[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 325-326]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2015
         PERVERSE TORTURE PERPETRATED BY HEARTLESS YOUNG ADULTS

  (Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, today, four people were 
charged with a violent crime after a Facebook showed 30 minutes of 
horror. The criminal charges barely scratch the surface in describing 
the terror experienced by an 18-year-old boy who suffers from mental 
disabilities.
  He was forced for 5 hours to cower in a corner scared, stunned, and 
powerless by people he thought were his friends. His mouth was duct 
taped shut. His hands and feet were tied. They cut his clothes, his 
hair, and scalp with a knife. He was burned, punched, and beaten. He 
was humiliated and berated. This was not just bullying, this was 
violent, perverse torture perpetrated by heartless young adults. His 
psychological trauma will haunt him for years.
  He is not alone because children with disabilities are four times 
more likely to be assaulted than the general population.
  We enacted major mental health reforms just a few weeks ago. 
Unfortunately, we cannot litigate compassion, mandate morality, nor 
legislate common decency for perpetrators who have no sense of shame. 
But today, as a Nation, we should all be ashamed and recommit to teach 
our children there is never any excuse to harm a disabled person. 
Never. I pray for the victim and his family.

[[Page 326]]



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