Remember all the hoopla over the West Memphis officer shooting the twelve year old last year? Well, where is the outrage over the latest arrests by the MPD of the teenage robbers? Where is the parent? Notice, I didn't say where are the parents. Are is a verb that is used when the subject is plural. Anyone want to bet there was no father in the family? Who thinks a young teenager can't kill you?
My last year on the job, I arrested 5 crips one night, after a 15 year old tried to kill me with a REAL .9mm pistol. We also recovered another pistol from the car they were driving. Ed Vidulich, we have learned, was killed by an 18 year old. When you have young boys with no father around to make them do right, you can expect the worst. Even when fathers are around, there are no guarantees, but it's far less likely the boys will turn out to be gangsters.
Here's the MPD press release on the "shotgun robbers" who were arrested this past week. Notice this release talks about a "toy" gun. Does that sound familiar?
On Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 8:15 PM Uniform patrol officers from Union Station arrested two suspects in connection with the robbery of the Pizza Hut delivery driver at 1223 Tutwiler. Officers had recovered a toy handgun and determined these suspects fit the description of the shot gun robberies that had been occurring in the Evergreen Historical District around the area of Rhodes College. Robbery Investigators began an investigation and today have charged six juveniles in connection with these series of robberies.
Ladetrick Bond, 13
Ricky Hampton, 15
Terrell Phillips, 15
Qurtez Harris, 16
Deadrick Munged, 16
Lorenzo Howard, 16
Robbery investigators expect to make additional arrest and have been working to recover property taken in these robberies.
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3 comments:
I'm not surprised.
Yesterday, we had 4 juveniles (known gang members according to police)arrested for breaking into a neighbor's house. Another neighbor saw them coming out from the back of the house carrying what turned out to be an XBox and games. The police rounded them up almost immediately, caught red-handed. They ranged in age from 14 to 16 years old, and we all suspect they'd hit another house on the same street earlier in the week given the way each burglary occurred. (They've been using a drainage ditch to ferry between Berclair and the Binghampton/Highland Heights area, robbing homes and making their escape in the ditch which is about half underground.)
We all wondered, as the cops hauled them to Juvy, where's Mom and/or Dad and why there is no outcry over these kids unless they end up getting killed over their thuggish behavior. We also remarked that, unlike their home turf, we aren't afraid to call the police and that maybe it'll make them think twice about coming to our neighborhood to be criminals!
This also makes me wonder about Juvenile Justice in the County. Is it also a catch and release? These kids were busted for B and E, will they sign them over to parents at JC? Should tougher sentencing laws also apply to juveniles who commit felonies?
I can count on one hand in 10 years the times I've had a JC case where both parents even showed up. Usually, it's just the mother, since the dad is (1) in jail, or (2) nowhere to be found.
and then there is yet another on campus shooting yesterday (2/4/08).
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