12 year old boy found guilty

[Lilitu]

It's just so difficult to make sense of the issue. You can label insanity, or martyrdom or anything but you don't really know what went on in that household and their heads.

[Counselor]

On the plus side, incarceration gives him access to some (likely) much-needed therapy.

[Pix]

The father killed had impulse control problems and savagely beat the mom & boy a lot. He also made the boy learn how to use guns while twisting his son with violent abuse. The boy said the reason he shot his dad was to stop the constant fear he and his mom lived in, because a boy on TV got away with shooting an abusive dad, and because he believed his dad would eventually come back from the grave and maybe they could patch things up.

What the boy did was terrible, but the way I see it the blame is entirely on the dad who forced the boy to learn to shoot, to see a gun as an acceptable tool to stop bad people (he meant Jews and Mexicans but the boy had come to see the father as the bad man), and twisting him through vicious bullying and physical abuse. The boy needs help (and if he does get any help while locked up we can only hope that it doesn't mess him up even more as it's often ineffectual and even counterproductive). He mainly needs to be taken care of by some especially understanding adults who can look past what he did, though that's not likely to happen unless his 'rents were black sheep of the family (in all likelihood his 'rents come from dysfunctional homes themselves).

[Counselor]

I don't think what he did was necessarily terrible as much as it is sad, especially his notion of his father returning. But the father provided a role model that took death too lightly, and in the end, it paid him back.

My hope is the boy gets his therapy and a reduced sentence.

[Pix]

What I meant by terrible is "terrible tragedy" and one that he's going to have a hard time recovering from, I figure even at its best it's going to haunt him for the rest of his life. I just hope he hasn't been so warped by his dad and having done this that he's forever desensitized to horrific deeds like this.

[SolemnBoy]

It's interesting how everyone is all "sanctity of life ftw!" until something like this happens, where they suddenly lower themselves to "oh well he kind of deserved it". How arrogant for a fellow human to use a non-existent authority to dictate who deserves to live and who deserves to die.

Also, convicting a 12 year old is absolutely insane...

[EternalYouAndI]

To me it's more a case of...the dad bought that on himself according to the stories of beatings and abuse. The dad had this obsession and as with many parents this justifies, in their heads, forcing it on their children. It's bad enough the dad making his son do these patrols and salutes, because clearly it was all about the dad. Some say "kids should know better"... adults should bloody well know better!!

Something I find interesting about some adult and parent behaviour is that when a child does good, the parent claims ownership "oh that's MY son...*I* am so proud". As soon as the child does something wrong or bad, the parent disowns, "You're no son of mine....I didn't bring you up to do that....You should be ashamed of YOUR behaviour".

[jsprplc2006]

Wow... that boy needs counselling, not incarceration.

When the legal system decides that a child needs to undergo 11 years of 'retribution' rather than rehabilitation, something is seriously broken.

[pellaz]

yes its a terrible tragedy; but only a tiny small part of the US population is effected; have we all become desensitized?

I remember a post on gayspeak where a mother defended her child and home with a hand gun. The situation turned out successful. Another post where a 12year old defended his house with a gun with success. I searched and could not find exactly these posts but How opinions can change.

[Raccoon]

It would never have happened if they didn't have the right to buy a gun