General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFor those questioning why parents aren't prosecuted when a child kills herself
Or someone else with an unsecured firearm, here's a parent who will be going to prison. Note that based on the story this woman should not have had a firearm to begin with:
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Police arrested the childrens mother identified as 22-year-old Itiyanah Spruill and charged her with endangering the welfare of a child and a weapons violation related to the death, according to NJ.com.
Spruill is being held in jail on a $310,000 bail while she awaits arraignment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/06/26/new-jersey-mother-charged-after-5-year-old-son-fatally-shoots-little-brother/?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_rhp-card-national%3Ahomepage%2Fcard
Journeyman
(15,031 posts)Had the child missed, and fired through a wall, a neighbor or passerby might have been killed instead.
I've no compassion for people who are so reckless with theirs and other people's lives. My heart aches for the children and I hope the the surviving brother finds peace in the loving arms of new, responsible caregivers. But the mother can rot
some guy
(3,448 posts)That's a bit extreme. I'm in Colorado and didn't feel at risk at all.
Response to some guy (Reply #14)
Post removed
some guy
(3,448 posts)I was really busy last week, and missed all the two-minutes hate sessions. Embarrassing, I know, but there it is.
Journeyman
(15,031 posts)and for our society to treat criminal acts with the requisite behavior that will ensure safety and justice for all.
She left a gun where children could get it. And for her reckless, irresponsible behavior, a child will live the rest of his days with a pall over his being. The other child will rot. Let her life be filled with the same burdens.
some guy
(3,448 posts)I want society to care about people long before the punishment phase kicks in.
To quote Joni Mitchell, "Is justice just ice?"
How much did society fail her gefore she ever considered needing a gun?
Journeyman
(15,031 posts)The gun isn't the issue. The irresponsible, criminal behavior she exhibited with it, however, certainly is. And how society treated her is irrelevant to her leaving the gun where a child could get it.
some guy
(3,448 posts)is entirely relevant to how she came to have a gun to leave at all.
Journeyman
(15,031 posts)I'm truly interested in the contortions required to reach that conclusion.
some guy
(3,448 posts)I don't know enough (and neither do you) about this woman's history to adequately judge her to be victim, or to judge her to be monster.
I don't know what her hopes and dreams were at 9, for instance.
I do know the society I live in well enough to see this as an anecdote of possible societal benign neglect. I would prefer society to be more compassionate, and thus advocate for that perspective.
In general, I would rather use instances of awfulness as a means of holding a mirror up to that society and ask if we are doing the best we can.
You seem to be averse to that, and that is your choice. I don't expect I would able to convince you of my perspective. You have to see through your eyes.
I will simply wish you love and compassion in your life.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)A prohibited person.
exboyfil
(17,862 posts)Darker the skin the more likely to be charged.
Same applies to leaving your kid in a hot car. A white woman forgot her kid and was not charged. A black man was charged with murder. Both of these in Mississippi within a month of one another.
Itiyanah Spruill. $310,000 bail.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)If she were white, I'd say the same.
exboyfil
(17,862 posts)I was only pointing out it is more likely to be charged with negligence with your children if you are black given the same set of circumstances.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Now when it happens again, the populous can scream "jail them like the last person." I think it will work that way.
you would say the same, but the law would not. I knew the moment I read this article that the mom would be black. It's black, almost never whites, then mom. Moms are always held responsible, not dad. Racism and Sexism is well and alive.
840high
(17,196 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)uponit7771
(90,335 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,925 posts)that happened just after the Democrats included their sit-in - same M.O.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160625_Sources__Girl__4__believed_to_have_accidentally_shot_self.html
(and 2 other cases were briefly described in this article as well)
Igel
(35,300 posts)He can say that it's difficult to compare the cases, because they're in different states with different laws. Then he insists on comparing them, without dealing with the difficulty.
"That's an awfully high mountain to get over. I'll just pound myself against it and assume I'm on the other side."
That's for starters. The more problematic point is that there were, he said, 23 cases.
He points at 4 or 5 of them. Less than a quarter. Without even a suggestion that they were randomly chosen (although with that small a sample, the error rate would be large. Heck, even with a sample of 23 it's still a problem.) Yet from those 4 or 5 presumably non-randomly chosen examples, he tries to make some significant claim about the statistical distribution by race.
All that's left is confirmation bias and assuming the premise.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)JI7
(89,249 posts)if she was white people would say "losing a child is punishment enough"
Separation
(1,975 posts)To prove you wrong, but I knew you were actually correct.
Check this out
giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)It's a terrible accident if white & negligence when the skin is brown.
LongtimeAZDem
(4,494 posts)that his 4-year-old son found and killed a 6-year-old friend with.
Not claiming there's no disparity, but it does happen.
http://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2015/02/05/anthony-senatore-sentenced-brandon-holt-shooting/22920201/
some guy
(3,448 posts)5 year old boy, so she gave birth at 17. Pregnant possibly as young as 16. But, you have to jump through lots of hoops to get an abortion.
Parent at 17, the story doesn't mention a father. Hard to finish school, support a child in a nation that hates providing benefits for poor people.
Society finally decides to step in when it's time to actively punish, once its own benign neglect becomes deadly.
I wonder when Itiyanah fully realized society hated her.
What sort of society hates its young and would rather punish than educate and nurture?
zenabby
(364 posts)The society that was never there till she made one mistake, and steps in to actively punish.
REP
(21,691 posts)Just be scared because guns and hate her. Don't try to imagine how her life got to this horrible event.
(Birth control isn't always easy to get or afford, either)
(And I hope the assumption she consented to the sex the lead to her pregnancy is correct)
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)I dont understand, why would you have a loaded gun in your house anyway and have kids? another neighbor said. . . . "
gwheezie
(3,580 posts)All adults who leave unsecured loaded firearms around children should have felony charges, none of this is accidental.