365个英语简短小故事- 36. Trick or Treat

（单词翻译）

Two girls were trick-or-treating on Halloween night when a large group of teens attacked them, leaving both high school seniors unconscious. One needed surgery to repair her eye socket¹.

The victims were white, and their attackers were black. Seven attackers were girls, and one was an 18-year-old boy. The boy said that he did not attack the girls; he tried to protect them.

"So why were you swinging a skateboard?" asked a witness. The boy said that he was swinging the skateboard at the attackers, not the victims.

The prosecution² added "hate crime" to the charge of assault because racial slurs³ were made before the victims were attacked.

The trial in Long Beach lasted almost four weeks. All the attackers were found guilty, but not one spent even a day in jail. The judge sentenced them to "house arrest" for a month. House arrest meant that they had to sleep in their own beds at home. The boy had to do 20 hours of community service.

Law-abiding white and black adults were outraged⁴ at the light sentences. The two girls required hospital care, yet the thugs received a mere⁵ slap on the wrist. Concerned parents immediately created a website for recalling the judge.