So what is this world coming to again?...

[Lisa]

This news story has me absolutely shaking my head. I am beyond being able to put my emotions aside and fully understand and it makes me so angry that a thing like this is happening. I find it disheartening and scary.

Boy left to Burn



A childish prank could have killed a North End boy on Saturday.
Brian McKay, 14, was at a play structure in the Gilbert Park housing complex around 4:30 p.m. when a group of younger kids pushed him into a wooden shed, sealed the door with a metal bar and set the shed on fire before running away.
A nine-year-old girl heard McKay's calls for help but couldn't get the door open. One of her friends was able to pry it open and a man who rushed outside after hearing the commotion carried McKay out to safety.

One of the things that really is driving me crazy is this part of the story:

Winnipeg police say at least five children -- three girls and two boys between the ages of eight and 11 -- were responsible for the incident but none are old enough to face charges under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

How and where do children of that age learn to do such horrible things to another human being? It is appalling and sad.

FULL STORY

 

[CoryKS]

How and where do children of that age learn to do such horrible things to another human being? It is appalling and sad.

People, kids and adults, don't learn to do horrible things to other human beings. It's inherent. Civilization is the process of learning not to do horrible things to others. These kids have not learned this.

 

[Lisa]

People, kids and adults, don't learn to do horrible things to other human beings. It's inherent. Civilization is the process of learning not to do horrible things to others. These kids have not learned this.

So what you are saying is that there is not a strong enough influence of "good" in their lives to give them the ability to know right from wrong?

 

[terryl965]

I believe alot comes from movies and TV, almost all you see is violence in every aspect of the movies they glorified violence and so does TV, we as a society need to be up with every aspect of our childern lives. That is one reason my kids only get 3 hours a wekk and that includes wekkend and must sit down with us to watch it.

 

[terryl965]

So what you are saying is that there is not a strong enough influence of "good" in their lives to give them the ability to know right from wrong?

In most childern lifes I would agree with that

 

[Grenadier]

It could be any number of factors. We could blame the parents for raising these kids with a poor sense of moral values. We could blame their peers for being unwholesome influences on them.

However, when it comes down to it, these thugs made a conscious choice to lock a kid into that shed, and set it on fire. They made the choice to bully the nerdish-looking kid (who they nicknamed "Harry Potter" because of his glasses) who had a spinal problem, and they knew darn well what fire can do to someone. They are all old enough to understand the consequences of their actions. Had any of them truly felt remorse, they would have helped set the kid free.

Due to Canada's laws, these thugs are too young to face proper justice.

Chaput said the children may be referred to the Turnabout program for children under 12 who come into contact with the law.

Terrible, isn't it? Those thugs should be facing charges for attempted murder. Instead, they'll face a slap on the wrist.

Don't be surprised if these thugs are probably going to show up in the news, several years from now, for murder, rape, arson, etc.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

That is just a horrible, horrible story. So sad!

 

[CoryKS]

So what you are saying is that there is not a strong enough influence of "good" in their lives to give them the ability to know right from wrong?

Well, I think there's definitely a lack of compassion. And in addition to the absence of desire to do good, there's an absence of incentive to not do bad, as seen by the inability to prosecute them because of their age. What incentive could be used to make these kids do the right thing?

 

[exile]

People, kids and adults, don't learn to do horrible things to other human beings. It's inherent. Civilization is the process of learning not to do horrible things to others. These kids have not learned this.

I think what's inherent is the capacity to do horrible things, along with the capacity to do selfless things. There's a very intense book, called Hitler's Willing Executioners, which documents the enthusiastic collaboration of quite ordinary people in Germany (and elsewhere in Europe) with the Nazi's genocidal program. But there are also stories of whole communities during the same war, like that famous French Huguenot village, that actively resisted and risked the lives of all its people hiding Jews who would otherwise have been sent to certain death. It's tempting to believe that an inclination to destructiveness is wired in and will run unless actively repressed, but I don't buy it, any more than I think that people are programmed to be good---things are a lot more complex than that. Children reflect the moral universe that they're exposed to, and we may live in a time of extreme callousness. The real question in my mind is, where is that coming from?

 

[Drac]

Well, I think there's definitely a lack of compassion. And in addition to the absence of desire to do good, there's an absence of incentive to not do bad, as seen by the inability to prosecute them because of their age

Amen...I hope I live long enough to see our law makers wake up and let us LEO's and Judges prosecute the little darlings to the fullest extent of the law...

 

[Lisa]

Well, I think there's definitely a lack of compassion. And in addition to the absence of desire to do good, there's an absence of incentive to not do bad, as seen by the inability to prosecute them because of their age. What incentive could be used to make these kids do the right thing?

At this point and time I don't know, I honestly don't. How do you turn young children around that are capable of attempted murder and make them "better people?"

 

[Drac]

At this point and time I don't know, I honestly don't. How do you turn young children around that are capable of attempted murder and make them "better people?"

Is that possible??? I don't believe so...

 

[terryl965]

People can change especially childern if you can find them in time and promote positive reinforcement in them from all aspect of life, the main problem is when a child has gone pass that initial phase and is left in the cold by the community and is label that way, they are the ones that cannot be helped for the most part

 

[Lisa]

Is that possible??? I don't believe so...

Well I don't believe hugs and kisses are the answer. A good reprogramming program is what is needed. But, different people react to treatment in different ways, it is all in the way we are wired.

 

[exile]

Is that possible??? I don't believe so...

I do think that there are moral defectives---people who are particularly responsive to the messages filling our world that violence is fun. There are people who resist that, people who can go either way, and people who tune into it from the get-go---and these kids sound like the last kind. A part that should be there is missing and there's no way to replace it, any more than you can give sight to someone blind from birth because the nerves to the retina that should be there never formed.

There are always going to be people like that around. What worries me are the others---the ones who could go the same way if enough information reaches them that this kind of thing is OK, but probably won't otherwise. I get the sense that there's not much information getting to these kids from enough different directions that this sort of thing is just wrong, intolerable.

 

[Drac]

Well I don't believe hugs and kisses are the answer

You have no idea how many people I've met on the job who believe THAT is precisely what is needed...

A good reprogramming program is what is needed. But, different people react to treatment in different ways, it is all in the way we are wired.

With some it would be a wasted effort sorry to say...

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Ya know, this thread is new. I've already looked at it a couple of times now, and just really am unable to put my feelings about this into words yet. This is one of the most disturbing things I've heard in a long time. Kids that young trying to burn to death another child. I haven't been able to wrap my head around it yet. Then again, I've seen things and done things 13 years ago I still haven't been able to get my head around.

Jeff

 

[Ceicei]

Well I don't believe hugs and kisses are the answer. A good reprogramming program is what is needed. But, different people react to treatment in different ways, it is all in the way we are wired.

They are still young enough to learn compassion and empathy. The question is who and how--if their parents are not doing enough of that?

People nowadays are more hesitant to help out with other people's kids in this manner. Now people wait until either the act is so good (ie. heroic) or so bad (ie. heinous) before they get involved... Every day things get very little attention.

I can remember as a child, everyone watched out for everyone. As kids, we get compliments and chastisements from neighbors for whatever little thing we do--we always knew we were being watched. Word gets back to our parents pretty quickly.

- Ceicei

 

[Drac]

I managed to scare a teen we caught one night driving some friends around who had been drinking..One of the occupants of his car jumped out and slugged the occupant of another because he said they "dissed" him...This teen had everything going for him good grades and a scolarship looming on the horizon..The language I used was pure street and I think it made a lasting effect coming from a cop that wasn't trying to be his buddy...

 

[Drac]

I can remember as a child, everyone watched out for everyone. As kids, we get compliments and chastisements from neighbors for whatever little thing we do--we always knew we were being watched. Word gets back to our parents pretty quickly. Ceicei

That's how it was where I grew up too..