Back when I was 10 or 11, I was busted shoplifting. Not long before, a friend had shown me the "cool" way to lift items from the store, and I got greedy. With an unnaturally protruding belly shaped oddly like a Dolly Madison fruit pie and a can of Dr. Pepper, I attempted to exit the store. The store owner caught, me, I was taken home, and I had to face the punishment. I think I put in something like 20 hours of community service for those snacks I never got to taste. Lesson (mostly) learned.

Now from the town where I grew up comes the story of two girls, ages ten and twelve, who kidnapped a baby, left a ransom note for $200,000, and took the baby home until the mother wound up retrieving the child (http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_187004635.html).

Before I proceed, let's look into what is known of this case:

• These girls broke into the family's home at 6:00am
• They took the baby from its crib, along with a stroller, diapers, and wipes
• They left a ransom note
• They took the baby to their home, where they kept it until it was discovered

The ransom note and the methodical removal of supplies (diapers, wipes, stroller) would make it painfully obvious this was a premeditated act, and not some spur of the moment stupid thing that kids do.

In the boards for the paper, though, are countless comments about how these girls "need counselling", and how they are just messed up kids, and this is all a freak accident. Blah-blah-blah, yadda-yadda-yadda. The idea, essentially, is that we need to view these girls as victims rather than perpetrators, and that they should not spend any time in juvie, but should get to go sit on a comfortable couch in an air conditioned office with their parents and talk about their "feelings".

This is wrong on so many levels it's not even funny. Now I'll grant you, there's a huge gap between the childrearing these children received and responsible childrearing, I'll give you that. But the best way to redeem these girls and salvage any sort of a decent life is to teach them a lesson very early.

As to the specifics, that's for the courts. But because this case has broken national, there will be a lot of scrutiny. And these girls are unlikely to get a hand slap. Had this case not broken, who knows? With the "touchy-feely" approach so many in Enid want to employ, justice might never have been served.