Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Over.

[Shawn]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/03/28/child.killed.ap/index.html
A 10-year-old boy was charged with murder Thursday for allegedly luring a 3-year-old boy out of a library, beating him with a baseball bat, sexually assaulting him and dumping him in a ditch.Counting the days until they blame GTA3.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

That kind of thing infuriates me... :mad

[Nathanial K'cansce]

...Our society is going downhill fast.

[Cassidy Williams]

Whenever I read something like that, I'm really impressed with my parents.

[Captain Coruscant]

What a sick world we live in :|

[Darth Viscera]

How could a 10 year old be a gay rapist murderer?! I mean, good lord, I don't even recall being lucid when I was 10. I was walking around thinking of Super Mario Bros. 3 and gummy bear-looking fruit snacks in the shape of B-2 bombers from the gulf war, and wondering why Bush didn't get re-elected when everyone in my state loved him.

Either this kid was a complete mental case or an evil genius, because I just can't imagine a 10 year old possessing the mental faculties to conspire to commit rape and murder, much less come up with a motive.

I just can't imagine that a 10 year old could do that.

[Beldarine]

That sickens and saddens me at the same time. I kinda agree with DV.. When I was 10, my whole world revolved around my barbie dolls, Saturday Morning cartoons, and just simply being a child.

It's sad, but more and more children are turning out this way. I bet his parents were of the same mind with Benjamin Spock (he wrote that instead of disciplining our children, we should make friends with them and try to explain what they did wrong without any punishment. Yeah, sure. A 4 year old understands that.). We're doing this to ourselves, however.

I'll give you an example. I have two cousins, and they both had their daughters at the same time (within two weeks of each other). These daughters are now 12. One is a brat. She's rude to her mom, she's rude to everyone, she's whiny, uncontrollable, doesn't listen to anyone -- in short, not very many people like being around her. The other is polite and well mannered. Whenever she visits my parents, she offers to help clean off the table. She is well spoken, and treats her parents with a decent amount of respect (more than most 12 year olds do). Do you really think it's a coincidence that the well-behaved cousin had parents who believed in punishment? Do you really think it's a coincidence that the ill-behaved brat's mom believed in Dr. Spock's theory of becoming friends with your children and not punishing them for anything? It's not a coincidence.

Look at the parents suing McDonalds because it made their kids fat. That's a primary responsibility of parenthood -- to provide healthy, nutritious meals for your children. Just because you work two jobs is no reason to go to McD's three times a week. They made their kids fat through bad parenting.. but will you ever hear any of them admit it? Of COURSE not.

Maybe if that kid's parents would have been better parents this wouldn't have happened. Unfortunately there are more and more people having children who aren't ready to really be parents. But will you ever hear this kid's parents admit they were anything but model parents? I doubt it. They'll blame it on society. They'll blame it on video games.

They'll blame it on everything but themselves. And that's what's wrong with our world today.

[Sorreessa Tarrineezi]

:( sad that kids these days are so screwed up, if they parents spent more time with em and not use the Spock way, less of this stuff would happen.....

[Sanis Prent]

My parents beat the crap out of my sister, and she turned out to be little miss perfect. I was barely punished, and...LOOK AT ME!

[ReaperFett]

But to hit kids in any way is now considered bad. So how is that the parents fault?


I was hit as a kid. Not in any nasty way. Just as a way of disipline. And it works.

[Sanis Prent]

Yes it does.

[Morgan Evanar]

Its called actual parenting, and while I believe you don't need to hit a kid, you do need to lay down the law. Furthermore, you have to actually be there for your kid.

Most of these kids were probably raised by the TV.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
Its called actual parenting, and while I believe you don't need to hit a kid, you do need to lay down the law. Furthermore, you have to actually be there for your kid.

Most of these kids were probably raised by the TV.

yus. Exactly right.

[Darth Viscera]

Well this is all well and good, but how does neglecting to hit your kids turn them into 10 year old coherent, lucid, gay rapist murderers and give them the sense of self-awareness needed to carry out such an awful crime?

Is it even possible for someone to be pubescent by the age of 10?

[Naj Arilov]

I got the belt many a times in my childhood.....

Of course, Im not an angel by any means, But I havent gone out raping and killing, so it worked in that sense :)

As much as I hate to say it (cause I hated this as a kid), children are given way too much privacy. A ten year old child wouldnt go out and rape and kill someone on a whim. There may not be any concrete evidence that he was conspiring to do this, but there HAVE to be signs of a tendancy somewhere....

[ReaperFett]

I have to agree. Its hardly something that someone would just randomly do

[Morgan Evanar]

Furthermore, you have to actually be there for your kid.Read. Comprehend. Post.

The other option, of course, is that the parent was screwing them up. Of course this is an extreme case here.

[AmazonBabe]

My hope for society dwindles with each story like this I see. :\

[ReaperFett]

AB, I hear stories of thinks like this going YEARS back

[Admiral Lebron]

Hmm... when I was ten I was trying to figure out what the big deal about a white stain was...

[Beldarine]

I was only hit a few times as a kid, and man.. did that work. I knew the one thing I didn't want to do was piss off my dad, and I was a perfect angel until I got into college. Even then when I was partying, I was responsible.

What my parents did wasn't child abuse, it's called discipline. Even if you don't believe in corporal punishment, it's important to discipline your children.

I think I turned out pretty well, all in all. I've even managed to surpress my natural instinct to rid the planet of all stupid people -- I haven't kill ONE person yet.. I'm pretty proud of myself :).

But anyway.. Children aren't taught the difference between right and wrong these days. Many kids think that life IS exactly like a video game (ie: you die, you come back because you have three lives), and their parents aren't around to explain to them that's not the right thing to do. Some of you are right, I don't think that every child is capable of this.. But some are. The parents need to be watchful for any violent tendencies and correct them. Obviously the parents did not do that in this case (heck, the parents might have even unknowingly encouraged the violence.. dad hitting mom in an alcoholic rage perhaps?).

My outlook for society has never been very good, and I've known that since I was a child. I looked around and saw my family.. and then I saw some of my other friend's families.. and I was amazed. Did you know that out of my good friends in college (about 10) only three of us have parents who are still together?

Don't you think that's kinda sad?

[Shawn]

There's a lot more information about it from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/28/nyregion/28ABDU.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5062&en=f47ea78c50e9a09c&ex=1049432400&partner=GOOGLE

Apparently, this was a very troubled child. He'd been expelled from school, threw rocks at other kids, swore and was likely abused by his father.

[Daiquiri Van-Derveld]

One of my girls I never had to discipline much...the other one....I still need to beat her butt....often!! :( (but she has a good, warm heart :))

[Lion El' Jonson]

Good, warm hearts are nice, Daiq. :D

And this article makes me sad...it's really hard for me to imagine a 10-year old kid doing something like this...like you've been saying, I can't imagine how someone as young as 10 could formulate the idea to murder and rape someone.