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[QUOTE="Zelda Zonk, post: 5420476, member: 966"]
Oh, man. I have a very different take on this. I apologize in advance.

One factor that would sway me toward the popular side of complete condemnation of this: the matter of safety. Was the gun real? Where did this happen? As noted upthread, the escapees—were they blindfolded and could have run into traffic/hazards, etc?

But, as dumb as this was, and as much as I condemn/abhor the idea of hazing, I’ve seen fake abductions on a bunch of sitcoms. To the extent that this was wrong, and traumatic, I’m struggling to recognize a real life scenario in this country where a team was kidnapped, so the plausibility contributing to that ‘trauma’ is something I discount a little.

Wrong, absolutely. [I]Felony[/I]-wrong? That’s maybe where I’m not sold. Of course, if there were additional physical abuses I haven‘t yet read about, that’s another thing. The other thing to consider is the whole ‘tradition’ thing. If this is a known component of your ‘membership’ in a group, there seem to be ‘provisions.’ Don’t fraternities still brand members? That seems like a primitive and ridiculous requirement of membership and would be disallowed in just about any other context. [Google says it’s “optional.” Still, though. It persists as a rite of passage because members feel compelled to prove something as a component of belonging.]

Again, I’m not defending this. But, for some 17 and 18 year olds, when something is a ‘joke’ on sitcoms/movies, and you’re also used to a culture of YouTube pranks, this being a potential felony offense would prolly not occur to them.
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