Last week I posted a piece about a group of teenagers that beat a man to death not far from our house in Bedford, Nova Scotia. It’s not difficult to pick out the types of teenagers that would do something like this, we all know what they look like … or do we?

I can’t express the shock my wife and I had last night as we watched the news. The police walked the four accused one-by-one into the courtroom — without exception they were well-dressed, clean-cut boys that you wouldn’t think twice about talking to in the street.

They had an interview with one of the boy’s fathers who professed his son’s innocence, saying there was some kind of a mistake. Trouble with that is they have video of the man being attacked supplied by surrounding business video surveillance. And when the police tracked them down, they ran into the woods to escape capture — would an innocent person do that?

One of the lawyers in the case said that the boys didn’t have a criminal record. What the hell does that matter? They killed a man! It doesn’t matter if they were drunk, stoned, sober or if the other guy started it, the fact is a man is dead and they did it. They could have stopped beating him to death at any time, which should have been easy since the man couldn’t have hit back.

Whatever the circumstances, if they have video of the boys doing it, they are guilty and should be sentenced harshly for their crime.