While this looks pretty bad, I have to remember that this kind of thing went on when I was a kid, and there was no video evidence by which to bust the perpetrators. I'd say the whole YouTube thing is a boon for cops, who can rely on the stupidity of people who commit crimes and post videos of it, and all they have to do is eat donuts!

This kind of crap has been going on for a long time. Bullying, harassment, and misplaced violence is as old as human memory. Some people are just mean and petty and cruel, often poorly parented. MySpace didn't make those idiot savages laugh their crime off in their holding cell while worrying petulantly that they might miss cheerleading the next day.

I'm going to make a possibly unfair generalization here, but when I hear "X is the Anti-Christ", I'm guessing a conservative said it, i.e., those folks who blather on about "personal responsibility." And yet those same types are the quickest to point to some "other" to place blame. It's always something else.

Dear Sheriff Judd, In many ways you sound like a sensible person and a good cop. Don't fall into the trap of blaming them god-durned intertube interlopers from what those eight young adults did. They did it. Them. Not YouTube. Not MySpace. They did. Don't let your fear give them an out. They're responsible all by themselves. And here's the thing, they would have done it anyway. That's clearly the kind of people they are. Don't let them off the hook by blaming a computer server somewhere. Blame them. They did it.

I'm more likely than most to want to hold myspace youtube etc. responsible for certain things, but this isn't of them. This has been going on for years and years and no one has really ever paid attention because there was no evidence. I think psychologically a large number of adults feel a need to blame the internet, because they can not deal with the reality that this has been going on for a long time and they have done nothing about it.

Youtube is, in essence shining a light on their failures, and many simply just get angry at the light.

These girls need to go to jail. I hope the victim wins a HUGE settlement.

The mother who defended one of the attackers claiming "she wrote rude things on myspace or whatever" really needs to rot in prison. She led to this torture.

She is so disgusting and so are these girls who beat the victim. Can you say trash? Yep.

I am truly stunned at what a nation of shrinking violets and, yes, pussies this has become. Even considering what happened off-camera, what those girls did was NOTHING compared to stuff I saw on campus in junior high and high school, and I grew up in a solidly median, working class town. And what happened back then? The kids got suspended, or expelled if the violence warranted it. Today? The "animalistic" (please!) teens are given the full, orange jumpsuit treatment along with the usual charge inflation. Felony assault? What a crock of shit. And I don't know what video Farhad was watching, but the one I saw showed ONE girl attacking Ms. Lindsay while the others egged her on. Pretty standard high school stuff.

There are times when violence - yes, including interpersonal violence - is necessary. Have we seen the other side of the story? Do we know what Ms. Lindsay posted on MySpace about these other young girls? I can tell you that the hater phenomenon is alive and well all over MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook, Friendster - you name the site. It looked to me like a bunch of righteously pissed-off kids finally confronted someone who had been hiding behind her MySpace account and trash-talking. Listen a little more carefully to what the girls are saying. I distinctly heard one girl demand to know if Lindsay "[wants] to kick my ass now? Are you gonna kick my ass now bitch?!" That's a clear reference to something Ms. Lindsay posted to her MySpace page. There IS a such thing as fighting words.

This is something that got out of hand, but I'm betting a little ass-whupping was just what the doctor ordered in this case. But now Ms. Lindsay can play the sweet, innocent victim. I rather doubt she is. I'd really like to see those MySpace entries.

Watch the video again -- you see two girls, at least, landing punches (pay attention to the girl in the red T-shirt). Also, at one point where the camera swoops down, it looks likes we just miss another of the girls landing shots.

it's six teens ganging up on another teen or the media ganging up on say, Hillary or Spizter's call girl or whomover: it's the same thing.

I watched "blogging heads" on NY Times online today: two media dudes with headphones exchanging views on whathaveyou in most inarticulate ways and saying absolutely nothing worthwhile.

Is our world becoming more and more insane or is it merely that far more stories are reported in our Age of Instant News? Not sure, but there's a good chance that children and teens are merely mirroring what they see around them in their homes, in school, on TV, in movies, videogames.

The sherrif targets YouTube and MySpace? As long as there are cops and soldiers ganging up on civilians, the police or the governement are in no position to point fingers at anyone else.

As with everything, YouTube and MySpace are being used for good and evil purposes and it will be hard to regulate websites without getting into a whole freedom-of-speech/censorship mess.

(I have come across an extremely racist video on YouTube about Barack Obama, complained to YouTube and never heard a word from them)

Why doesn't someone in the media sit down with these kids and ask them questions - that would ultimately be far more valid and interesting than any sheriff, or Farhad Manjoo or myself spewing forth our two cents on the case.

Have these kids seen the recently released film "Funny Games"? I refuse to see it, but I can imagine that its sadistic "games" could inspire some people, including teens. Ask the teens - go directly to the source!