[magobarca]

I have to ask. Why was this young man given the opportunity to escape the law despite committing a hate crime. He threatened murder and rape. Would he have been afforded the privilege of a hand shake rather than hand cuffs if he was... say a member of a outgroup, say for example, an Arab?

[gnarbarian]

Showing the kid who the bigger man is by forgiving him has a diffusing effect on the situation. It shows compassion and empathy for him, (something the kid initially did not have for the OP). If the kid could produce so much hate out of thin air imagine how angry and hateful he could be if he blamed OP for incarcerating him. (as ass backward that logic is)

[daeken]

Agreed entirely. This sort of thing can turn into a vicious cycle in an instant; by forgiving him, the OP has almost certainly stopped that in its tracks.

However, I can't help but have concerns about the kid's future -- this sort of behavior over a long period screams mental illness -- and sincerely hope that counseling helps.

[Karunamon]

Because the police were never involved directly. "He" was still legally a child, for one. For two, the author was unbelievably gracious enough to not take him straight to the cops.

A happy ending all around, really. Hopefully the teen idiot will have something good come of his counselling and the world will be a slightly better place.

[derleth]

> Hopefully the teen idiot will have something good come of his counselling and the world will be a slightly better place.

Sociopaths benefit from counseling in that they become better able to fool counselors. We can only hope whoever he goes to realizes this.

[datalus]

You trolling? It never ceases to amaze me that people who read a blog post suddenly form hard lined opinions about a real world situation.

To me, it's a bit sociopath-like to be so vindictive about a situation that you know next to nothing about. What's the relationship between the poster and the kid? He most likely knows the boy's past, he knows the family, and yet it's all too easy to forget all that and condemn someone.

If only there were more people in the world like the OP, and less knee jerkers.

[derleth]

I hope I'm wrong and that the troll isn't a sociopath.

[datalus]

In all honesty, I didn't mean to jump all over your comment, there's plenty of worse offenders in the thread for that kind of reply.

However, it still stands that we just don't know enough to make any judgement call. It's in society's hands as it were now anyway, and all the best we can do is hope for something good to come out of this.

[gnarbarian]

I forgot to add, A white Irish kid likely is in the 'outgroup' from the perspective of a middle aged Jewish man. The converse was the entire premise of the harassment.

[sukuriant]

I see where you're going with this, and let's take this another way.

Let's say that "it should." and effort to make it that way in our own, personal lives :)

[Tichy]

I suppose the key aspect here was the parents actually being friends with the victim, not the ethnicity of the stalker.