Not a lot separates the experiences of the two cousins, at least at first. By the time of his cousins' conviction and release, there is a much wider gulf.
So the tone is tragic-- that seems justified. Isn't this a tragedy?
> They were designing sentences not for people but for a thing: the aggregate level of crime. They wanted to reduce that level, regardless of what constituted justice for any individual involved. The target of Michael’s sentence was not a bright fifteen-year-old boy with a mild proclivity for theft but the thousands of carjackings that occurred in Los Angeles.
I guess it's just the overall tone that Michael is a victim of circumstances and the light treatment of the underlying fact that he paid for the consequences of his own actions.
But I think it makes sense to see Michael as a victim of circumstance, to a certain extent. We can do something about those circumstances.