Wednesday, October 14, 2009

"Burn the Snitch"

According to CNN, 5 juveniles were caught laughing an talking about setting 15 year old Michael Brewer on fire at an apartment complex on Tuesday. Michael received second-degree burns on the majority of his body. 3 of the juveniles were caught on a couple of hours after the incident and the other 2 were caught the next morning.

Police Sgt. Steve Feeley said "A couple of them last night were laughing about it," he said.

Apparently Michael owed one of the suspects $40 for a video game and never paid back for it. In retaliation, the youth stole his Michael's father's bicycle. Brewer sent in a claim that the bike was stolen and the suspect was sent to a detention center shortly afterward. The suspect however was released last Monday morning.

Gathering up his friends, the suspect got a group of four together who cornered Michael while he was waiting for his friends at their apartment.

Witnesses heard the suspect yelled, "He's a snitch, he's a snitch" and "pour it on him."

They doused Michael with what the police believed rubbing alcohol and threw a lit match at him. One witness rushed by to spray Michael with a fire extinguisher and Brewer shortly afterward dived into the complex's swimming pool. Brewer is expected to be hospitalized for around 5 months.

This purely vengeful crime to get back at a "snitch" is not new to me. I myself have been caught in an act of retaliation for warning my friend that his money was being stolen. Although I wasn't set set on fire, I did receive a pretty nasty kick to the back of my leg from the offender who, unfortunately, was never penalized for stealing and assault. Not being able to walk normally for a couple of days, it did affect me in the way in which I doubt I could "snitch" on others again.

3 comments:

Jodi Miller said...

See, these kinds of people just need to be put in a room with me for about 15 minutes. Then we'll see if they want to do something like that again.

If the kids that set Brewer on fire don't get tried as adults, something is very wrong.

Tim dyer said...

burning is a little severe isn't it... I would maybe punch him once or twice and leave it at that.

sebastian said...

the kids that lit Brewer on fire just sound like future criminals and sereal killers. to light anyone on fire, especially for those circumstances just seems to me like an obvious sign that there is something wrong with them in the head.

Sebastian Escobar