What a lame-brained, stupid scheme: kill Colt’s stepdad Philip Danner and then go to Arizona to sell T-shirts to “drug people.” These kids had been planning it for weeks on the school playground, according to police, as only kids could do.
Yesterday the youngest of the two kids Indiana authorities tried as adults, 12-year-old Paul Gingerich, received the same sentence as Colt Lundy, the 15-year-old trigger-“man” and originator of the scheme: 25 years in prison.
A third boy who had been drawn into this idiocy but who had not participated in the actual shooting is being dealt with as a juvenile.
It’s hard to sort out who is the most lame-brained in this whole affair: the kids who, being kids, are still developing and are working with brains incapable of grasping the depth and consequences of their stupidity, or all of the adults involved—the police, prosecutor, judge, parents, school officials, etc.—who should know better. Yet this is a bad outcome, not only for these boys and their families, but for society.
I only learned about this case yesterday when Wolfgang posted a link to the story originating from a TV station in my old hometown of South Bend, Indiana, so I don’t know enough yet to be pointing the finger of blame in any particular directions. However, I do believe there will come a day when we will recognize that such tragedies are the inevitable result of conditioning by the combined effects on children of violent entertainments, mind-numbing and socially retarding schooling, and the breakdown of supportive family structures.
I’m ruing the fact, though, that I have been unaware of this case until now because I might otherwise have been able to help in a more timely way. I still know people in Indiana who might have made a difference (but still can).
I can imagine that the mothers of these boys are crying their eyes out right now in fear and horror of what their children’s futures may hold—but we needn’t go there now because it’s not a hopeful picture. Yet the fact of the matter is that these boys are still children who have not yet been damaged by the system and turned into the brutal criminals they might become by ages 37 and 40 if they were to serve out their full prison terms.
There is still hope, as evidenced by recent Supreme Court rulings and changes in state laws (in surprising places) regarding the prosecution of children.
Maybe change will even come to Indiana. People everywhere are awakening.
۞
Groove of the Day
Listen to Vassar Clements performing “Back Home Again in Indiana”
I follow those cases since the Arizona cases where a 8 year old boy was accused to shoot his dad and another man to death. I was always positive thinking about the US until I recognize that the US is a country where young children serve adult sentence in adult jails.
Yes both boys Colt Lundy and Paul Gingerich doing a very bad and off course very stupid crime, and yes I think they should be punished in some adequate way, but I also think they should have a good second chance specially the 12 year old Paul Gingerich, I don’t think that a adult facility will doing good for him, -in no way, even if there are other juveniles they will be normally all much older than him, what will happened to him there alongside the “juvenile serving as adult program”? I better won’t imagine it! I don’t think it’s a safe place for such a young kid.
And yes, I feel very, very sorry for the victims family, but shouldn’t we all as a society looking for the “best interest” for all children? shouldn’t we work out a plan how to bring him back as a productive member for the society as soon as possible? I feel sad, sad for all involved in this case.
Wolfgang
I agree with you wolfgang this is such a sad situation. Paul gingerich is going to be sent to wabash facility. In 1997, the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility was criticized by two human rights groups, Human Rights Watch and the Northwest Indiana Coalition to Abolish Control Unit Prisons, because of the treatment of inmates in the maximum-security Secured Housing Unit (SHU). The two groups asserted that confining inmates in their individual cells for twenty-two or more hours a day was inhumane, especially for inmates with mental illnesses. That same year, Human Rights Watch published their report, Cold Storage, which brought national attention to Wabash Valley Correctional Facility’s treatment of inmates.
Colt Lundy 15 year old is currently being held at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, Level 4, which is 23 hour a day lockup. And bet my soul that’s the “spetial youth program” the judge who sentenced Paul is asking for paul now.
http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=28339&pst=1291146
http://www.google.es/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CEkQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FWabash_Valley_Correctional_Facility&ei=UcwkTbTXO8mn8QPjyZTbAg&usg=AFQjCNGhFQnZ-deYVNvLgUEPBZgI4GJTDw
what else can I say about that “wonderful” prison who is housing children.
This is an ongoing petition that desparately needs more signatures as we get close to having the neuropsychological done with Blade and file for the new hearing. Please sign and forward to all you know!!! Blade Reed is 15 year old and is housed in Wabash in level four since age 14
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/humane-treatment-for-blade-reed/
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thebladereedtrustfund.org%2F&h=19579
signatures: 1,670
signature goal: 1,500
.overview
petition
Target: Governor Mitch Daniels, Attorney General Greg Zoeller
Sponsored by: Justice for Djinn society, Childrens Hope and Voice
Best commertial of the year Kids do what they see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXYVoQXm7dI&feature=fvst
ok, this one just for fun, sometimes is needed a good laugh right?