The age of piracy

Instead of being forced to walk the plank, a Somali pirate has been taken all the way to the USA, at taxpayer expense, to be fed and watered and put on trial at taxpayer expense and defended at taxpayer expense, despite the fact that the entire world already knows he is guilty. The first issue the American legal system will be feeding from for a very long time is the disputed age of the pirate concerned. Be he adult he can be treated as a pirate in need of his just deserts, i.e. a jolly good telling off, probably, and a reminder that pirates appear only in stories. Be he teenaged he must be treated as a wholesome good person whose education has been insufficient and whom copious input of further taxpayer money is sure to redeem.

Sadly, in the real world, teenaged male thugs with weapons are, and have always been, the greatest menace civilisation can possibly ever face. Old enough to kill people and wreck civilisation means old enough to die.