Originally published at: Domino's pizza receipt leads police to 12-year-old boy, arrested for murder | Boing Boing
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We are so screwed in the United States.
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Yet another murder via a firearm; this time with a minor as the killer.
Ain’t that fucking second amendment just great?
/S
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This whole story is terrible and speaks to societal and policy failures on many levels but the State of Wisconsin automatically charging anyone over age 10 as an adult is definitely one of the most fucked-up parts to me.
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Combined with “The child’s mother took the boy to speak with police”… I don’t know if mom realized she was throwing away her kid’s life with that one act…
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The motivation being to obtain said firearm. FFS.
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Jesus fucking wept; you can’t make this shit up.
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And I can’t even find a “gun worship” gif.
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Glad those guns kept him safe!
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I live in Milwaukee. A few days ago a friend was shot by a couple of 15 year olds who wanted his bicycle. I was a block away at the time and saw the cop cars whizzing by after the fact. Not a lot of sympathy for them being charged as adults if they are ever caught.
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I have to disagree; that seemed to be the only good thing about this situation. It isn’t directly stated, but it sounds like the mother knew or learned that her son allegedly killed Brandon, and turned him in. Maybe she feared for her own life. (I would.)
Hiding him from the police wouldn’t have done much good. It would be a matter of hours before they got the location of the cell, name registered to the number, and an arrest and search warrant to come get him.
Yes, his life is effectively over, but not because his mother brought him to the police, ACAB notwithstanding. There’s a little matter of a man killed in cold blood, execution style, and left to rot for days before a family member found the body.
It’s a tragedy, and I’m sure we’ll learn how society and maybe his family failed him. But I think his mother acted responsibly.
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I hope your friend is okay.
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I kind of have to hope that she was deliberately washing her hands of her child and knowingly institutionalizing him for life (as awful as that is), because that was going to be the outcome, given he got thrown to the wolves. It sounds like the kid was maybe interviewed without a parent, but definitely without a lawyer. (That was a pretty damning thing to do, guilty or not.) There are other options beyond “throw the kid to the wolves” and “keep them from facing any consequences” - the options that take into account the well being of the child are to be found in between. The cops and legal system certainly aren’t interested in that.
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Why don’t we have “a well regulated Militia” with enforceable rules to keep guns away from children?
There’s no happy outcome here. Even as a young kid (7-10) I definitely, absolutely, never would have even dreamed of pointing a loaded gun at somebody, much less actually pulled the trigger. I was fully aware of what the consequences of shooting somebody would be: they would die and I would be in a heap of trouble for the rest of my life.
I’d like to believe that any relatively normal kid would know this, certainly if they were over 10 years old as this kid was. So I’m struggling to understand: didn’t this kid know that shooting somebody is a horrific thing to do? Or did he know but just not care, or not think he would get caught?
Part of me wants to forgive this kid for making the stupidest mistake of his life, but part of me says he needs a real kick in the pants (metaphorically speaking) to teach him that he has caused immense, irreparable, harm and that he is responsible for his actions. I’m not saying jail is necessarily the answer (it probably isn’t), but in addition to counseling, isn’t there some form of service he could be compelled to perform, which would serve the purpose of helping him understand the nature of the crime and act as symbolic restitution to the victim’s relatives? (Rhetorical question; I don’t pretend to have the answers.)
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One could say the child threw his own life away when he put a bullet into someone else’s head for shits and giggles.
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You might be interested in how the perpetrators were sentenced and detained in this notorious case from England.
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Not sure if you read the linked article, but the kid’s texts to a friend and actions leading up to the murder are off the deep end. It’s way beyond a mistake or a kick in the pants or any kind of service making it right. I appreciate your empathy and self-reflection, but IMO some people–through nature or nurture–are too damaged and dangerous to society to be left on the board. Maybe…maybe…if our justice system had a solid track record of rehabilitation I would feel differently. But things being what they are…
That said, I got a jury summons for Milwaukee County Court last week and man I hope this doesn’t fall in my lap. I have no idea how I would handle it.
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Same here, but when I was a kid violent images of people getting shot (or posing with weapons) weren’t everywhere. TBH, I’ve never been a fan of Westerns or war movies because they were disturbing up to about the '80s. After that those genres and horror seemed to get caught up in a cycle of having to make new content more gruesome than before, or the audience might be bored.
Now, we see guns and shootings in TV series, videos, and games. Consequences aren’t really emphasized in those. Do 10 year old kids really get that people aren’t regularly magically saved at the hospital like on TV or that there’s no reset button IRL?
The issue of desensitization has been studied for a long time now, but the forces of gun culture (and underestimating the ability of kids to access the forbidden) have been winning that battle for decades. Adults who have been soaking in it are likely to point the finger at the family and parental control. It also makes them less likely to do anything about reversing what got us to this point as a society. At this point, we see more examples of folks who have no empathy (or only extend that to a few) than those who care about the lives of others. So, this news leaves me sad, but not shocked.
ETA:
Couldn’t think of the term earlier, but restorative justice programs might be an option.
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