Thanks extended to the "Money Mike" jury

I should have more faith in our local juries.  I should have more faith in our local society, but at times its collective wisdom gets drowned out by distorted national commercial news media rhetoric that seeks to elevate victimhood into something akin to sainthood.

I was afraid that the jury would screw up the "Money Mike" trial process, but in my opinion, they got it right by correctly weighting and apportioning responsibility.  I was pleased to see the verdict  but I was especially pleased to see the corresponding jury recommendation in this high-profile local prostitution / sexual assault case that involved a number of girls from my daughter's high school and thus was of particular interest to our family.

According to local media reports, the defendant was found guilty because the evidence indicated he was guilty, but the jury recommended probation rather than incarceration - a light sentence relative to what was possible under the law.

While it is literally true that a minor cannot legally consent to sex and that the girls in this case appear to have been genuinely assaulted, it is also true that personal responsibility does not spontaneously tumble from the sky in totality on the occasion of a girl's 17th or 18th birthday.  Instead, it is acquired gradually as maturity is developed. And any 16-year-old female (or even a 14-year-old female) being raised in our society should bloody well already understand the fundamentals of right and wrong.

Quoth the Chron report, "A female juror who refused to give her name said, "We felt [the defendant who paid for underage sex] did have some involvement, but at the same time we felt like the girls were responsible."" She's damned right they were. And if this trial had gone the wrong way and the commercial news media had gotten traction sufficient to sensationalize this incident into yet another boilerplate case of hapless females getting victimized through zero fault of their own, it would only have served to further infantilize young women at a time in our social evolution where the process of victimhood-claiming is embraced with an almost religious fervor. This jury has sent a strong message to all of our local young and middle teens that they will be held appropriately responsible for their behavior and their decisions, and I'm very thankful for that. Because if they aren't taught to accept personal responsibility now, they sure as hell won't be demonstrating it a few years from now when they enter early adulthood.

I personally thank the jury for its service.  A job well done.

But the flip side of that coin is that real girls don't sell themselves, particularly when they are old enough to know better, and particularly when they are financially secure enough not to need to resort to that kind of activity.