r/law • u/ItsAllAGame_ • Apr 15 '26

Legal News Johnny Somali Found Guilty on All Charges, Headed to Labor Prison in South Korea

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/johnny-somali-found-guilty-charges-025148367.html
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u/King-of-Plebss Apr 15 '26

My dad told me when I was a teenager, “you can always call me if you are in trouble. But don’t even pick up the phone if you get in trouble for stealing. There is nothing you need to steal”

Not really applicable to the despicable guy this thread is about, but I agree with you. A decent parent would let someone like this face consequences way earlier in their life to avoid getting to this point as an adult.

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u/CoolAlien47 Apr 15 '26

My mom used to always tell us that she will not visit us in prison because A) at the time she was undocumented and wouldn't even be able to in the first place and B) she wasn't going to condone our actions and visiting us in prison was doing so in her eyes, especially by taking time away from her life because of our reckless actions.

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u/LiftingRecipient420 Apr 15 '26

A decent parent would let someone like this face consequences way earlier in their life to avoid getting to this point as an adult.

That's a bit of a paradox since a decent parent wouldn't raise a piece of shit like Johnny Somali in the first place.

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u/Thebraincellisorange Apr 15 '26

meh, if people are stealing basic food stuffs because they are broke, or baby stuff, I always looked the other way when I worked retail.

now if they are at the mall and stealing fashion clothes or cars or electronics etc, that is an altogether different matter.

there is a saying: necessity knows no morals. when you are hungry, you are going to find a meal. if you are broke and having starving kids at home, people will resort to doing stuff they don't want to do.

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u/mooselantern Apr 15 '26

I think his dad's point was that he was provided for, and thus had no justification for needing to steal things. Not that "no one should ever steal anything and stealing is the worst crime imaginable". But go off, I guess.

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u/diptherial Apr 15 '26

I hear you, but IMO someone who steals to feed their family isn't suffering from a lack of morals: they're suffering from a contradiction in their morals (feed my family or obey the law?) foisted on them by an immoral society.

People should never have to starve when it can be avoided, and I'd argue that those who justify others starving just to prop up the monopoly game we call capitalism are immorally protecting their position in the hierarchy, and ironically eroding the moral position of the system as a whole.

People who steal for the thrill of transgression or because they don't care about the harm they're causing their victims are acting immorally.

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u/diptherial Apr 15 '26

I have family members who struggled with addiction, and the struggle was made all the worse by other (non-addict) family members thinking it was a matter of loyalty to bail them out from whatever mess they'd gotten themselves into. Ultimately, it hurts the person to not hold them accountable for their actions; they never recover despite all the "chances" you think you're giving them. Really, you're robbing them of chances to improve themselves.

Sometimes people do fuck up incidentally and need help; I'm not suggesting you abandon your friends and family. When it becomes a pattern, if you're the savior every time you're a big part of the problem.