Full Version: Boy 12
Last night a boy 12 years old on the Northside of Chicago stole his 9th vehicle in the last 3 yrs. and was his 14th arrest. That means this boy stole his first car when he was 9.
He was trying to flee police and was driving 80 to 90 mph. He hit another car before hittting a house. Then he tried to flee the scene.
He in in the hospital tonight along with the 2 people whose car he hit. Luckily no one was killed.
He is cited with a delinquency petition with aggravated fleeing from police resulting in bodily injury and possession of a stolen vechile, both felonies. He was also issued a traffice citation for allegedly disobeying a stop sign.
I have a real problem here. Where are his parents? What do you do to this kid? Lock him up? Go to a reform school? He is only 12, but something is really wrong here when this is the 9th time he was out and about and able to steal another car.
What do you think should be done so this kid does not steal another car and kill either himself or someone else?
He was trying to flee police and was driving 80 to 90 mph. He hit another car before hittting a house. Then he tried to flee the scene.
He in in the hospital tonight along with the 2 people whose car he hit. Luckily no one was killed.
He is cited with a delinquency petition with aggravated fleeing from police resulting in bodily injury and possession of a stolen vechile, both felonies. He was also issued a traffice citation for allegedly disobeying a stop sign.
I have a real problem here. Where are his parents? What do you do to this kid? Lock him up? Go to a reform school? He is only 12, but something is really wrong here when this is the 9th time he was out and about and able to steal another car.
What do you think should be done so this kid does not steal another car and kill either himself or someone else?
Where are his parents? What do you do to this kid? Lock him up? Go to a reform school? He is only 12, but something is really wrong here when this is the 9th time he was out and about and able to steal another car.
What do you think should be done so this kid does not steal another car and kill either himself or someone else?
Wherever his parents are, they need to be brought into family court immediately. The city should press charges against the parents for negligence (or something to that effect-- I have no knowledge of Illinois law). I don't think that locking the kid up is the right approach; I think that he should be put into some form of reform program immediately with heavy psychological supervision. The parents should also be made to take responsibility for their kid. If the psychologist doesn't feel that he should be allowed back into society at large after the reform program, he should be put into a juvenile detention center until he turns eighteen-- then he should be reexamined.
What do you think should be done so this kid does not steal another car and kill either himself or someone else?
Wherever his parents are, they need to be brought into family court immediately. The city should press charges against the parents for negligence (or something to that effect-- I have no knowledge of Illinois law). I don't think that locking the kid up is the right approach; I think that he should be put into some form of reform program immediately with heavy psychological supervision. The parents should also be made to take responsibility for their kid. If the psychologist doesn't feel that he should be allowed back into society at large after the reform program, he should be put into a juvenile detention center until he turns eighteen-- then he should be reexamined.
In a follow up to the 12 yr.old who has stolen 9 cars in 3 yrs was arrested a week ago for driving without a license.
Despite his record for stolen cars dating back to when he was 9 his family, the juvenile justice system and child welfare haven't stopped him from driving.
2 other times a joy ride resulted in crashes with other cars.
Police state there is little they can do except arrest the boy whenever they caught him doing something illegal.
Police state that it is up to the juvenile justice system.
The Illinois Secretary of State office said he can't get a license till he is 18 instead of 16 because of his arrest in August of 2002.
Neighbors are outraged. I know I would be. Everytime they hear a car alarm go off they run out of the house to see if it is their car.
His mother went to the scene of the accident Friday night and was quoted telling the man whose house he hit "He didn't mean to do it". Like that would make me feel better about a kid hitting my house.
The guy whose house he hit said "I don't think that kid should be on the street."
Whose responsibilty is this. Parents? Police? Juvenile Justice System? Child Welfare? I think all of the above. How do you let a 12 yr who started this at 9 not be contained. Shame on our system and shame on his family.
Despite his record for stolen cars dating back to when he was 9 his family, the juvenile justice system and child welfare haven't stopped him from driving.
2 other times a joy ride resulted in crashes with other cars.
Police state there is little they can do except arrest the boy whenever they caught him doing something illegal.
Police state that it is up to the juvenile justice system.
The Illinois Secretary of State office said he can't get a license till he is 18 instead of 16 because of his arrest in August of 2002.
Neighbors are outraged. I know I would be. Everytime they hear a car alarm go off they run out of the house to see if it is their car.
His mother went to the scene of the accident Friday night and was quoted telling the man whose house he hit "He didn't mean to do it". Like that would make me feel better about a kid hitting my house.
The guy whose house he hit said "I don't think that kid should be on the street."
Whose responsibilty is this. Parents? Police? Juvenile Justice System? Child Welfare? I think all of the above. How do you let a 12 yr who started this at 9 not be contained. Shame on our system and shame on his family.
I can probably guess how these things happen:
The parents probably are working 2 jobs each to support their family, or he is from a broken home with a single parent working 2 jobs, or his parent(s) have some sort of anti-social problem themselves (criminal past, drugs, ect.). Either way he probably has no supervision, nor are the parent(s) educated enough to be able to seek out the assistance needed to properly deal with this ever increasingly anti-social behavior.
No child care or after school programs or organizations are known about, available, or are affordable to enter the child into in order to get him the proper role-models and discipline he needs that he is not receiving at home.
He probably has very poor grades at school, and receives no guidance from his underpaid, underqualified, and overworked teachers and councilors who cannot keep up with the ever increasing class sizes and discipline problems from disturbed children.
His family slowly becomes other children like himself. These children gravitate to each other and when in groups do things they know are wrong, but still do them do to because they are either pressured by the peer group, don't think of the consequences, or believe that since no authority figure is in their lives that rules and laws don't apply to them.
I bet I am very close!
The parents probably are working 2 jobs each to support their family, or he is from a broken home with a single parent working 2 jobs, or his parent(s) have some sort of anti-social problem themselves (criminal past, drugs, ect.). Either way he probably has no supervision, nor are the parent(s) educated enough to be able to seek out the assistance needed to properly deal with this ever increasingly anti-social behavior.
No child care or after school programs or organizations are known about, available, or are affordable to enter the child into in order to get him the proper role-models and discipline he needs that he is not receiving at home.
He probably has very poor grades at school, and receives no guidance from his underpaid, underqualified, and overworked teachers and councilors who cannot keep up with the ever increasing class sizes and discipline problems from disturbed children.
His family slowly becomes other children like himself. These children gravitate to each other and when in groups do things they know are wrong, but still do them do to because they are either pressured by the peer group, don't think of the consequences, or believe that since no authority figure is in their lives that rules and laws don't apply to them.
I bet I am very close!
There is a serious problem with the fact that a child of 12 is stealing cars, and is not being disciplined. If it was my child, for one thing, the first car wouldn't have been stolen, but in the hypothetical situation that he/she stole a car, then I would make definite sure that it would never happen again.
Different factors have to be taken into account when dealing with a 12 year old boy. In today's society, children of a younger and younger age are being bombarded with images and messages that really DO have a subconscious effect on the way the behave. For example, TV. One of the movies that I have recently watched was the third Austin Powers film, "Goldmember". I watched this at a party. At this party were children of all ages. By the middle of the film, most of the children were watching the movie as well. After the movie was over, all you heard from the majority of the children were the cruder lines in the movie. It made me a little queasy when I had to listen to one very (usually) precocious 7 year old girl run around yelling, "She shat on a turtle!". Is this the type of information we want to give to the desicion makers of tomorrow?
So there is TV. One of the major influencers on the future generations. But that "great evil" pales next to the number one killer of innocence and childhood. The family. The parents of the 12 year old boy who stole the cars should be checked out. The kind of neglect that lead to the child's obvious interest in crime as a means of attention is absoulutely horrible. I think that the background of the parents should be investigated to see why they allowed this thing to happen.
I don't think that, however, anything should be done to the boy without the express permission of the parents. Definitely, resources such as reform schools, counselling, and shock treatments (sorry---bad joke
) should be provided for the parents to look at. I think that after they have been presented with all the materials the parents should be offered funding to help them pay for the more expensive modes of treatment, and then we wait to see what they want. After all, it is their choice. If they want to allow the boy to continue to break into cars, and to endanger his life, and the lives of others, then that is their choice. They will have to deal with the consequences, but that is the beauty of living in a free country. They can choose to shoulder that responsibility. And if they should choose not to provide help for their son, then all we can do is wait for the next time around when the boy is no longer a minor and is put in jail. Then we can tell him that it is his choice, not his parents, and see if he chooses to get help then.
Different factors have to be taken into account when dealing with a 12 year old boy. In today's society, children of a younger and younger age are being bombarded with images and messages that really DO have a subconscious effect on the way the behave. For example, TV. One of the movies that I have recently watched was the third Austin Powers film, "Goldmember". I watched this at a party. At this party were children of all ages. By the middle of the film, most of the children were watching the movie as well. After the movie was over, all you heard from the majority of the children were the cruder lines in the movie. It made me a little queasy when I had to listen to one very (usually) precocious 7 year old girl run around yelling, "She shat on a turtle!". Is this the type of information we want to give to the desicion makers of tomorrow?
So there is TV. One of the major influencers on the future generations. But that "great evil" pales next to the number one killer of innocence and childhood. The family. The parents of the 12 year old boy who stole the cars should be checked out. The kind of neglect that lead to the child's obvious interest in crime as a means of attention is absoulutely horrible. I think that the background of the parents should be investigated to see why they allowed this thing to happen.
I don't think that, however, anything should be done to the boy without the express permission of the parents. Definitely, resources such as reform schools, counselling, and shock treatments (sorry---bad joke
) should be provided for the parents to look at. I think that after they have been presented with all the materials the parents should be offered funding to help them pay for the more expensive modes of treatment, and then we wait to see what they want. After all, it is their choice. If they want to allow the boy to continue to break into cars, and to endanger his life, and the lives of others, then that is their choice. They will have to deal with the consequences, but that is the beauty of living in a free country. They can choose to shoulder that responsibility. And if they should choose not to provide help for their son, then all we can do is wait for the next time around when the boy is no longer a minor and is put in jail. Then we can tell him that it is his choice, not his parents, and see if he chooses to get help then.
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