Teen Girls Beat Another

[n0Mad]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24009077/?GT1=43001

Teens videotape revenge beating

Sheriff says the country needs to understand what adolescents are into now

By Mike Celizic

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 11:37 a.m. ET, Tues., April. 8, 2008

For 30 minutes, six girls ganged up on a classmate, slamming her head into a wall and taking turns pummeling her and videotaping it all to post on the Internet. And when they were arrested and were being booked into juvenile detention, they joked about not being able to go to the beach, a Florida sheriff said Tuesday on TODAY.

The vicious attack in Lakeland, Fla., was supposedly in response to slurs and insults the victim had posted about them on MySpace. But the alleged online comments are no justification for the attack, Polk County, Fla., Sheriff Grady Judd told co-host Meredith Vieira.

“I don’t have the specifics of those comments, but there is nothing our victim could have said on the Internet that would have caused that kind of beating,” Judd said.

Officials released three minutes of the 30-minute video that show two of the girls taking turns screaming obscenities at the victim between attacks with their fists, while the others watched and taped the attack. They also challenge the victim to fight back, which she does not do on the video.

“The beating you’re seeing is the second beating,” he said. “She was knocked unconscious prior to this video clip.”

The 16-year-old victim suffered a concussion, and has hearing loss in her left ear and some loss of vision in her left eye, Judd said. Her face is obscured in the video and her name is being withheld.

Facing charges of battery, false imprisonment and kidnapping are Mercades Nichols, 17, Brittini Hardcastle, 17, April Cooper, 14, Cara Murphy, 16, Britney Mayes, 17, Kayla Hassell, 15, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18.

The two boys are accused of acting as lookouts outside the house in which the beating took place on March 30.

All are in juvenile detention except for Schumaker, an adult, who was booked into the Polk County Jail and released on $5,000 bond.

Judd is recommending that all be charged and tried as adults, but that is a decision that is yet to be made by prosecutors who are investigating the case, Judd said.

The attack took place in the home of Nichols’ grandmother, where Nichols was staying during spring break, according to her mother, Christina Garcia.

According to local newspaper accounts, the victim had been staying at the house with Nichols after being thrown out of her own home. In a separate interview on TODAY with Matt Lauer, Garcia said that her daughter did not take part in the beating and, in fact, tried to warn the victim not to go into the house.

Mother defends suspect

Police say that Nichols was one of the girls who lured the victim to the house while Nichols’ grandmother was at work.

“Mercades, my daughter, warned this girl before she came into the house,” Garcia said. She said her daughter told the victim, “The two girls that you have been running your mouth about and threatening on MySpace are in the house. Please do not go in the house.”

She added that an adult in the home next door heard her daughter say that.

Lauer asked Garcia if she thought her daughter should have called police at some point during the half-hour attack.

“My daughter should have picked up the phone and called the police. Yes, she did warn this girl not to go in the house, but I do believe my daughter should have called the police,” she said.

But Garcia also said that the incident is being overblown by Judd.

“First of all, the tape that was released is only three minutes long. That was the worst of it,” she said, contradicting the sheriff. “My daughter is the one who turned the video tape over to the sheriff’s department for evidence. My daughter turned it over to them.”

Judd said the most shocking thing about the attack is how lightly the alleged assailants took their actions. Vieira asked him if they showed any remorse when they were arrested.

“None at all,” he said. “When we had them arrested and in detention, they were laughing and joking, ‘Guess we’re not going to go to the beach on this spring break.’ One girl actually asked our detective, ‘Am I going to be released in time to go to cheerleading practice tomorrow?’ ”

When told that Garcia disputes his account of what happened, Judd replied, “I’m not concerned with what one of the mothers of the suspects said; she doesn’t even have custody of the child.”

Garcia said she does have custody of her daughter, who, she told local reporters, was staying with her grandmother to be closer to school.

Judd said he wants to make the case an example to others.

“Our goal is not only to deal with this issue, but to try to educate parents across the state and across the nation that this is what your children are watching,” he said. “This is what some children are participating in. And we as a society have got to say, ‘This has to stop,’ because if we desensitize our children to this today, then what’s next tomorrow?”

© 2008 MSNBC Interactive

URL: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24009077/?GT1=43001

[n0Mad]

There's a video if you follow the link.

[Msterbeau]

Here's hoping they go to jail for a while. Good riddance bitches.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

I'm not even sure what to say about this.

[Hellion]

I don't care how young you are you will do jail time no matter what,I have seen kids as young as 5 acting violent and talking like an 18 year old thug,and yes there is no such thing as a fair fight in this nation,its always 3 against one or several against one.

[Destroit]

WOW....

What nasty disgusting low life fucking trash. The fact that the mother stood up for her nasty bitch daughter means she should seriously have carved out her uterus with a dull rusty spoon sometime before she got knocked up.

NOW...to find all of their MySpaces (because I want to tell them exactly what kind of trash they are and give them some advice on how to jump off of a bridge...as an entire cheerleading group of course, I mean TEAM SPIRIT RIGHT? ).

[n0Mad]

I love you Cher.

[Kit Kat P]

that is the kind of stuff I saw at my high school

[Destroit]

I love you Cher.

You'll love me even more when I tell you that...

I just found the girl's (Mercades Nichol) Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/rodeo_chick_0413

FLAME AWAY! Let her know what kind of nasty trash her mom is ...I mean if that's your thing .

[Hellion]

You'll love me even more when I tell you that...

I just found the girl's Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/rodeo_chick_0413

FLAME AWAY! Let her know what kind of nasty trash her mom is ...I mean if that's your thing .

Shit I am joining in on this it should be a good laugh.LOL!!

[TygerLili]

95% of teenaged girls are bitches. I couldn't stand them when I was in high school, or when I was teaching it.

[Hellion]

Yeah at the coffee house where I usually hangout at,there is a problem with highschool brat bitches around here,they talk like hookers,and say bs about anyone older than them,let alone they try to get ppl to buy them alcohol.

they are a disease.

[n0Mad]

You'll love me even more when I tell you that...

I just found the girl's (Mercades Nichol) Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/rodeo_chick_0413

FLAME AWAY! Let her know what kind of nasty trash her mom is ...I mean if that's your thing .

I would if I didn't use my MySpace profile for business purposes. I'm sure anything you could say, however, would be sufficiently virulent for the both of us.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Just saw on the news (somewhat local) they are all being charged as adults.

[Sybil]

jail may teach them a lesson?? maybe teach a lesson to their parents, too??

i dont know what to say other than ...

..just a thought..

where i grew up in alabama, the cheerleaders at school were the nice girls. the girls who always showed support to whoever was struggling with anything.. and the high schools i went to in michigan.. i found the cheerleaders to be, well, ummmm.. some bad girls. i remember a few in particular were kinda like, "hey world! you owe me.. everybody is a p.o.s. except, well, ME!"

I kinda wanted to slap a few of them. Often..

[Rev.Reverence]

Truly FUCKING disturbing...

I pray for them all... especially the victim.

[CandyQuackenbush]

I can't believe those girls. Who the fuck takes the internet to heart?

I hope those girls get exactly what they did to the victim, done to them, by 10 folds.

This is a prime example of why you should talk out your issues, and not let something in text get to you.

[Homicidalheathen]

What a bunch of little brats. Sheesh.

[Steven]

that is the kind of stuff I saw at my high school

same here....saw it in Jr High too.....

[Steven]

I can't believe those girls. Who the fuck takes the internet to heart?

I hope those girls get exactly what they did to the victim, done to them, by 10 folds.

This is a prime example of why you should talk out your issues, and not let something in text get to you.

what??!!! how could you say that!!??

now Im REALLY pissed!

better watch your myspace back beeyyaaatch!!!

(edited to say: I jest)

[Steven]

jail may teach them a lesson?? maybe teach a lesson to their parents, too??

i dont know what to say other than ...

..just a thought..

where i grew up in alabama, the cheerleaders at school were the nice girls. the girls who always showed support to whoever was struggling with anything.. and the high schools i went to in michigan.. i found the cheerleaders to be, well, ummmm.. some bad girls. i remember a few in particular were kinda like, "hey world! you owe me.. everybody is a p.o.s. except, well, ME!"

I kinda wanted to slap a few of them. Often..

where I grew up this sort of thing is generationally taught.

[Msterbeau]

where I grew up this sort of thing is generationally taught.

I think that's mostly how it goes everywhere. Sometimes kids recognize the inherent unhealthiness of the patterns they are being taught and they go another direction. Often though, they take what their parents teach them at face value and pass it on to their kids... That's how bullying and teasing and all sorts of undesirable behavior keeps perpetuating: Parents let it happen.

[Steven]

I think that's mostly how it goes everywhere. Sometimes kids recognize the inherent unhealthiness of the patterns they are being taught and they go another direction. Often though, they take what their parents teach them at face value and pass it on to their kids... That's how bullying and teasing and all sorts of undesirable behavior keeps perpetuating: Parents let it happen.

no, I mean the parents teach them to fight and to do gang violence. Vatos Locos Forever Ese..... (sad but true)

[Kit Kat P]

no, I mean the parents teach them to fight and to do gang violence. Vatos Locos Forever Ese..... (sad but true)

I've got to agree w/ both you and Marc. My elementry school was tame violence wise, but the verball abuse for my family was harsh and constant, and it was literally taught and started by the parents. On the other hand some of the most socially well-behaved families were several generations gang families.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

My early life was rather violent.

I was short as hell for my age.

I had paper white hair.

I was in Band.

I got beat on most of my child hood.

My FAMILY taught me how to deal with it.

Defend yourself. Do no more harm than you have to, to make them stop hurting you. When they go down, lend them a hand to help them back up. Never throw the first punch or the first insult.

As long s I followed those rules my FAMILY stood at my side. At any time I broke those rules, i had better have been ready for what ever punishment life and then my FAMILY was going to level on me.

I put FAMILY in all caps for a reason. That reason is FAMILY. and a real FAMILY is what these kids lack. Blind support of anything a child does is not being a good FAMILY. Not teaching children that life has rules, is epic fail as a FAMILY.