Two recent news events really disgusted me.
First, in late September there was the unnecessary death of 16-year-old sophomore honor student Derrion Albert from Christian Fenger Academy High School in Chicago, who got caught in the middle of a fight between two groups of teens from different neighborhoods.
Chicago prosecutors charged four teenagers from ages 16 to 19 in the Albert killing.
Then on Oct. 14 came the news about 15-year-old Michael Brewer being set on fire by a group of juvenile delinquents, not only because Brewer reported one of the suspects to police days before for stealing his father’s bicycle, but because Brewer owed one of them a lousy $40 for a stupid video game!
The way President Obama responded to the Albert killing and the response of a lawyer for one of the suspects in the Brewer case infuriated me.
Way to go, Mr. President!
It’s as though such discussions will help curb the city’s spurt of fatal student shootings. Before 2006, according to an Associated Press story Sept. 28, 10 to 15 students were fatally shot each year: The number climbed to 24 fatal shootings during the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year, and 290 last year. What will Chicago’s magic number in student deaths be when the 2009-10 school year ends?
Then on Oct. 16, I read on www.truecrimereport.com of lawyer Steve Melnick pleading for the release of 13-year-old Jeremy Jarvis, one of the suspects who took part in the Brewer attack, explaining how his client was traumatized and needs to be at home with his parents.
"He is a 13-year-old child," Melnick said. "I don't know of his involvement in this case, but from reading just the police reports, it appears that his involvement was on the periphery and wasn't directly involved in this horrible attack on Michael Brewer. And if so, he needs to maybe be home with his parents and begin counseling and therapy because he witnessed a horrible attack."
Melnick, your client, the no-good piece of s--- he is should have thought about that before he took part in this heinous act! To quote a priest I had who taught Social Issues class in high school, “You do the crime, you do the time.”
Jarvis is one of five suspects arrested in the Brewer incident and according to Broward County Police Sgt. Steve Feeley in a CNN article said only one of them “seems genuinely sorry about it.”
That person, however, is not Jarvis according to the truecrime.com article but Jesus Mendez, the kid who actually lit Brewer on fire.
The others, Feeley, said upon their arrest laughed about the incident.
"In my 31 years -- I always say, 'it's the most heinous crime I've ever seen,' " said Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti to reporters earlier that week. "This one fits in that category. The fact that a person would intentionally ignite another child on fire -- it's indescribable."
I get sickened whenever I hear of defenseless dogs being abused and set on fire by kids with nothing better to do. Then I hear about a kid being set ablaze and I can’t think of any words to say how disgusted I am. My ideas of vengeance are things only Satan himself could produce for an eternity in Hell and are too gruesome to publish here.
I have always believed when people commit such atrocities, and I don’t care how old they are, even if they are aged 5 and they knew fully well what they were doing when they committed the act, they need to be locked up for 25 years or more.
Now, however, I am beginning to believe the responsibility should not just be on the youths who committed the acts, but on their parents as well.
It breaks my heart at how far and how low society has stooped to when it comes to today’s youths having targets of unnecessary violence. When I attended grade and high school, my worry was either being bullied or coming home with D’s and F’s. I knew I’d be yelled at by my parents, who’d make me do the assignment over.
Today, kids living in violent suburbs are more afraid of not coming home from school at all. I look at my two young nephews and I can’t help but worry about whether they might be the next Derrion Albert, Michael Brewer, or the target of some psychotic classmate out to unleash their pent-up rage on the entire student body with gunfire. Now it’s not just coming home safe from grade school and high school parents have to worry about, but college as well.
"Someone said he (Derrion Albert) was in the wrong place at the wrong time," said student Annette Holt of Chicago. "No, he wasn't. He was in the right place. He was coming from school."
The one and only solution, to keep such incidents from happening, must start in the homes with parents.
"It is our problem. We have to take control of our children," said Dawn Allen, who attended a vigil for Albert last month in Chicago.
"Our country, our world, needs to wake up and see what is going on with our children," said Michael Brewer’s mother, Valerie. "They need to do something. This has got to stop. It's not just my son. It's everybody's children. This could happen to somebody else, and God forbid -- I don't wish this agony and torture on anybody. We have got to do something to make this violence stop today."
When are parents going to stop being preoccupied with their own lives and start paying more attention to what their kids are doing?
©10/21/09
First, in late September there was the unnecessary death of 16-year-old sophomore honor student Derrion Albert from Christian Fenger Academy High School in Chicago, who got caught in the middle of a fight between two groups of teens from different neighborhoods.
Chicago prosecutors charged four teenagers from ages 16 to 19 in the Albert killing.
Then on Oct. 14 came the news about 15-year-old Michael Brewer being set on fire by a group of juvenile delinquents, not only because Brewer reported one of the suspects to police days before for stealing his father’s bicycle, but because Brewer owed one of them a lousy $40 for a stupid video game!
The way President Obama responded to the Albert killing and the response of a lawyer for one of the suspects in the Brewer case infuriated me.
Given that Chicago is Obama’s hometown, I would think he would have addressed the Albert case head-on and speak to members of the drive-by liberal Obama controlled state run media during a press conference that day or that week.To manage the Albert case, the president sent Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to the windy city the week after to meet with school officials, students, and residents to discuss school violence.
But, Obama had more important issues that week. That didn’t include the health care debate, the rising numbers in unemployment, the war in Afghanistan, or the “Derrion Albert” incident. Instead, he made an emergency trip to Denmark, in hopes of landing Chicago the 2016 Olympics.
Way to go, Mr. President!
It’s as though such discussions will help curb the city’s spurt of fatal student shootings. Before 2006, according to an Associated Press story Sept. 28, 10 to 15 students were fatally shot each year: The number climbed to 24 fatal shootings during the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year, and 290 last year. What will Chicago’s magic number in student deaths be when the 2009-10 school year ends?
Then on Oct. 16, I read on www.truecrimereport.com of lawyer Steve Melnick pleading for the release of 13-year-old Jeremy Jarvis, one of the suspects who took part in the Brewer attack, explaining how his client was traumatized and needs to be at home with his parents.
"He is a 13-year-old child," Melnick said. "I don't know of his involvement in this case, but from reading just the police reports, it appears that his involvement was on the periphery and wasn't directly involved in this horrible attack on Michael Brewer. And if so, he needs to maybe be home with his parents and begin counseling and therapy because he witnessed a horrible attack."
Melnick, your client, the no-good piece of s--- he is should have thought about that before he took part in this heinous act! To quote a priest I had who taught Social Issues class in high school, “You do the crime, you do the time.”
Jarvis is one of five suspects arrested in the Brewer incident and according to Broward County Police Sgt. Steve Feeley in a CNN article said only one of them “seems genuinely sorry about it.”
That person, however, is not Jarvis according to the truecrime.com article but Jesus Mendez, the kid who actually lit Brewer on fire.
The others, Feeley, said upon their arrest laughed about the incident.
"In my 31 years -- I always say, 'it's the most heinous crime I've ever seen,' " said Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti to reporters earlier that week. "This one fits in that category. The fact that a person would intentionally ignite another child on fire -- it's indescribable."
I get sickened whenever I hear of defenseless dogs being abused and set on fire by kids with nothing better to do. Then I hear about a kid being set ablaze and I can’t think of any words to say how disgusted I am. My ideas of vengeance are things only Satan himself could produce for an eternity in Hell and are too gruesome to publish here.
I have always believed when people commit such atrocities, and I don’t care how old they are, even if they are aged 5 and they knew fully well what they were doing when they committed the act, they need to be locked up for 25 years or more.
Now, however, I am beginning to believe the responsibility should not just be on the youths who committed the acts, but on their parents as well.
It breaks my heart at how far and how low society has stooped to when it comes to today’s youths having targets of unnecessary violence. When I attended grade and high school, my worry was either being bullied or coming home with D’s and F’s. I knew I’d be yelled at by my parents, who’d make me do the assignment over.
Today, kids living in violent suburbs are more afraid of not coming home from school at all. I look at my two young nephews and I can’t help but worry about whether they might be the next Derrion Albert, Michael Brewer, or the target of some psychotic classmate out to unleash their pent-up rage on the entire student body with gunfire. Now it’s not just coming home safe from grade school and high school parents have to worry about, but college as well.
"Someone said he (Derrion Albert) was in the wrong place at the wrong time," said student Annette Holt of Chicago. "No, he wasn't. He was in the right place. He was coming from school."
The one and only solution, to keep such incidents from happening, must start in the homes with parents.
"It is our problem. We have to take control of our children," said Dawn Allen, who attended a vigil for Albert last month in Chicago.
"Our country, our world, needs to wake up and see what is going on with our children," said Michael Brewer’s mother, Valerie. "They need to do something. This has got to stop. It's not just my son. It's everybody's children. This could happen to somebody else, and God forbid -- I don't wish this agony and torture on anybody. We have got to do something to make this violence stop today."
When are parents going to stop being preoccupied with their own lives and start paying more attention to what their kids are doing?
©10/21/09
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