Staff Writer
On an early morning in June on a Fort Worth, Texas highway, a pickup truck packed with seven teenagers, fresh from stealing beer at a local Wal-Mart, careened down the street at 70 miles per hour. The truck ended up smashing into a broken-down vehicle on the side of the road. Local authorities described the resulting wreckage as one of the worst they had ever seen. The stranded driver of the broken-down vehicle along with the three individuals trying to help were left dead, and one of the passengers riding in the bed of the truck was left paralyzed. The driver that night was Ethan Couch, the 16 year old son of a CEO. Couch had a blood alcohol content that was three times the legal limit.
However, the spark of recent outrage
was the court decision that practically let Couch off on a defense that many
see as outrageous. The defense claimed that the defendant could not be held
responsible for his actions due to a supposed inability to tell right from
wrong, citing his lack of punishment during his privileged upbringing; the
“affluenza” defense. This led to the judge giving the reckless teenager 10
years’ probation and a trip to a rehabilitation center, more akin to a weekend
at the spa.
Considering the execution of a killer
of one just two weeks ago, this is pretty lenient punishment for Texas. Another
facet of the case which is seen as strange is the apparent hypocrisy of the
decision. The defendant’s alleged lack of punishment from his well-off
upbringing being met with an equal lack of punishment just does not make sense.
If anything, the decision probably did not come from alleged affluenza from his
rich upbringing, but from the clout of his high-standing parents itself. It
seems to be that this insistence of the cause being that his parents were rich
was just a reminder that his parents were rich.
If
anything, the decision will only make the future actions of Couch worse. Thanks
to the fact that there are no negative consequences for his actions, apparently
the only lesson to be learned is that if your parents are rich, it is perfectly
acceptable to drive drunk and kill four people without penalty.
