Analogous?
 

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/08/03/girl.charged.ap/index.html

Boy throws water ballon at girl. Girl throws 2 pound rock at boy hitting him in the head, and he had to have stitches to close the wound.

She is charged with assault with deadly weapon, which some feel is inapropriate.

Seems to me the choice of escalating the event from water ballons to rocks was inappropriate.

But maybe she thought there was bad stuff in the water balloons.

Besides from, What is your point?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20050803/ts_latimes/troublesbeyondagirls11years
This new story says more than one boy was pestering her. Maybe a rock was not the best choice...but she is ELEVEN. I guess we should enact a ban on all rocks. It has worked for gun crime.

"and the girl spent five days in Fresno's juvenile hall and a month under house arrest after police said she resisted arrest and scratched an officer's arm."

THIS is why this has gone so far. A lesson you can never learn too early. Be nice to Police Officers.

Kids escalate things. That's what they do.

Expecting that an eleven year old had the foresight to realize that a rock could have been considered a deadly weapon is delusional.

This issue should have been dealt with by the parents.

Who called the cops here?

Why did they arrest the girl?

Why did the prosecutor even agree to take the case to trial?

Maybe violence and escalating retaliation is not the answer?


"Kids escalate things" Seems to me that applies to adults and governments.

So, according to you, every kid who escalates any sort of confrontation should calmly consider the consequences to their actions, and of course decide that violence is never the answer.

If they make the wrong decision, arrest and prosecution by said CHILD is okay.

You somehow expect children to have wisdom that most adults do not.

I'm glad I got the h3ll out of California.

What country do you live in? Last I checked, there isn't a ban on all guns here in the U.S.

At least that's what my 30-30 and 410 tell me.

Seems to me that is a better approach than yours of continuing violence.

On arrest and prosecution it seemed much too hasty, and probably not warranted.

Never expect children to have wisdom most adults do not have, but accceptance of violent escalation as appropriate behavior is destructive.

And this could not happen in your town?

I'm saying this should have been sorted out by the parents of the children involved. Both kids (one for instigating, one for escalating) should have been punished by their PARENTS. This is no place for police and prosecutors to be involved.

I did not say that either childs' actions was justified, but that it does happen. The point I was trying to get across was that this should have never gone into the criminal justice system.

I hate to quote myself. If she behaved herself when the cops got there, this would have ended long ago..

Maybe I should have used a rolling eyes to show that I was being VERY sarcastic. Obviously you did not pick up on that. So here you go...

Maybe we should enact a ban on all "jagged-edged piece of river rock" or assault rocks.

My point, via sarcasm, is that shouting "escalating violence is not the answer" is ok but how do you enforce it? By laws?

I think the parents should be responsible to deal with this problem not the police. Of course it is not ok to throw rocks at someone...but who makes the punishment is what I call into question here.

I agree with you completely on this. Unfortunately, if you mention that you are against the way this was handled, some here try to make the Olympic long jump team by suggesting that you are somehow fostering the acceptance of violence.

You'll get my "jagged piece of river rock" when you pry it from my cold, dead, hands.

Agree, no place for cops. Should have been handled by the parents.

If this kind of stuff were handled this way when I was a kid me and half the neighborhood would have been doing life with no chance of parole.

Anyone else?

The latest redneck bumper sticker....we will make millions, billions

Absolutely!

Bunch of older kids were riding their bikes in the alley, picking on a couple of us younger kids. Riding their bikes (10-speeds no less!) up and down, looking for us to mess with. Found a cinder block and a paper grocery bag. What kid can't resist running over an apparently empty paper bag on his bike?
They quit chasing us.
:D

Oh, and a walnut tree was was a veritable munitions dump. Nice and hard, and left a stain as well!

Ditto on that.

I'm glad my parents had a chance to punish me first, because:

1) I was given a chance to learn from my mistakes.

2) I learned to fear my parents more than the cops.

Childhood is about being allowed to make mistakes and learn from them without adult consequences. That's why we have this concept of the age of 18 being significant. You get certain rights, but you also have to deal with much more serious consequences.