Another Victim of the Kids' Rights Movement

[quidditchgrrl]

Free Maribel

11-year-old is charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon after she hits another child in the head with a rock.

*shakes head*  Although the charges were dropped in a plea agreement, the police still maintain that an 11-year-old should understand that her act might have had fatal consequences.

Anthropormorphizing children.  We'll be bringing capital charges against 11-year-olds next.  Oh, wait.

Comments

[photosinensis.livejournal.com]

This is all a part of the "Tough on crime" thing that the Repugnicans have been on since at least the 80's (probably before that).

I wish they'd get off their high horse and realise that if they're going to make those under 18 stand trial as adults, then they should be given the rest of the rights that those of the age of majority have.

It just sickens me to see anyone below the age of majority tried as an adult, no matter what the crime. It seems more like pandering to a sense of victim's vengance than true justice. Besides, they're kids, there's no reason to condemn them to a life of crime for a case of juvinile reasoning.

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

Totally agree with you, Jim. Instead of rehabilitation, they've gone to incarceration as the first and only means of dealing with unruly kids.

It's like permanently sealing the door to the bathroom if a toddler has a potty-training accident. Makes no sense.

I am absolutely tough on crime for adults (I believe in chemical castration and life-long monitoring for some recidivist criminals, but not in the death penalty), but if you're not old enough to vote, you're not old enough to have true legal responsibility.

Rawr.

[authenticjoy.livejournal.com]

Meghan's Law pisses me off to no end. I think it's a violation of a person's rights. What about the people who have really rehabilitated? What about the people who were innocent and are now finally able to pick up the pieces of their lives? (I know someone who was innocent and is now a Meghan's Lister, btw. All he wants to do is get on with his life.) What about that 20-year-old who messed up really bad with the 15-year-old whose daddy happened to be on the City Council?

We may laugh about that last one, but you lived in a small town, you know what it's like.

For the truly gifted assholes who DO have the massive recidivism rate - What the *hell* are they doing out of jail if they are that dangerous to little kids? (Does castration really work? I've heard it doesn't. Particularly with rapists.)

Either keep them in jail, or figure out that the reason they are so good in jail is because there are no kids there, and make the maximum penalty stick with no early parole, ya know?

Blahblahblah. I should really go to bed instead of spamming your journal.

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree, Megan's law doesn't work very well, because if they're dedicated to their crime (ew), they're going to reoffend no matter what.

If I'm not mistaken, chemical castration works well on pedophiles but not rapists. Rapists aren't motivated by sexual urges, typically. Multiple offenders should be locked up permanently. Sad that you can be sent to jail for a very long time for non-violent drug offenses but get off with time served for sexual assault.

There was an article recently about permanent house arrest for pedos, except they've already had incidences of recidivism. And they want to extend the law to cover just about anyone - i.e. Megan's Law with a free ankle bracelet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072901154_pf.html

Bah. Who needs sleep when there's the intarnets!

[authenticjoy.livejournal.com]

Well, it's what they are turned on by. It's like we are turned on by adult males and Da...er, Rup, guh, um - extremely airbrushed younger... ahem, just you never mind. They can't help what they like. If adult males were suddenly made a crime, some of us could supress our sexuallity completely, some could find other means of expression, others would go underground, etc.

I knew Rapists typically aren't motivated by sexual urges. The sex comes as an after thought. The violence is foreplay and they still like the foreplay even if they don't have the sex part. It's still a intensely pleasurable activity to them.

The GPS system is good for people who have high recidivism, IMO. Once someone's been rehabilitated and let out of prison having an ankle bracelet seems a small price to pay compared to having one's name, address, and list of offenses splashed across the intranets and the local newspaper.

It brings out the angry villagers, donncha know.

[poconell.livejournal.com]

The little girl sounds like a brat, and she should have known better than to throw a two pound rock at someone's head. But still, that's pretty ridiculous. I think some consequences are in order, but not that. I'm sure there's lots of community work she could do.

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

Well, what 11-year-old isn't a brat? And if you find an 11-year-old with high-level brain function, call Guinness! :D

I think it's telling that *she* was the one to go after help once it happened - she didn't run away from the problem, she realized that she had hurt this boy and went to get assistance. I don't know that many kids would have done that if they thought they'd go to *jail* for it.

She was held in a juvenile correctional facility for 5 days and only allowed one 30 minute visitation with her parents. I think that's going way too far with "zero tolerance" or whatever caca they're calling it these days.

I think community service - especially something vocational - is the way to go with younger, first time offenders. Give them a mentor, for the love of Pete. We need to stop making career criminals out of little kids by putting them in jail. *steams*

[authenticjoy.livejournal.com]

I'd like to know what happened to the kid in the latter story. This part of the story fascinated me:

"All boys are bad, but he's not really a bad boy," said the woman as she
stood on the steps of the house, a formerly abandoned building being
refurbished. She did say, however, that McCray had fallen in with "a crowd
that tells him what to do".

She added that McCray was respectful "sometimes", but said: "You don't know
what's going on in his mind."

She said she did not understand how McCray could be charged with murder,
adding that he had never been in any trouble. He had a "nervous condition"
and had been treated for depression, she added.

If this story happened in 1998, the kid is 17 or 18 now.

If this is the best the reporter could do in finding positive statements about the kid, this was a kid in big trouble that needed some major help. Or to be taken from that environment completely.

But, who doesn't need to be taken from that environment completely? Putting them in jail or Juvie isn't the answer - They just network with other criminals. Unfortunately, there isn't a fast and easy answer that solves it.

They do, however, need to be removed from society for the protection of people who do pay attention to laws.

Sucks all around. It sucks for the families of the victims too. I'm thinking more about the second article than the first.

But, the kid in the first article assaulted a police officer. I would have been scared spitless if a cop tried to arrest me at eleven. I would have done exactly what he told me to do, wouldn't you?

So, now we are going to have a kid who grows up without respect for people who represent the law. What do we do about that?

I'm sort of playing devil's advocate here - I can see both sides.

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm going to make a supposition that when you're 11, you're still under your parents' control. Or you should be.

The kids rights movement has taught kids that it's okay to disrespect/disregard authority figures. It's their "right" to do whatever they want to, and their parents back that up. I agree, this girl should have gone quietly with the police without a fight. But then again, she's Hispanic, and possibly very afraid of police in general. (In my hometown, every member of the police force is a KKK member - not kidding - and believe me, the one time I was pulled over at 18 I feared for my life)

I think some of this needs to rest with re-educating parents as well as getting kids into some type of vocational community service. Maybe doing house arrest, vocational community service and parent/child counseling. Putting kids in jail turns them into criminals. They need good role models and discipline. If they can't get that at home, we need to help them find it somewhere else before things spiral out of control.

And, who ever knows what goes on in the mind of an 11-year-old?!

[authenticjoy.livejournal.com]

I got pulled over a few times. :P I was a little speed demon. I could always bat my eyelashes, show some chest, cry, and get out of it though. There were no computers to run my license through back in the day. I never dreamed of fighting with them. They have guns and hard objects to crack skulls. I don't. Case closed.

I agree with all of your points for the most part. Particularly in cities where the problems are more complex. However, doing things with the adults usually won't do a damn bit of good. It never does. Adults have set attitudes that are unlikely to change unless there is a dramatic event to go with it.

Thankfully, this town has three fantastic police small-town police forces within a very short distance of one another. Not a single one of them would do a single thing to hurt a kid. None of them wear hoods during off time. But, I see kids who are disrespectful to them all the time because the parents are.

The parents are disrespectful because they seem to have some sense of entitlement. They seem to think they should be able to do what ever they'd like. If they've battered their wife, that's between partners and not for the police to be involved. If they are driving drunk, they haven't hurt anyone, so the police best leave them alone. So, I see the pattern duplicated with the kids.

The thing is, I don't see any reason for it. There isn't any reason for the sense of entitlement with the parents. That's the part I don't get.

I think the vocational efforts and the realistic replacement parent/child role models work for some kids, so that makes it worth it in the long run. Unfortunately, there are always going to be kids who will look at the parents as primaries or the kids who see how much more they can make in illegal activities and they will continue to bump heads with the police for the rest of their lives.

At the risk of becoming Mme. Spam-A-Lot, I will say that the cops do seem to know what family names are "destined for trouble" and which ones aren't. That irritates me. BUT, they do love it when a family member grows up without getting in trouble. There is a "destined for trouble" kid all grown up on the police force I temp for. So, there's lots of concern there.

Done now.