2019s a parent supposed to do? It%u2019s no wonder so many of them just let the kids do whatever they want.

To all the POWERS THAT BE in the court system and enforcement agencies; WAKE UP! YOU are the ones limiting what a parent can do. YOU are the ones contributing the most to the problem with gangs. We used to have a system that WORKED, for the most part, until YOU took it away. That system was: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child!

[raybjur]

I find it interesting that the girls were charged with ATTEMPTED assault. What would one have to do to actually assault someone? They have already been let off the hook by reducing the charge. I wonder what the charges would have been if the victim's parents were legislators? Odds are this story will just fade away and the attackers will do a few hours picking up newspapers along the streets. Maybe we'll read about them again when they kill the next kid.

[gunnerv1]

I don't belive it! Not one "It's all Bushs Fault". You guys are slipping.

[swmiller58]

I do not like what happened...but, this is not new news. Kids fighting on school grounds has been happening as long as there has been kids and schools. Even if it was off of school grounds, this is still not new news. But it is, and always has been distrubing. The only difference between now and the past is...with technology, fights can now be taped and broadcast on the internet for the entire world to watch. Until technology came into the arena, fights were just something that you heard about rarely...and most likely never saw. But now we see them on the internet all the time. That doesn't mean the kids are fighting more than kids did during my grandfather's day, it just means we are able to broadcast those fights to everyone now.

If you want to stop this, there is only 2 ways. The first is hope that God changes each of us so that we don't fight. If that doesn't happen, the second way is to punish both the kids AND the parents. Make the kids serve community time and the parents to pay a fine of say $2,000 (with each future fight raising the amount of the fine). Then I bet this *** would stop.

Just my opinion.

[raybjur]

swmiller58: I don't mean to be sacrilegious but why do you put the burden on God? You say the 1st resolution is to hope God fixes the problem. Personally, I take that as a cop-out by those that sit around waiting for someone (God?) to make things right. I agree with your 2nd option - punish the perpetrators and the parents.

[lkemmler]

Sorry, but it looked like a good %u201Cold fashion%u201D fight to me. They could have been using guns, knives, or bats! Hopefully no one got seriously hurt, and I don%u2019t feel (in most cases) that the parents should be fined. What if you just have a bad kid, drain Mom and Dad%u2019s bank account; some kids are just uncontrollable.

[swmiller58]

raybjur......

The answer to your question is this, and it is simply my opinion. I believe that humans are imperfect beings and as such we have and always will, hurt and kill each other. We have been doing it since the first humans walked the planet and we are still doing it today. We will continue to do it until God, who I believe created us, decides to change our way of thinking and acting....because human beings will not change (as a whole) on their own. We have always hurt and killed each other and we always will until a force bigger than us, changes us.

Not pushing it off on anyone, just accepting the facts of history and the present.

Just my opinion

[samibarry]

this was not a gang beating she would be near death if it was, that girl obv. did somthing to **** them off.

[buzzman1964]

Charging or fining the parents is assinine. I would hate to think what you people would do to Ted Bundy's parents or the parents of any other violence charged individual. When are the people of this country going to get back to taking responsibility for their own actions? It's a festering disease that is eating at the core of the population and until we punish those who have committed the crime and hold them accountable, it will continue to be a problem.

[diverinnl]

Charging or fining the parents is assinine. I would hate to think what you people would do to Ted Bundy's parents or the parents of any other violence charged individual. When are the people of this country going to get back to taking responsibility for their own actions? It's a festering disease that is eating at the core of the population and until we punish those who have committed the crime and hold them accountable, it will continue to be a problem.
Posted by Buzzman1964 at 01:16 PM : Jan 30, 2007

Buzz, a primary reason my friends and I didn't get into behavior like this when we were kids was the fear of our parents AND the law. If I broke a neighbors window, my father would have to pay for it and I knew that I would pay for it in spades in return. There were consequences both legally and in the home. My parents didn't pacify my "feelings". It was good or bad, right or wrong. I paid for the decisions I made either way. Kids today, and I see it in my kids friends, have little to no consequences because parents are not held responsible or accountable for the public behavior of their juvinile children under their care.

With regards to your reference to Ted Bundy, he was an adult.

[wendyhoo-2009]

The problem is that as a parent we are not allowed to put the good ole fashion *** whooping down like we use to get. God forbid your child has a cut or a bruise the schools automatically calls social services then call you and tell you they are on the way to your house. Only after social services clears things with you and feel it is probably safe then you can go to the school and pick up your child but everything is still under investigation. Even if your child got that bruise from playing with the younger child you still have to be held over the fire for that. I remember when I was in school the principle had the authority to spank my rear if a principle even looks at a kid wrong now a days they are fired and put on the front page for abuse or whatever. Granted as a mother now I seriously do not want a teacher or any other authority other then me or my husband spanking my child but we can't do it either in eyes of the law or your kids are removed from you. GEEZ this is why we all need the *** super nanny. Like someone said the children KNOW IT and they use it against you. So therefore these children wont learn because they wont get the *** whooping they should get like I am sure thier parents got back in the day.

It is just a way to get attention. To post a video on myspace, and other "spaces" that are NOT restrictive are "cool" to today's youth. In my day it would have the same impact as what a bully would want. Give the idea and fines and imprisonment to their parents. Make it stick. If they do, they should go home after their incarceration and kick the cr@p out of their kid bullies in hopes they may repent. Toss the offenders in there too. Seems we never learn without a little suffering first. I know of the story of recent high school geek (which I label myself) bringing a weapon to school to equalize the tortures of bullies. The schools more than often turn their heads and run.

[caragat]

"this was not a gang beating she would be near death if it was, that girl obv. did somthing to **** them off. " Posted by samibarry at 12:37 PM : Jan 30, 2007

It doesn't matter if she did something to make them angry it doesn't give someone the right to physically harm you in anyway. We are supposed to live in a civilized society and there just is no excuse for handling something this way.

[ekucrew]

So called "tough" girls like those that participated in the beating turn into crying, blubbering cowards when they are tossed into a JD treatment centers with girls 10X tougher than they ever thought they were....if they don't fall in line quick, then they are "grouped" by their peers until they do fall in line with the rules of the facility.

Hopefully someone will videotape them during a grouping, post it on the internet, and then thousands will laugh at them while they bawl for their Momma.

[eloquin]

The perpetrators are not teenage girls but rather vicious animals. To imply that the young lady who was brutally beaten and humiliated "Deserved" it or "pissed" someone off, demonstrates other animals. I say throw them in a pin and toss is some raw bones for them to knaw on.

[teeus]

"Take the kids who did this, beat them to within an inch of thier lives every day until they are unrecognizable, throw them into a filth filled damp cell for 50 years and feed them rat $h1t after their teeth are all yanked out of their sick litle heads."

Ooooooookaaaaaaayyy...Maybe we could come up with something BETWEEN letting them off and the draconian thumbscrews. I'm just saying...

[jmcfan]

this is just unbelievable! i feel like, if these girls have this type of disregard for a human life they shouldnt even see the light of day again!!! EVER, and i dont care how long they live! this is not how you treat people, period! i just cant fathem in my mind how young people, or anyone for that matter, could be so heartless!!! plainly pathetic! if i was the victims parent, i honestly dont know if i could handle this situation rationally!!! those girls need to meet their match and be on the receiving end, i bet it wouldnt be so cool then!!