Josue Miranda

Mr. Cook
Honors ELA
14 October 2014

He who kills like an adult should pay like an adult. Roy Barreros, Colombian
Senator. Delinquents should be charged as an adult if they are from the ages of 14 and up
because they have the responsibility to know what they are doing.

At a certain age the mind of a minor begins to develop and they start to realize what
is going on around them. Responsibility plays a huge role in the development of the brain,
and by the age of fourteen minors should be able to know what is right from wrong.
According to the article, Juvenile Justice, the author writes, The police eventually caught
the two suspects; one was a 17-year-old boy The other was his mentor, who had
essentially adopted him and taught him how to shoot high-powered rifles at people. This
17-year-old boy was old enough to know that what he was learning from his mentor was
clearly horrible. This boy was obviously very gullible and figured that he can take out his
aggression on other people for what he went through in his life.

Depending on how life threatening the crime is, there will always be consequences
for it. Roy Barreros quote of, He who kills like an adult should pay like an adult, connects
back to the El Ponchis situation because this minor committed more crimes than an
average man would commit. In the third paragraph the author states, Mexican authorities
recently arrested El Ponchis, a 14-year-old. He is accused of multiple crimes, including
beheading four people and pushing their bodies off of a bridge. A single 14-year-old boy
beheaded four people and pushed them off of a bridge. These crimes do not sound like they
were caused by vulnerable, gullible kids. These kids knew exactly what they were doing
when they did it. In the El Ponchis crime, why would he attempt to cover up the evidence
by pushing the bodies off of a bridge if he didnt know what he was doing?

On the opposing side Onesimo Cepeda Silva states, Minors who commit crimes such
as El Ponchis should receive psychiatric and psychological treatments, instead of being
tried as adults. Silva is saying that this 14-year-old boy who beheaded four people should
just get treatment for what he did. He doesnt even have to worry about the people he killed
as long as he gets help. What about those peoples families? How would they feel about
this? What if someone in Silvas family got killed like this? This makes no sense because half
of the time these people know what they are doing, and in El Ponchis case he knew that if
he killed people like this then he would get a huge reputation in Mexico. Of course you cant
charge an infant or an insane person for a crime, but before a conclusion arises look at all
the evidence.