Is this kid "Bad" or a product of the system?

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/08/washington.barefoot.burglar/index.html


After reading this story, his crime spree started when he was 12. 12! Did our system completely fail this kid? Or is he just plain old nuts? A little of both?

 

I am offended by the implication that all systems are to be blamed here, rather than just one part of the overall system.

...oops...

Anyway, these days, and depending on the circumstances, 12 isn't all that young to start a life of crime. Depending on the laws in placing for holding youths committed of crimes, without proper parenting there might not be much in the way of deterrents to make kids think twice about criminal activity. And that is a failure of "the system".

 

He's had no discipline or order in his life, obviously. What that kid needs is a good hiding.

Reading the article through though, he does sound like a bit of legend.

 

I blame the Democrats....

Actually, the kid is a product of poor-parenting, and at this point, what he needs is to be thrown in a prison and left there to rot.

 

There is no mention of the kid's parents....

[Edit: Kit beat me to the parenting angle.]

 

As I said before, there is a good chance that the parents are dirtbags who totally dropped the ball. The apple doesn't often fall far from the tree.

But I have seen good parents with really good kids end up with one kid who is just a child of Satan himself. At this stage of the game, IMHO, people need to stop giving this kid the excuse that it's his parents' fault and hold him accountable for his own choices. He's had plenty of intervention in his life, and he's chosen to ignore it. The rights of people to peacefully enjoy their property are not superceded by his perceived right to be a douchebag. Jail for life with a roommate named Big Eddie.

 

It's so typical for people who don't know anything about anything to volunteer their stupid opinion: "I personally blame the mother."
Unless you've been a mother yourself, perhaps it's best to be sparing in your prejudiced, uninformed judgements.
This kid seems to have done this stuff all by himself. The reason why his parents aren't mentioned here, is because he's been roughing it at least since he was 15. This guy strikes me as one that doesn't listen to anyone either, and just has to learn everything for himself. It was fun to read the article of his escapades; I was thinking: "What's he gonna do next?"
Quite the adventurer, this kid. Though it's not so amusing if he's stolen one of *your* Mercedes status symbols... I really feel for the victims.

 

I agree with the first part -- while probablilities are probabilities, some restraint as explained by coin is called for until more data is in.

But I'm going to ask for a point of clarification on that last part -- do you really feel for the victims or were you going for sarcastic? I can't comment one way or the other until I get that clear in my head.

 

I agree about the fascination of his next exploits. This is stuff you don't read about everyday. Yes, he's an idiot for wrecking other's property, stealing, etc... but since, for me, it's so far away, it's an interesting read.

 

I see two major possibilities here. One, the parents did a terrible job, and are to blame for at least part of it. Obviously, the kid himself is to blame for a lot as well, especially after he left. Two is that the kid is a sociopath (i.e. has antisocial personality disorder). This one is a little unlikely, seeing as there's no mention at all of violent crimes (which usually go with APD, but not always), but is a possibility. We don't know what causes APD, and the parents likely aren't to blame if this kid does have it. In that case it'd just be a 'bad kid', but by nature.

As for the part where the mother says he couldn't have taught himself to fly... Yeah, she doesn't know what she's talking about. I spent about 30 minutes in the cockpit of a small plane a few years ago and I could fly it no problem after about a 1 minute demonstration. Takeoff is a little tricky, but not that hard. Landing is a different issue, but so far I haven't heard anything about him landing one (one mention that he crashed one when it ran out of gas). Navigation, maintenance, and the laws are really the hardest part. I have no idea if he does any real navigating or not, and I doubt he cares at all for aviation law.

 

Well, anytime someone goes loony the parents needs to shoulder a large part of the blame one way or the other even if it is only due to having bad genes. As always this does not remove personal responsibility but yeah, if your kid is a scumbag you should feel an intense feeling of personal failure.

 

Yes LKD, I was being sarcastic. A joyride in someone's weekend Mercedes and a sleepover in their abandoned holiday home doesn't strike me as very offensive. If he stole someone's life savings, it would be worse. But the rich simply need to guard/supervise their wealthy excesses more, *if* they even care atall about what happened. Maybe we should blame the rich owners, for leaving their tempting toys unattended.

This kid is obviously uncontrollable. They couldn't even keep him in juvenile detention. What's the point of turning to the parents? You don't know what motivates this kid. whether it's environmental, genetic, or neither. He's 18 now, and fully responsible for his actions.

Should we spank George Bush's parents for their son's severe mismanagement of the government? I think a stronger case could be made for this, than blaming parents for actions of a child that they probably haven't seen for 3 or more years...

 

Well, in that case, my response is shock. Not all rich people are <airheads>*, and despite the fact they are rich that doesn't mean that their property rights shouldn't be respected. The underlying logic seems to be "they deserve it because they're rich, so it's no big deal." I cannot tell you how strongly I disagree with that sort of thinking.

It is not a crime to be rich. I don't care if he stole and crashed a 1979 Ford or a 2009 Mercedes -- in both places the little bastard demonstrated a criminal lack of respect for the private property of others, and he should be punished accordingly.

Now, as for spanking George Bush Senior, well, I think you could make that into a PPV event and you'd make TONS of money. I'd pay to see it!

*Airhead is the term used in Lethal Weapon when it airs on network television. It replaces the real word that starts with "A" that I wanted to use.

 

LKD, I don't approve of this kid's crimes. He should be punished for them, regardless of the financial situation of the victim. Absolutely; no disagreement there.
What I'm thinking, is that these rich holiday home & recreational car owners have plenty of legal recourse to push their court case. If this kid is ever caught, he'll be guaranteed to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. His escapades make for an amusing read-through, but ultimately he'll pay for them.

Now, I was merely stating my own personal, 'stupid opinion', that I don't sympathise with the rich <airhead's> plight. Looking at things in perspective, it would be far more offensive if be stole/burgled from less affluent people. Not only would his theft & damages constitute a significant portion of their assets, the victims would have a harder time finding justice. A prison sentence will satisfy a rich person, but a victim who lost all his assets doesn't get reimbursed.

 

Now THAT I can support. I advocate forcing the little creep to give up a kidney, a lung, a piece of his liver, and one of his eyes -- they'd be sold to decent, hardworking people who were victims of some sort of accident, and the $$ would go to the families whose stuff he wrecked.

My wife says I'm warped and twisted. I remind her that I married her, didn't I?

 

*ahem*

You rang?



I was thinking about this little punk today... I wonder what the cops would do if they found him dead (obviously murdered) one day.
Would the cops bother looking for a suspect?
Would his parents sue the cops for not looking in to the murder of their little criminal?

 

They would look, I'm sure. And good parents don't stop loving their kids even if those kids do horrible things. If they use that love as an excuse for getting the kid out of his punishement, then I have a problem with that, but I can't think of anything that one of my daughters could do that would make me stop loving them. I might be disappointed, angry, or saddened, but never a loss of love.

They might not be too surprised at it, and if they have brains they'd acknowledge that it was a logical, predictable outcome of their little Satan-spawn's actions, but they'd still press for an investigation. At least, IMHO they would.

 

While this guy is rather extreme, I'm afraid his train of thought isn't all that uncommon nowadays. Just thinking of the three flesh spawns at home that came bundled with my wife, it's no stretch of imagination to think that anyone of them COULD potentially become just like this without some severe parenting along the way.

Emphasis on individualism and legal rights in the absence of reminders for the behavioural requirements for such system to work at all is going to get us all doomed someday if it gets much worse than this.