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Sound The Alarm….Or Let’s Just Unplug It
Clayton County officials have declared a state of emergency concerning the young people in their area. The people of Clayton are experiencing a rash of cases where kids are killing kids. Drive-by shootings, gang activities, drugs, and the list goes on and on. Obviously, this is a matter that deserves the declaration of a state of emergency, but like most jurisdictions it might be a little late. Kids have been killing kids, among about every other crime available, for sometime now. And while most emergency situations have no immediate fix, that can’t be said for this particular problem. In fact, the solution is relatively simple.
Our system, when it comes to juvenile offenders, is a mess. We have adopted a philosophy that it is better to forgive their transgressions rather than teaching them that they are responsible for everything that they do. This system believes that it is better to rehabilitate than to punish. This system believes it is better to return the child to the family rather than placing them in a detention center. This might be a good philosophy in a perfect world, but we no longer live in a perfect world. In fact, we are not even close any more. While crime, as a whole, has actually gone down slightly over the past few years, juvenile crime is on the rise in many parts of the country. And in some instances, the rise is dramatic. According to a 1996 Emergency Net News report, the number of homicides committed by youth under 17, between the years of 1984-1994, had tripled since the last reporting date. But, when it comes to juvenile criminals, our judicial system still operates as it has for many years, when playing hooky and simple thefts were about as bad as it would get. Occasionally, we would have more serious crimes but not often. Currently, on any given day in the Juvenile Courts, you may see a kid charged with murder, child molestation, aggravated assault, and other serious felonies. The system of the past is no longer functional for the scenarios of the present. I remember vividly, as a police officer, when kids would tell me that they would much rather be punished by the courts than to be punished by their schools. The school actions actually caused them more discomfort than those rulings of Juvenile Court.
In defense of our legislators, they have made attempts to hold juvenile offenders more accountable. For the more serious crimes, Superior Courts now have the authority to assume jurisdiction of the case. If the offender’s case is heard in Superior Court, they are subject to the penalty options of the court as if they were an adult offender. However, even with this change, many voices in opposition were heard citing that these offenders were still children and should not be subjected to adult punishments.
We must make up our minds. Do we want to accept the fact that some kids commit very serious crimes and should be punished accordingly or do we want to continue to believe that every kid is worthy of rehabilitation? If we choose the later, then we cannot jump up and down and blame the system when a kid goes out and causes utter havoc including innocent people being killed. As we tell our kids very often, we can’t have it both ways.
Rehabilitating kids who make mistakes, as most kids do, is a noble proposition that we all should strive to accomplish. After all, today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders. But, just as the time comes for us to stop reading fairy tales to our kids, the time also comes for us to stop believing in fairy tales ourselves. The truth is that some children are very dangerous and commit very serious and adult type crimes and they should be punished in a very serious and adult type manner. Or, we could simply choose to stay the course that we are on, and just hope that our children turn out fine.
Yeah, that’ll work!
For further information, visit www.voice4victims.com
If you are interested in having Mr. Hall speak at your next club or group meeting, please email contact information to:
SHall BadgeNotes@aol.com
052205
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