Sheriff Vasquez: “When children kill”

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Not so long ago the biggest problem kids faced was getting a flat tire on their bikes or having a mean teacher assign homework over the weekend. How times have changed. Who would have guessed that one of the perennial stories over the last several years would be kids killing kids?

Each time we hear about gunshots on a high school campus, we are once again reminded that we are living in a different world. The body count from teen murders causes us to shake our heads and wonder what is going on. In some cases the shooters are teenagers with elaborate plans and evil desires. But sometimes the hail of bullets comes from impulsive kids as young as eleven years old.

At one time gangland battles between the Bloods and the Crips reminded us that life in the inner city was hard and ruthless. But the latest battlegrounds have not been Watts or the Bronx. These violent confrontations have taken place in rural, idyllic towns with names like Pearl, Mississippi, and Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas, Littleton, Colorado, and Queen Creek (Johnson Ranch), Arizona.

We, as a peaceful society, are shocked and surprised. We open our newspapers or watch the evening news to see the faces of kids caught up in the occult, and we wonder how they were attracted to such evil. We open those newspapers again; we see youthful baby faces charged with five counts of murder, and we wonder if they even understood what they were doing.

Killer kids. They seem to be everywhere these days. Probably no group in America today inspires more fear than the teenage killers regularly featured on the evening news. What many find most frightening about these young murderers is that their crimes seem so senseless and random. Thus, after each bizarre slaying we ask ourselves–why?

Sometimes we blame a movie as in the Lillelid family massacre in Johnson City, Tennessee, said to have been inspired by Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers.” Sometimes we blame the gun: “If only the teenager hadn’t had one, this would not have happened.” Sometimes we blame the violence and gore in video games. We have also blamed rock and rap lyrics, the board game Dungeons and Dragons and the Internet.

But what is really going on in the mind of a child or teen who kills? This is one of the puzzles we as a society must struggle with if we are to understand how to find a solution to child murderers. Politicians would have us believe that if we can pass new and better laws, we can cut down on juvenile crime. I personally believe this is not the case. We must first understand what it is that leads a teenager to kill in the first place before we can go on to the next step towards a solution to juvenile violence.

Is there a new breed of kids who are bred with a gene for violence, or is it today’s society that plays a part in exacerbating the traits these “bad seeds” already have? Some believe in the bad seed theory, that kids who are violent are just “no darn good.” When it comes to school killers and other rampage type of crimes, I do not believe in the bad seed theory. Behind these quiet, unemotional faces, there has to be more brewing than meets the eye.

It is almost impossible for us to look into a child’s eyes and see them committing the ultimate crime – cold-blooded murder. No one wants to consider the possibility that a child could kill. Schools and the mental health community often don’t have adequate resources to address the signs of this behavior, and, unfortunately, law enforcement has to become involved after it is too late. Kids DO kill, and with alarming frequency. There is one responsible entity to whom all the others must turn for help: parents must be involved!

Today’s parents are bombarded with wildly varied, and often conflicting, advice. What was once accepted wisdom for our parents is not necessarily so today. Some experts assert that part of the problem is “too much of a good thing” parenting. In an effort to express our love for our children, we shower them with unwarranted praise, material goods and excessive protection from disappointment, and we are often blinded to their ill behavior.

Some parents have been brainwashed to believe it is wrong to expect our children to be responsible for their actions, their treatment of others or even their treatment of us, their parents. I have seen it at the earliest ages: toddlers hurt others and aren’t disciplined by their parents, leaving it up to daycare providers. When the providers relay the behavior to the parent, the parent makes excuses: “Well, he never does that at home,” or “She is just acting her age.”

I have experienced in my law enforcement career that when a child is detained for a criminal act, parents often berate us for arresting their child. “You are picking on my child, or we are profiling.” This lack of accountability by the child and the parents may continue as the child passes through the school system, and, if left unchallenged, may wind up in violence.

We as a society must do whatever it takes to stop youth violence. Although the solution begins at home with the parents, mental health providers, educators, social services, churches, the judicial system, probation and law enforcement must also do their part in stopping kids from killing. We simply cannot continue to lose any more kids like Amber Hess.