Wha...? Wha...?

[ElizabethWest]

Not often am I speechless, but WTF?


Attack On Warren County Child Leaves Him In A Coma

Wednesday, 21 September 2005

The Warren County Sheriff's Department has taken three juveniles into custody after an attack on an eleven-year-old boy that left him in a coma. The three boys are charged with first degree assault. It happened Sunday morning behind Warren East Middle School. Authorities say the boys began bullying the eleven-year-old and forced him to stand in front of an automatic pitching machine. Baseballs were thrown at the boy's head at speeds up to 72 miles per hour. The juveniles then allegedly poured water on the boy and struck him repeatedly in the genitals with a baseball bat and helmet.

Attack On Warren County Child Leaves Him In A Coma


Where do our children learn such brutality? Let me rephrase that. Where do they learn that it is okay to inflict such brutality on another human being?

 

[cloudy]

From their parents, from each other, from society in general.

We're raising a generation that has become desensitized to violence - it's not "real" anymore. It's very sad.

 

[cantdog]

It ain't the first such generation, either.

 

[BlackShanglan]

While bemoaning the violence, I think Cant's point correct. There's nothing like reading some primary historical sources to convince one that evil and violence - even in the very young - is nothing especially new or modern. Krafft-Ebing records some shockingly gruesome crimes in the mid-1800's, including what we would call a serial killer with a penchant for cannabalism and necrophilia. I think much of the difference is down to the fact that the media was much less vocal, forensic science was much less advanced, and child abuse as we know it was not specifically outlawed until the early 1900's. One of the first child abuse prosecutions in the United States in fact went forward under charges of cruelty to an animal. When parents had very broad latitude in "discipline" and "punishment" and when child mortality rates were high anyway - and when medical science couldn't do much to keep a victim from dying - violent death in childhood seems likely to have been at least as common as it is now. Or, as one observer put it, "Did you really think that all of those children ran away to join the gypsies?"

Shanglan

 

[rgraham666]

It ain't the first such generation, either.

I was gonna say, except for the severity of the damage, this sort of thing happened to me at least once a week when I was growing up.

And that was during the '60s, in what was supposedly a nice peaceful suburb.

 

[Bishonen]

Those kids have to have some kind of mental disorder. No normal human being would do that to a child!

 

[Rattlesnake1775]

Very normal people do very violent things for reasons that when viewed afterwards make very little sense. It is incredibly sad that children would do this to one another, but remember those two boys that kidnapped and then killed the even younger boy in England about ten years back? Jonesboro, Arkansas school shooters where two young boys. There are increasing reports of female gang violence, and very violent female-female violence amongst teens and pre-teens.

All these things have always been around, and as somebody pointed out, history is replete with them. It is just that in this day and age we keep better records, we report it faster and much wider, and the tools we have available to inflict harm are much greater, and commonly available (firearms, motor vehicles, very deady chemicals found in most households, heavy duty tools, sports equiptment, etc. ).

Addititonally, with more and more children being pushed into organized sports and other activities earlier and earlier, and their bodies maturing faster and faster, added by supplementation (and in some cases, steroids), we have young children with very capable bodies, but not fully developed minds. That is just how kids are. They are aware of violence at every turn (TV, music, video games, unfortunately in many homes), and accept it as a normal behavior pattern.

So you have strong kids who think violence is normal, can not rationalize because their minds are not there yet, surrounded by the tools to do harm.

By the way, I am not demonizing sports. I am demonizing those coaches and parents that do not use sports as a tool to channel the growth and potential of their kids in a positive direction. I remember playing sports growing up, and my parents were always very supportive, but lots of other things were more important. I had way to many friends whose fathers (and occassionally mothers) would rant and rave on the side lines, get into fights with coaches, and drag their kids of the field by the arm, helmet, whatever, after they make a mistake.

Violence is a learned behavior, or at least that is my take on it.

 

[eric shawn listo]

Lest I bring up Lord of the Flies

And my wife the teacher has observed the girls are worse than the boys.

 

[TheEarl]

Rattlesnake: I disagree. I think violence is inherent. Civilisation is learned behaviour. human beings evolved from predators. I believe it's in our genes and the veneer of sophistication is what mostly stops it coming out. I don't believe people learn to be violent. I believe they don't learn how to be peaceable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4269724.stm

I heard his father speaking on the radio today .

The Earl

 

[Chimney Sweep]

I'm worried about my own son. He's only two but the worries start early for me. He is small for his age, but I was enormous for mine and his mother's family is taller than mine on average, so I expect him to shoot up like a rocket eventually. Still, I worry that he will be bulied, or be the bully himself, and be involved in something like this.

I can rememebr being in a few fights as a kid, both winning and losing. It seemed like there was a point at which you stopped beating the kid, then he wasn't fighting back - when he goes into full defense. At the point where you've got him beat, you stop. You won, right? And if I'm on the receiving end and I want it to stop, I stop fighting him and just defend myself. They would give up when it was clear they won. The loser goes crying home to mom with a bloddy nose and a fat lip and the winner says nasty things to the loser as he limps away - until his mother gets the phonecall, anyway. But there was a stopping point, you know? A code of conduct or rules of war, if you will. I guess some people don't get that message.

As an aside - the guy who used to beat me up most often was a dumb bastard. He'd do a little damage to me, I'd go home, my parents would call his parents, and his father would BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM. I mean full on criminal child abuse - that kid would look like he slipped under a tractor after his dad got done with him. Then a month or two later he'd be whoopin on me again.....dumb fucker.