He "probably didn't have a chance..."
I don't know what to make of the lead story on the front page of this morning's Boston Sunday Globe:
Crime consumed a family, and an 8-year-old is lost
It was so difficult to read, I had to stop to take a break several times. The very first sentence says it all: "Liquarry A. Jefferson probably didn't have a chance."
I am so saddened... so angry... but I don't even know where to direct my anger. The article points out the fact that our Mayor Menino was quick to blame the gun lobby for the child's death (he was shot accidentally by his 7-year-old cousin)... but this article really exposed the insane world that Jefferson grew up in.
The child had four half-siblings, and all four fathers of the 5 children were in prison at the time of his death... two for drug charges, and two for armed robbery. The gun used in the killing belonged to a 15 year old half-brother, currently in juvenile custody. In 2003, city officials realized 36 individuals, all related to the family, had 200 arraignments between them.
Social services agents met with the children, trying to get them into summer camps, alternative schools, anything to keep them separated from the violence which permeated the family. All while, the father of the youngest child (now in prison for selling crack cocaine) lived in the home and worked to prevent social workers from seeing the children.
The Globe article figures that in the final year of 8-year-old Liquarry's life, various government agencies spent $314,000 on the family, almost half just on prison costs for the four fathers. The other half went mostly to social services, but also to what the Globe called "Administration of Justice." The figure includes an estimated $10,000 on a search for the two armed intruders who Liquarry's mother claimed had shot her child before admitting to officials that the death was an accident.
Anyway - like I said at the beginning of this entry - I just don't know what to make of it all. I'm saddened, angry, and frustrated. I feel lucky that I didn't ever have to experience a world like this... and I wonder if it will ever be possible to eliminate this sort of violence from our society. Is it just inevitable that there will always be violent crime in some segment of the population? Is this the result of someone not trying hard enough to stop it? What is the answer, then?
Menino and others talk about gun control. Massachusetts has some of the toughest gun laws in the union... but as many gun owners will point out, guns used in violent crime aren't usually procured through legal channels... so doubt that more gun control laws would have much impact.
Is more enforcement the answer? The fact that Liquarry's mother has had an extensive criminal record, and lied to the police about how her son died makes me doubt that an increased police presence would have reduced violence. Some of the arrests in the family were for attacks on police officers.
More social services? If $148,000 in social services per year couldn't save a child, what amount will?
I just don't know...
Crime consumed a family, and an 8-year-old is lost
It was so difficult to read, I had to stop to take a break several times. The very first sentence says it all: "Liquarry A. Jefferson probably didn't have a chance."
I am so saddened... so angry... but I don't even know where to direct my anger. The article points out the fact that our Mayor Menino was quick to blame the gun lobby for the child's death (he was shot accidentally by his 7-year-old cousin)... but this article really exposed the insane world that Jefferson grew up in.
The child had four half-siblings, and all four fathers of the 5 children were in prison at the time of his death... two for drug charges, and two for armed robbery. The gun used in the killing belonged to a 15 year old half-brother, currently in juvenile custody. In 2003, city officials realized 36 individuals, all related to the family, had 200 arraignments between them.
Social services agents met with the children, trying to get them into summer camps, alternative schools, anything to keep them separated from the violence which permeated the family. All while, the father of the youngest child (now in prison for selling crack cocaine) lived in the home and worked to prevent social workers from seeing the children.
The Globe article figures that in the final year of 8-year-old Liquarry's life, various government agencies spent $314,000 on the family, almost half just on prison costs for the four fathers. The other half went mostly to social services, but also to what the Globe called "Administration of Justice." The figure includes an estimated $10,000 on a search for the two armed intruders who Liquarry's mother claimed had shot her child before admitting to officials that the death was an accident.
Anyway - like I said at the beginning of this entry - I just don't know what to make of it all. I'm saddened, angry, and frustrated. I feel lucky that I didn't ever have to experience a world like this... and I wonder if it will ever be possible to eliminate this sort of violence from our society. Is it just inevitable that there will always be violent crime in some segment of the population? Is this the result of someone not trying hard enough to stop it? What is the answer, then?
Menino and others talk about gun control. Massachusetts has some of the toughest gun laws in the union... but as many gun owners will point out, guns used in violent crime aren't usually procured through legal channels... so doubt that more gun control laws would have much impact.
Is more enforcement the answer? The fact that Liquarry's mother has had an extensive criminal record, and lied to the police about how her son died makes me doubt that an increased police presence would have reduced violence. Some of the arrests in the family were for attacks on police officers.
More social services? If $148,000 in social services per year couldn't save a child, what amount will?
I just don't know...
posted by Eric Jay | 8/05/2007 11:19:00 AM
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