Rod Dreher

Bitchy Brooks Snarks On Romney

Military Legacy Crushed — For What?

By Rod Dreher • August 28, 2012, 12:35 PM

I’m for holding people accountable for criminal behavior, but this Penn State guy got massively shafted:

Stints in jail. Hefty fines and restitution. Clouded futures. The consequences of their bad behavior have been steep for the Penn State students who took to the streets and rioted in the chaotic aftermath of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno’s firing last November.

Perhaps none have learned a harder lesson than Justin Strine, a young man from central Pennsylvania whose planned career as an Army officer is over before it began — the casualty of his own split-second decision to put his hands on a news van, and a judicial system that considered him as guilty as classmates who did far worse that dark night in State College.

As the fall semester gets under way Monday, Strine has returned to campus, along with 15 other students found to have taken part in a nationally televised riot that caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage and embarrassed Penn State.

As he resumes his studies, nothing’s the same for the 21-year-old from Hummelstown. He spent part of his summer in jail. Far worse: He’s been kicked out of ROTC, his dream of carrying on his family’s proud military tradition now out of reach.

“I’m losing everything I worked my entire life for,” Strine said.

Strine’s father, a career soldier, questions whether that’s a just result.

“I had to stand by and watch my son plead guilty to something he didn’t do,” said Jim Strine.

Read the whole thing. The punishment here absolutely doesn’t fit the crime.

UPDATE: Read all the comments. Everybody thinks I’m very wrong about this.

Posted in Crime and Punishment. Tagged crime, Justin Strine, Penn State.

65 Responses to Military Legacy Crushed — For What?

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Clamdigger says:

August 28, 2012 at 6:02 pm

1. He made a ‘positive’ decision to leave his apt. and go to the kerfuffle turned riot. He could have made a ‘negative’ decision to not partake.

2. He could have taken advantage of what the legal system offered…and didn’t. Are his claims that he could have no representation at PSU sanctioning true?

3.What (if anything) do you write when there are the riots after a sports championship? Are you for throwing the book at them, Rod, or forgiving of their testosterone/alcohol fueled excitement. I tend to think you’re all about throwing the book at them.

And you’re surprised that pretty much no-one agrees with you? Perhaps you should ponder that —mull it over, think about it.
Don Quijote says:

August 28, 2012 at 6:53 pm

Serving in the military is a privilege, not a right.

Unless there is a real war going on and a draft is needed, in which case it’s not a privilege, it’s fresh meat being thrown in the grinder…
Pierre Corneille says:

August 28, 2012 at 7:19 pm

If we stipulate that he did what they said he did, I think the punishment is pretty fitting. I am, like others above, bothered by the b.s. of threatening a felony charge in order to scare someone into a plea deal. But I am also, like at least one commenter here, inclined to remind Rod that this happens all the time in the U.S. for lesser offenses. Compared to some of those cases, this 21-year old “kid” got off easy.
em says:

August 28, 2012 at 7:21 pm

In addition to everyone’s comments about his poor judgment and the justice of this outcome, and satisfaction with it, I notice from the young man’s comments so much excuse making and blame for everyone but himself – as military he would have entered into and submitted to a system the same as this, and would he have been (or tried to be) such a whiner there? 21 years old by military standards is a man, not the overgrown adolescent out in the world we call “kids” and make all kinds of excuses for. The military has enough responsibility and enough troubles that do arise, that it’s nice to see they maintain some standards.
johan says:

August 28, 2012 at 7:52 pm

Anyone who rioted in support of pedophile enabler Joe Paterno gets no sympathy from me. The military doesn’t need this guy.
MH - Secular Misanthropist says:

August 28, 2012 at 8:08 pm

David J. White, I had not seen that, but I’ve heard of similar things happening. In the long term it won’t be good for society if we create lifetime penalties for minor offenses.
Gerard says:

August 28, 2012 at 8:20 pm

No, I don’t believe his military career is over if it wasn’t a felony or he wasn’t found guilty of a felony. When the court actions and any probation period is over he can apply to the military. If not he can just join the majority of Americans in the real, working world. Start a business. Be inspired by Steve Jobs and change the world. Your hours will be long and you won’t get government subsidized food, prescriptions, housing, et al. And when you are weary from trying to make in America just remember that the men who founded this country– Washington, Jefferson, Madison– did not believe in a standing army. And certainly not a Department of Defense or this recent entity “the professional military”. Go out and serve this country by aspiring to be a Jobs or a Trump or a Gates.
AnotherBeliever says:

August 28, 2012 at 8:26 pm

Yes, his actions really do show a lack of judgment and self-discipline. It’s not surprising he was booted from ROTC over this. Prospective military officers are held to pretty high standards – much is expected of them. And while you’re in ROTC, you’re still only a prospective. It’s sort of a probationary period.

He took full responsibility for his actions at the time, and he should not back down from that now. It was the right thing to do and it remains the right thing. The military places a lot of stock in people owning up to mistakes, admitting when they are wrong, and never making excuses. To doing the right thing even in a bad situation, and accepting what consequences may come.

However, it’s not necessarily the end of the road for Strine. We had a guy in my platoon who had a choice between repaying his scholarship or enlisting – he never said what the issue was, and I’m not sure if Strine was even given that option. But Strine could still try for an Officer Candidate School commission to become an officer. Or he could try for Flight Warrant Officer (Army pilots don’t have to be fully commissioned officers.) Or he could go enlisted, and try for officer or warrant officer from there. Or he could graduate, and comport himself above reproach for a few years, and try for a commission then. A few years of contributing to society can sometimes make up for a youthful indiscretion, in the government’s mind. These are only misdemeanor charges, after all.

And in the end, it’s a great opportunity and privilege, but not everyone is eligible to serve in the military. This young man can still go to do well and to do good, in or out of uniform.
Leo says:

August 28, 2012 at 8:48 pm

Rod, you should have chosen a different description than “massively shafted ” in describing what happened to this student in light of…well you know. You shouldn’t be surprised at the appropriate lack of complete sympathy for this kid. The victims that got “massively shafted” ,young Mr. Strine did not seem to acknowledge that night. Starting again, I would hope he does better…and he now very well might.
Fran Macadam says:

August 28, 2012 at 8:49 pm

Think about this: unlike Col. Andrew Bacevich’s son Andy, who absorbed the faux-patriotic delusions his family and father labored under during his developmental years, causing him to volunteer for Wall Street’s preemptive wars of choice under false flag – unfortunately formed before his father came to his senses – Justin Strine won’t end up dead for our elite’s entitlement to greed.

And if he should have recovered conscience once in the military and done the right thing – he won’t have to end up ruined by Wall Street for life like Bradley Manning.
Joe Magarac says:

August 28, 2012 at 10:06 pm

Do you really not get the distinction between a college student who placed his hands on a van that was turned over, and university officials who knowingly turned a blind eye to multiple child rapes being conducted by an assistant football coach? Wow.

I must not be making myself clear. One more try:

This kid got his day in court and pleaded guilty, yet you want the court to show mercy.

Spanier, Curley, and Schultz have not had their day in court, have pleaded innocent, and yet you pass harsh judgment on them.

I grant that the crimes they are accused of committing are very different.

Good luck tomorrow.
bones says:

August 28, 2012 at 11:17 pm

“No one ever looked at me as an individual. They looked at me as 5,000 Penn State rioters.”

LOL

Boy participates in riot, is upset when the law doesn’t make an exception for him.

It’s a rough way to learn a lesson, but I suspect he’ll end up the better for it.
Charlie says:

August 28, 2012 at 11:49 pm

“Strine said he didn’t contest the charges because he wouldn’t have been permitted an attorney, and his testimony before the school could have been used against him in the criminal courts. He didn’t challenge the sanctions because Penn State warned him that if he did, he could wind up being penalized more severely. And he said he was never told that a suspension would cost him his spot in ROTC.”

This isn’t quite right. I read Penn State’s rules for disciplinary proceedings (they’re available as a pdf through the school’s website). I can understand why Strine was intimidated–the school does indeed almost entirely ban lawyers from its disciplinary proceedings. I don’t agree with that.

On the other hand, the school does allow the student to have an “advisor” involved in the process. Since there aren’t lawyers on the other side it’s hard to tell if this process is fair–as long as the available advisers are as competent as the administrators on the other side, I’m not sure “I didn’t have a lawyer” is much of a complaint.

More to the point–the school makes a specific exception for students in Strine’s situation. They are allowed to have an attorney present whose sole role is “advise the student about answering questions that may be incriminating.”

Again, I’m not belittling the pressure Strine was under. But he’s simply wrong (or inviting people to draw the wrong conclusions) when he says that he was denied a lawyer, and that the process of defending himself against the school would inevitably have required him to implicate himself in a future criminal proceeding.

I sympathize with him, but from what little I know it seems like he shot himself in the foot. He could have fought the school within its disciplinary structure, while receiving outside legal advice and with a lawyer present in the hearing to protect his rights in the separate criminal proceeding. Instead he cut a deal without bothering to make sure that deal protected his most significant interests (ROTC and his scholarship).

Life’s unfair, but sometimes our own bad judgment opens the door for bad results. Strine made bad decisions the night of the riot, and even less explicable bad decisions in defending himself against these charges.
J the second says:

August 29, 2012 at 9:14 am

Being a mindless participant in a riot is the epitome of Stupid Follower behavior.

If you’re this fellow’s superior officer there’s no way you can support him being given a leadership position. There’s hardly a more disqualifying act if your thinking clearly distinguishes between Leaders and Followers.

I think where they got you, Rod, was with the notion that somehow two generations of military officers means a ‘tradition’. That’s one of those pathetic Middle American inauthenticities, like the interior of a church being a ‘sanctuary’ and every rural town in Illinois having ‘the greatest fire department in the world’. Once you start to believe the rhetoric as fact rather than wish you’ve subscribed to a fantasy. A comforting fantasy, perhaps, but one in which failure is a constant.
Rebecca Trotter says:

August 29, 2012 at 10:33 am

This post has bothered me since I saw it yesterday. I’m sorry, but I can’t help thinking that if this had been a black student who did something stupid with the same result and you’d be talking about how he threw away the opportunity that was given to him. The family military legacy would just ma up the tragidy because he had betrayed the work of those who went before him. It would be seen as yet another example of the self-destruction which destroys the lives of so many minorities. And what is anyone supposed to do about people who won’t take the opportunities presented to them and continually make choices that destroy their lives?

Tell an African America this sad story about how this kid was pressured into pleading to something he claims not to have done because he didn’t have the resources to fight the felony charge he was facing. Tell them how he’s now missing out on some great opportunities because of it. The only thing they’d find surprising is that it happened to a white college kid. The cluelessness of this post is really astounding.