I agree that the Nazi knife Ritalin thing is sketchy, but it's by far not the sketchiest thing I've encountered in my life. I've worked in jails, juvenile jails, juvenile court-mandated work programs and mental hospitals for the criminally insane since 1979, and in colleges and universities since 1981. I've worked in inside investigations for LE agencies. I've also lived in some cultures that some might regard as a bit odd.
If I did a Venn diagram of overlapping student/criminal populations, it would be quite a bit of strangeness.
In 6th grade, kids started spouting white supremacist stuff at my daughters. By high school, it was really ugly (much bigger high school, times had changed) but it was a very small group doing it.
About six months ago, my niece was followed by a group of young men (late teens, early twenties) shouting racist hate at her. My students say they hear racist epithets on the daily (all races, but mostly black and brown kids). I've gone out and done a little recording - because, where I grew up, absolutely no one would have said these things in public or shouted them.
Yeah that was a bit of an exaggeration...I've heard of much sketchier things. But what I meant is like, if back when I was a teenager I went to hang out with my friends and walked in on THAT, I would be like:
Abe simpson
I also doubt that was an isolated incident. And I can see why Kam wouldn't drop Bryer as a friend over that kind of thing, because of how bonded they were after all those years. But even in that case if you have a lifelong friend, you love and care about them, etc. and you see them acting completely bizarre and sketchy, in most cases you would be like "dude wtf, are you okay?" The fact that Kam didn't, and didn't seem uncomfortable at all, indicates that he saw nothing wrong or disturbing about that behavior, even if he himself didn't engage in it.
BS and KM were young. If something (perhaps some small thing) had knocked them in a different direction, it's possible they would have peeled off from the herd and done what every other one of these kids would do: leave that crap behind. OTOH, people like K and B, if only slightly more "ept" might have developed into the next stage of criminality.
Yeah that's what I've been saying the whole time. I don't get the sense that either of them were total remorseless, beyond redemption Ted Bundy sociopaths or anything. I mean, I could be wrong, and the evidence that comes out in the future will give more perspective on the matter, but that's just the sense I get. If I did think they were like that, I would probably have no interest in this case, since what is there to say about that.
I think they were lost, depressed and anxious, hated themselves and others, felt like outcasts, and were angry at the world. They made some awful, stupid, likely impulsive, possibly even drug-fueled (?) decisions and were too cowardly to face the consequences (well, kind of, I think committing suicide in the remote wilderness is pretty bad as far as consequences). They did clearly both have significant emotional disturbances but I think they could have been saved (maybe not made 100% mentally healthy, but at least not harming others or themselves) had someone noticed the signs that were years in the making of them going into a dark spiral.
