Now we arrest little kids....

[Kulindahr]

Yeah -- nine years old, arrested.

The system isn't broken, it's just the "rule of law", where people don't matter, circumstances don't matter, common sense doesn't matter, because the law is now God and all must fall before it:

[h=1]9-Year-Old Arrested After He Allegedly Steals a Pack of Gum[/h]

Yeah. He's accused of taking a pack of gum, so the cops got involved.

Next we'll be arresting babies for throwing up on public property.

Read about it here.

 

[evanrick]

Start holding the parents accountable.

 

[chrisrobin]

Shit-for-brains authorities are preoccupied with zero tolerance. Zero tolerance for thought. Zero tolerance for reason. Zero tolerance for tolerance.

 

[levenshulme31]

Another cash cow for the corrupt prison industrial complex.

 

[Vitamin]

Silly Kuli, haven't you figured out yet that cops, not the elected representatives of the people, get to make the law? Quit being SO 1776 already.

 

[Kulindahr]

Shit-for-brains authorities are preoccupied with zero tolerance. Zero tolerance for thought. Zero tolerance for reason. Zero tolerance for tolerance.

Yeah. Instead of worrying about who will guard the guardians, we should be asking who will give them brains.

 

[hotatlboi]

I came in here thinking this was going to be one of those absurd stories about a kid getting arrested for bringing a toy gun to school or something silly like that.

Stealing is a crime, people who commit that crime should be arrested. He also missed his court date, but the parents really should have been arrested for that.

Either way, the earlier kids learn that crime doesn't pay and will fuck up their lives, the less likely their future will be marked by return trips into the system.

Now I don't believe he should have been held in confinement, that is the real problem with our system. We throw way to many people in jail for petty offenses.

 

[hotatlboi]

Shit-for-brains authorities are preoccupied with zero tolerance. Zero tolerance for thought. Zero tolerance for reason. Zero tolerance for tolerance.

Agree the zero tolerance stuff leads to a lot of absurd stories, however I don't believe stealing should be given much tolerance.

 

[Kulindahr]

Agree the zero tolerance stuff leads to a lot of absurd stories, however I don't believe stealing should be given much tolerance.

Nor should cuffing a little kid. Any cop who would put cuffs on a little kid belongs in a mental institution for a long, long time. And any prosecutor who doesn't slam a cop down for doing it belongs there even longer.

 

[peeonme]

It does not surprise me, I lost faith in the system years ago. This tells me I was not wrong.

 

[Willie Boy]

Actually the kid was arrested for a failure to appear in court, twice. Supposedly the parents "didn't have a way to get him to court". If its that serious you ask friends/neighbors for a lift or get up extra early and catch the bus or something. Or, if your in enough of a financial hardship that you can't even cough up enough money for bus fare you call the court and ask for help. You don't just blow it off or a bench warrant WILL be issued. The courts don't take to kindly to being blown off without reason.

But good job everybody on skipping the important facts in the matter for sensational headlines and a shocking thread title.

 

[sixthson]

But good job everybody on skipping the important facts in the matter for sensational headlines and a shocking thread title.

Agreed.

It's a skimpy story with no details. Did the merchant overreact? Were the cops trying to scare him straight? The story refers only to
"relatives" and not parents. How did it ever get this far? This incident is a total failure by authorities and family and so is this article.

 

[Kulindahr]

The important point is that you don't call the cops on a little kid over a pack of gum -- you call his parents. You work it out.

Only really hateful people would call the cops on a little kid.

 

[Willie Boy]

The important point is that you don't call the cops on a little kid over a pack of gum -- you call his parents. You work it out.

Only really hateful people would call the cops on a little kid.

From reading the story my guess is that was tried FIRST, but the parents then, as now, chose to blow off any attempt to deal with it so it was dealt with through the legal system. And guess what, the parents are still blowing it off. What's the kid being taught by his parents? That the laws don't apply to him and he can steal whatever he wants.

But yeah, the store owner is the hateful person for taking a stand to protect his livelihood. If the owner had just pulled out a weapon and shot the kid dead you'd be saying he was well within his rights to protect his business. But because he instead tried to get the legal system to work, he is a hateful person for trying to stop a kid from stealing????

Guess one doesn't need a brain when he carries a gun with him everywhere. Just let the gun do his thinking for him.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

This is quite sick. I thought parents were responsible for the actions of minors. And of their pets, for that matter. So are we going to arrest dogs who destroy a neighbour's furniture too? Or will we show more empathy, leniency and tolerance to pets than to kids?

Many places in the world seem to become very anti-children. In England I once saw a sign in a park saying "no children, no ball games, no group games". What the heck? In Belgium, that is what a park or a pedestrianized street is for!

 

[eastofeden]

The sad thing is that he is probably already screwed for role models with his poor excuse for parents. At this point..the kindest thing might be to insist he answer for it so he can understand rules and consequences since his parents aren't going to teach him anything.

 

[sixthson]

When parents fail to do their jobs, society has to, unfortunately. If he had good parents, they would have returned the boy to the store where he would have to face the shame of confessing and making it right. Often this is all it takes to deter further problems.
It's a lot to expect a child to rise above the level of his bad parenting. Thankfully, it happens more often than we realize. We only hear about kids gone bad, not kids who made good.

 

[Keeland]

Actually the kid was arrested for a failure to appear in court, twice.:

He should have known to go to court by himself.

When are kids going to learn responsibility in this day and age?

The fucking jerk probably was probably getting fat, sitting in a classroom learning to read.

 

[Willie Boy]

This is quite sick. I thought parents were responsible for the actions of minors. And of their pets, for that matter. So are we going to arrest dogs who destroy a neighbour's furniture too? Or will we show more empathy, leniency and tolerance to pets than to kids?

Many places in the world seem to become very anti-children. In England I once saw a sign in a park saying "no children, no ball games, no group games". What the heck? In Belgium, that is what a park or a pedestrianized street is for!

The parents are responsible. If it weren't for them being such idiots they would have made sure he made his FIRST court appearance after dropping the ball on teaching him right from wrong.

When parents fail to do their jobs, society has to, unfortunately. If he had good parents, they would have returned the boy to the store where he would have to face the shame of confessing and making it right. Often this is all it takes to deter further problems.
It's a lot to expect a child to rise above the level of his bad parenting. Thankfully, it happens more often than we realize. We only hear about kids gone bad, not kids who made good.

This. If the parents had stepped up in the beginning the store owner wouldn't have had to seek justice through the courts. But, having failed at that the parents could have stepped up and gotten him to his court hearing to deal with it. They failed again, twice more with two different court appearances! The court had no option but to take the next step. This kid is getting royally screwed over by his parents, simply because they don't want to deal with the situation. Likely they're having the same reaction many of you had, "What's the big fuckin' deal, its only a pack of gum." So they can't be bothered.

He should have known to go to court by himself.

When are kids going to learn responsibility in this day and age?

The fucking jerk probably was probably getting fat, sitting in a classroom learning to read.

Great job on skipping the important part of that post, much like most of the posters (OP included) skipped the important part of the story from the beginning.

 

[Keeland]

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