Afluenza affect

16 year old Ethan Couch recently was charged with 10 years of probation and rehab after killing four people while driving under the influence. He used afluenza as a defense. His parents are very wealthy and apparently told the kid that he could go out and do whatever he wanted and that if anything happened, his parents would take care of it for him. The kid claimed it was the parents's fault for not teaching him responsibilities. After the incident, he apparently turned to his friend who was also in the car and said 'Don't worry, my parents will get us out of this'.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/05/us/texas-affluenza-teen/<BR>
So, thoughts on the afluenza defense, the family situation, etc?

The kid got out easy since he wasn't sent to prison, though, the judge did require that the parents pay the 450k a year for his rehab out of their own pockets. I bet that won't really affect them, though.

As for the astrology part of this, here's the kid's chart:
Sun Aries
Moon Gemini
Mercury Taurus
Venus Aries
Mars Virgo
Jupiter Aquarius
Saturn Aries
Uranus Aquarius
Neptune Capricorn
Pluto Sagittarius
Lilith Virgo
Asc node Virgo

If you care to talk about what signs the parents, who 'coddled' the kid, might be, go ahead.

It might be interesting to note that him and his parents were arrested for other things as well:
"Ethan's father has been charged with criminal mischief, theft by check and assault, but these charges were dismissed. Ethan's mother was sentenced to a $ 500 fine and a six-month community supervision order for reckless driving.
In February 2013, Ethan was cited for "minor in consumption of alcohol" and "minor in possession of alcohol". He pled no contest and was sentenced to probation, a compulsory alcohol awareness class, and 12 hours of community service."

*Affluenza

One of those moments where right as you're hitting enter you realize all of the mistakes you ever made.

I learned about this case today from one of my teachers. The teacher tied this in to his opinion that today, incarceration isn't mainly about race, but class. Anyone who is wealthy can get out of harsher penalties and more than likely stay out of prison altogether. Look at O.J. Simpson. People were sure he was the offender, but he had enough money to hire a great defense team. In my teacher's words, blacks used to be the one who were getting arrested. Today it's hispanics. Why? Blacks have moved up from the lower class while hispanics are now a greater portion of the lower class. Lets face it, if you can't afford an attorney, you're pretty much screwed. There are very few times in history where people have won their case by defending themselves. Appointed attorneys aren't that great either and don't care as much about winning the cases they're assigned to. Most of the time, they barely have had enough time to even look over the case to be familiar with what happened and the evidence.

Anyway, more on topic, it's pretty ridiculous that this kid can claim that he killed four people from driving drunk because his parents didn't teach him responsibilities. The parents are also ridiculous for thinking they can do whatever they want and money will buy them their freedom. Though, maybe not so ridiculous actually since it's been working for them so far.

Posted by LovesickCancer
I don't think this boy will ever comprehend that he killed four people.

Of course his parents are going to protect their child but what about all the other people in his life, is no-one going to tell him his behaviour's disgusting.

The judges sentencing is typical for a 16 year old, it's what happens if he breaks the conditions of his probation that will be really telling.

I forgot that to take into account that he's a minor. He's old enough that he could have been waived to adult court, though, which could have sentenced him to time behind bars, but I suppose 10 years of probation at his age is significant.

He was on probation before and then ended up going down the same route a year later, so I wonder if he'll be able to handle 10 years on probation without any violations?

I found this excerpt from a post about mercury square uranus, which is an aspect this kid has:

"You may have to realise that the only person who is responsible for you is yourself! The responsibility for your choices and actions lies with you, no-one else; and it is a foolish denial of personal power to pretend otherwise, or to seek to blame society or someone else for the repercussions of your choices."

Seems very fitting, no?

Found another one: "Also, regarding cars, they don't use to be the best drivers because their way of driving cars uses to be brusque, not smooth."

Haha. Very coincidental.