Tough Love, loving death

American’s and New Zealander’s have something in common, we love to be tough on crime. We get a collective hard-on when we get tough on bloody kids who need a good hard kick up the arse to sort ‘em out! Maybe it was because NZ was settled by puritanical unsmiling, grim, spare-the-crowbar-spoil-the-child, Scottish Presbyterians, and America was settled by Puritanical witch burning religious whackos thrown out of Europe because no one could stand them, that drives both our masochistic cultures to punish and punish and punish regardless of the outcomes.

US boot camp staff charged in teen’s death
MIAMI - Eight former staff members of a Florida juvenile boot camp have been charged with manslaughter in the death of a 14-year-old boy whose beating by guards was captured on videotape, prosecutors said today.

Seven guards and a nurse were charged on Monday in the death of Martin Lee Anderson nearly 11 months ago at the Bay County boot camp in Panama City, which was later shut down.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was accused of a cover-up by Anderson’s parents last week, welcomed the long-awaited results of an investigation by a special prosecutor he appointed, and said he hoped "justice will be served" in the Anderson case.

"We also hope that when the process is completed, Martin Lee Anderson’s family will have the answers to the questions they legitimately have," Bush said.

Anderson, arrested for joyriding in his grandmother’s car, collapsed during an exercise drill on January 5, a few hours after he arrived at the detention centre for young offenders. He died at a hospital the next day.

A medical examiner initially ruled that he died of natural causes, a decision that sparked outrage from the boy’s parents and Florida politicians after publication of the videotape, which showed uniformed guards surrounding him, with some holding him against a tree while others appeared to hit him.