Breanna Mitchell got a flat tire on a dark, narrow Tarrant County, Texas road. Hollie Boyles and her daughter Shelby walked over from their home to help. Youth pastor Brian Jennings was driving past the scene and he pulled over to help as well.
Then, according to the police, Ethan Couch's car, loaded with kids, slammed into everyone. Couch, 16, was drunk. 4 were killed and 8 were injured.
Lawyers for Couch argued that there the boy’s parents should share the blame for the crash, because they gave him everything he wanted. They pleaded for a sentence that involved therapy in California, at cost $450,000 a year, rather than years behind bars. Defense witness psychologist Gary Miller said the boy suffered from "affluenza." (A clever little term coined in a book to describe excessive consumerism.) Affluence, indulgent parents were extenuating circumstances. Here, in the United States, wealth and indulgent parents are burdens to overcome. Apparently young Mr. Couch was not up to the task.
Couch got probation. We got four funerals, eight hospitalizations and a living satire of justice, experts and responsibility.
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