11 Year Old Boy, Charged as an Adult.
Is Found Guilty of Murder.
In a trial, that drew nationwide attention, an 11 year old boy, has been found guilty of murder in the second degree, for the shooting death, two years ago, of a 19 year old young man.

What makes this trial so unusual, is the fact that the district attorney, sought after, and got the guilty verdict, charging the child, as an adult. This opens the door for him to have to serve a possible life sentence.

At the time of this writing, the sentence, has not been determined. If it is decided before this newsletter goes to print, I will insert it somewhere else in this paper.

Anyway, from the beginning, there were questions about whether the young man, understood what it was he had done, and what it was, that he was being charged with.

It seems, that the young man, who has had a troubled past, according to friends and other acquaintances, somehow got his hands on a gun, and had told a few of them, that he wanted to 'shoot somebody.'

A neighbor stated, that at one time, the young man, he believes, shot at him, while he was in his backyard, at night, taking out the garbage. He stated, that he heard a small 'pop', and heard something, whiz by his head. When he turned to see what it was, he saw the defendant, and a friend, standing in a yard, close by, and one of them appeared to have a rifle.

A former teacher has said that she could see that he was a troubled young boy, and something needed to be done.

His attorney, painted him as a 'victim.' I guess he was talking about the fact that here he is, black, a youngster, being raised in a single parent home, in a crime ridden community, and who knows what else. The idea here, is to find someone else to blame for his actions. And society, at large, was the culprit.

There is no doubt that he fired the weapon that took the life of the 19 year old, that they say, I believe, didn't know him. The excuse that was given, is that he wasn't aiming at anyone, but rather a tree or something else. They say that the sighting mechanism was faulty, and that was the reason that the bullet struck and killed the 'real victim.'

Now the things I want to address, are, what was he doing with a gun, in the first place? Where were his parents. Why wasn't he taken away from the house, or questioned after the first incident of shooting? Why was nothing done??

First the notion that he is a victim, is one, that all of us, if we sat down and thought about it, could say.

A victim to me, is a person that through no fault of their own, suffers something, that causes them distress, or pain. That also means that there has to be a perpetrator, something or someone that is causing the problem.



If I really stretch my imagination, I can see myself as a victim, of something.

If I really stretch my imagination, out in to the twilight zone, then I could claim to be a victim, as well.

The fact that everyday, I have to get up and go to work, if I want to eat, and have a place to live, and support a family, is something that causes me to think that I am a victim. A victim of living in a world, where irregardless of what I may want to do, I have to do the necessary things first.

As a husband and father, I can consider myself a victim, because I have to share my time, money, house, and whatever I have with somebody, that cause me distress and pain, and I can't get rid of them.

People bother me. My job, bothers me. Having to get up, bothers me. Dealing with the neighbors bothers me. There are a million things that I could name, that bother me, and make me feel like I am a victim.

However, my response to each of them is this. I have a choice to either accept things and deal with them positively, separate myself from them. or do something stupid, to try to change them.

As I mentioned earlier, 'if I thought about it hard enough.' But, the thing is, I don't think about it, why?? Because I am too busy enjoying what God has blessed me with.

My whole point is this. There is nothing that you or I, nor this young man, and his peers have gone through, that is unique. We have all been there, or are there right now. So, the victim issue is, to me, moot.

This young man then, is a victim if anything, of his own wrong judgment.

Now, if we want to look at that, then, we will have to say, that, being a child, the responsibility for instilling the right judgment attitude in to him, lies, not with the government, not with the neighborhood, not with the city, TV or radio, but with the parents.

The parents?? That's right, the


parents. Everything that this young man has become, is the result of parents, that, possibly, themselves, were not suitable to be parents.

You might ask, what do you mean, not suitable??

Parenting, is not a natural act, that you inherit from nature. It is a learned behavior, that takes time and energy to become fruitful.

Too many, in this society, seem to think that children, can raise themselves. Look at what the bible says about it. [PROV. 29:15] The rod, and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself, brings his mother shame.

The one, who is supposed to nurture and care for the child, is the one that God provided with the means to bring them in to this world, the mother. It is the mother's job, to provide the necessary support base for the child, so that they can grow up, knowing that mom, will always be there, even if the dad, isn't. It is mom's job to stay at home and raise the kid. The father, is the one whose job it is, to provide for her, and their child, in order to make the plan of God, for the family, work.

What we have seen in the past few decades, is a rush of women, leaving their homes, putting their children in the care of strangers, and going to work. All of this comes from the failure of fathers to do what is right, by their wives and children. Now, while I don't support shacking up (fornication), even if a man has a child by a woman, and he is not married to her, he should at the very least, go to work, to support her, and his child. That way, she could stay at home with them. Many of these women that are in the work force, are there, because they have no financial support from the man. And, the man should be a constant influence on the child. I don't care what the so-called experts say, it takes two parents, to raise a child properly. That's the way God planned it.

In all the publicity in this case, I have never heard any mention of the father, and very little about the mother. Yet, instead of trying to blame the parents, most of the leaders in the community,


are expending efforts, to prove the justice system is racist, and whatever else, so that it will be seen as the villain, and not this 11 year old.

One prominent black leader, who led a protest outside of the court where the trial was going on, was asked, 'What about the victim??' The man, who is a preacher, turned around and walked away.

Even though he didn't say it, I believe he was thinking, 'that's not the issue, he's already dead. I want to focus on something that will tear down the system, and endear me to the black community.' There is a term for that, it is called, political correctness. He wouldn't dare accuse the parents of doing wrong, and maybe saying that they need to be on trial as well, but I will.


But, people do. That means that the parents are more accountable for raising a child with all these misguided values, and not the government, or the system.

All of these so-called laws we have, to protect children, help to do one thing, and that is undermine the basic family values that are necessary to prevent things like this from happening. Therefore, we have a situation where the parents, on the one hand, are ostracized if they do certain things like disciplining (spanking their children), then when something bad like this happens then the parents aren't going to be accused of being responsible, because they were doing what was right in the eyes of the government. To accuse them of wrongdoing, would mean that something was wrong with the system's way of viewing the raising of children. So what they set about to do, is find some way to affix blame on those in our society, that say we need to get back to the basic values, that God says is right.

In the past year or so, we have seen a rash of shootings, involving kids, as the perpetrators. And each instance, the message was clear, 'our kids are out of control', due in large part, to governmental policies and regulations, that are steering us away from



common sense, to stupidity, and insanity. Which leads to our kids, to
being caught up in the madness.

The 'victim' defense of the attorney representing him, is one that is designed to do one thing, and that is, invite more politicians on the Democratic side of the aisle, to try to pass more laws, to regulate our lives, and correct the failures of their own previously enacted laws.

It is clear, that if we don't take our kids back, from government influence, then we will see more and more of these types of problems occurring.

Now that I think about it, maybe he is a victim. A victim of government over regulating the way parents raise their kids.


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DECEMBER 1999



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