Woman who shot 12-year-old won't face charges, but boy will .

reply to post by crazydaisy


I agree with you that the boys are old enough to know better.
I am not against guns or protecting ourselves. However, the lady should have gone back in her house and kept the gun with her.. I really don't think she had the right to be shooting in the streets.
Anyone out there on the Chicago police force correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't it said "If you shoot someone , Shoot to kill and make sure they have at least one foot inside your residence?'

my opinion she should have finished it, the boy will just get street cred, be a "gansta" rapper brag about getting shot, until he either OD's or is shot again by rival group with probable collateral damage all around. She would have probably got the same self defense and sent home if she would have just solved the problem in the first place and not just wounded.

Yep. Shot them. Failed parenting is to blame for the deaths of the boys. I was the oldest of three to a single mother (living in poverty) until I was 11 years old, and then both parents worked long after we got home from school. I kept the younger two in line as best as I could. My parents made it all sorts of clear what would happen to us if we got in trouble when they weren't around. Then they made it clear that I would have gotten it twice as bad because I was the oldest and in charge.

It wasn't PC parenting, but the three of us would NEVER consider harassing anyone, let alone an elderly person.

The parents failed the woman and they failed their children.

The woman was very old. Possibly senile. (would have to be evaluated) The kids said they didnt throw bricks at her.
The article didnt say the police found bricks on the scene.Fingerprints.

According to the article the only incriminating evidence was other neighbors calling the kid 'little bad boy'.

If the kids stuck to thier story and got a lawyer they could beat this and file counter-charges.

The woman should have her firearm taken and be evaluated.

We just dont have enough evidence, but with what we have (the article in the link), she had no right to shoot anyone,

For me it would have to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that these kds indeed chucked bricks at her. That isnt proven by what I read. And even if they did ..justified deadly force...I dont think so.

I remember as a child walking by certain old folks homes that just loved to come out yelling and cussing at us for absolutely no reason, sure sometimes we would talk some smack, but it was never long before assisted living was needed for these folks.

According to the article....she should have been charged.

reply to post by psyko45


I live in Chicago, saw this on the news and heard it on the radio. Public opinion is that she did the right thing. She was in her home, and reports here say the kids were throwing bricks at her and it wasn't the first time.Once someone comes in uninvited you can shot.

reply to post by The_Gypsy


O.K. my mistake. I didnot understand the story to say she was in her home when she shot. I read on Daily Herald she was on her porch when she shot. "See ya gotta be careful what ya read". Ten news will be on in 12 minutes, here in Chicago. Lets see what that says.

I am quite relived by the outcome of this.
The elderly lady could have very well have been charged with attempted murder or the parents of the 12 yr old kid could have sued.

I'm older and crippled up, but i can still pop some neat little holes in you.
i might fire a warning shot, i might just shoot you dead-
mess with me or my property and you do so at your own peril.
if youre big enough to come to my home and toss bricks at me
or threaten me in any way- you are old enough to shoot. i dont call police.
Learn a lesson from uk/australia..the attitude is totally bass ackwards.
brits cant even carry a sharp pencil.
rock salt when out with andy of mayberry folks.
number 4 buckshot is my choice for the shotgun.
keltech pmr 30 shot 22 magnum pistol is outstanding.
when stuck in the middle of a war zone sort of planet.

O.K. Just listened to the local 5 news. Neighbors stated "these children had no business messing with this women. These are problem children. The neighbors agree she had all the right to protect herself.
My question still is if its a matter of life or property. If the women was in her home and the kids were throwing bricks at her house, why did she have to shoot. The house that was shown on t.v. looked well enough big for her to protect herself inside, and call the police again.
I think the big problem here is these kids. If there parents would have been doing there job and keeping these kids off the streets and doing something constructive. We all would not be talking about this particular story.

I have two boy in there teens. (I'm not saying I'm a saint) But I know where my kids are at all times. And they are not running around bored. We keep them busy. Mowing the lawn, taking out the garbage. Working!!!! Even if its only cleaning the church parking lot. And not for money. What ever happened to "proud of our community" Help clean an eldery persons yard, clean the church parking lot.

I think if people took pride in there neighborhoods and stopped waiting for the city and government to help, They could show the children "It makes a difference what one person can do"

Children learn by example!!!!!!

Originally posted by Tayesin
Besides the big headline.. this is another indicator of where we all went wrong as a Society these past 30 or so years.

It is we who allowed increasingly more violent games that we know desensitized the kids to extreme violence and even gave the concept that Violence is the only way to do anything. The movies we let them watch did the same thing. The music we let them listen did the same thing.

And we fostered the gang mentality with it's supporting mental acceptance of violence as an everyday thing in our life.

We must take the blame here... for we are our Society.

The only way to change it is to insure we return to far more effective ways of parenting, that we restrict media/games/movies/music to what is suitable for our own childrens stage of growth and age.

And this too requires the dumping of such bleeding-heart beliefs as the rights of the child over the parent. It's time to return to the rights of the parent to do what is needed to insure their children become productive members of society instead of Thugs admiring the Gangtsa Lifestyle portrayed everywhere you look in their culture.. and running roughshod over their disempowered parents.

I'm all for protecting children from abuse.. but we have built a society where children are now the worst abusers in the family... something is seriously wrong here and we need to fix it quickly before it spirals into mayhem.

Although I do agree we have empowered children over parents and that in many ways parents hands are now tied when it comes to discipline and children, however you can not blame violent video games, movies, or tv. That is simply just silly. In my day as a child I watched Tom and Jerry, Popeye, the Roadrunner, all that stuff. It did not make me violent and I can assure you there is some serious violence going on in all those cartoons which date back 30 years at least. Video games in my day were violent also. One of my favorites was a game called Dragon Slayer where you slashed and hacked your way through all kinds of things. Very cool game. So I do not buy into the nonsense that video games or TV plays a part in the violence of young kids. Have you ever watched American Football? Its a violent game and has been for as long as I can remember. I even played dodgeball in school... guess what? Its a violent game also and if you disagree, you never had anyone bean you in the head with the ball.

The day I see a child drop an anvil on someone's head... then I will admit maybe you have a point. Until that day, it is just another excuse to not blame the children or the parents. It is like blaming guns cause some idiot went on a shooting spree... when in reality it is not the guns fault, but the idiot who was behind the trigger.

reply to post by crappiekat


The women was not in her home, she was carrying in groceries. You might want to go back and re-read the source.

However, why should this women have to be a prisoner in her own home from a couple of young thugs? She has every right to stand at her front door if she so chooses to without the fear of being hit in the head with a brick does she not?

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
Sounds like self-defense to me.

I hope the boys learned a valuable lesson.

Yeah - - - and we really need to start looking at something beside age - - - maybe like rap sheets.

There are 8 year olds with criminal histories. Chronological age does not automatically mean "Innocent Child".

reply to post by MrWendal


There are conflicting stories even here in the Chicago area whether she was in the house or on the porch when it happened. She called the police at the beginning of the story. However the news articles here in the Il area are conflicting as to what exactly happened.. Liked I said before, "Be careful what you read." I'm from the very North of Chicago. There was another poster that stated he is from Chicago. The 10 news gave a different story from both of ours. Are you from the area?. Do know what the neighborhood is like there? Don't believe all you read.

This happens all the time at ATS. People see or read something on the news and take it as fact. All that is written or spoken is not always fact.

Living in Australia, I couldn't get away with that, but I have chased a young teenage hoodlum, who was vandalising my letterbox for the umpteenth time, down the street and caught her.
I grabbed her off her bike, threw her over my knee and spanked her thoroughly.

The neighbours came out and applauded, she'd been busting up peoples' property for months.

Her parents contacted the police, but I'd already gone to the police station, told them what had happened, said I believed I was legally acting in "loco parentis" and asked if they felt a need to arrest me. They shook my hand instead.

Same year, another hoodlum, Paul, a 10 y o boy, was belting up my little girl.
I caught him too, looked at his hard, cold face, and dragged him inside. He was obviously accustomed to being beaten, and not afraid, just full of hate.
Then, in front of my betrayed-looking daughter, asked what flavour milkshake he prefered, and gave him one with some fresh, home-made cake. We talked about all sorts of things, and I told him to visit whenever he wanted. My daughter was never picked on again. From then on, Paul protected her.

I don't blame the old lady for shooting, but nothing beats the feeling of turning a kid around.

8-10 on grand theft auto training simulator ..
10-12 on x-box 360 halo war stimulator..
a teenager is capable of anything. even more ,so as
they have limited time on the planet. but here how it goes-
I dont care about age / social circumstances.
i dont care about color- gender- nada-
while i'm pulling the hammer back
you better decide where to run to.

When you say turning a kid around, I think we all it get although I've never heard said that way before. I like it!

If were all adults here, I think we can all say, in some manner we've been turned around for the best.
It's so sad to hear that for some it has to take something this dramatic to turn them.

The story I read said that her front window is boarded up, from when the same kids had thrown a brick through it previously. I also understood that they had previous complaints filed against the boys in the neighborhood, other old ladies on the same street.

The parents say that the kids were just walking down the street (after 11 pm?) and there was a brick in the street in front of her house and the mean old woman shot them.

The neighbors say that the street had become a living hell as the two "children" terrorized the place and vandalized and called old people names.

For all the people who think the old woman was wrong: Did you know that most home invasions start out the same way as their altercation?

Why does she have to try and "psychically guess" whether the boys are just throwing bricks through her window, or whether they are planning to come in and rape/kill her? How would it look different?

The fact that anyone is wringing their hands over the fate of the boys is simply a lesson not to call the authorities, who will just come in and second-guess your actions in a life-and-death crisis.

reply to post by MrWendal


I can understand your perception Mr W.

What I've seen over the past even 15 years is how the violence in the games has gotten increasingly more graphic, nothing at all like the now non-politically correct cartoons we used to watch as kids ourselves. Yes they had violence in them.. but no blood and guts everywhere, no one died, etc. All very tame compared to what most kids have been playing from a young age.. we're talking 5 year olds playing 007 and other First Person Shooting games.. up to and including any of the really nasty ones filled with theft, prostitution, drug deals, etc. Which I doubt would have been in the games you played a long time ago.

This increase in graphic violence, the ability to "kill" easily in the third person does desensitize children to the concpets involved. And I hear proof coming out of Iraq with so many young US soldiers in particular saying how they thought it would be like their video games and that being why they wanted in on the warring.

Yes parents are at fault here for not insuring their children had, at least, age appropriate games... which most I have seen failed to do and when it was pointed out to them they got very angry about it being pointed out to them.. and then they justify it saying.. "They know it's only a game".. as their 5 year old smashes into his 10 year old brother with a hockey stick for killing him in the game.

Parents have failed the kids and we have been led into this by those who govern us as our lawmakers and thus standard setters for society.

If we refuse to accept every avenue that is part of the problem then we fail to see how to fix it in the future.

They got what they deserved and are lucky to be alive, the kid should be glad it was in the shoulder and not a boom headshot!. I wonder what goes in those kids minds... "hey, let's throw bricks at the old woman" "haha sounds awesome, my dad once threw one to my mom, it was cool" ugh.

But i think the lady should have used Walt Kowalski quote before shooting: Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have f# with? That's me. Bang Bang!

reply to post by adifferentbreed


She should shoot the parents - or someone should.

Where did these young thugs come from? Useless parents.

We should stop the rot further up the line.