Our View - May 14

In the Merle Haggard song, “Are the Good Times Really Over for Good” he poses a question.

“Are we rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell?”

The question came to mind after looking at today’s Sheriff’s report.

Today’s report will shock some while bringing the ire of parents because their child’s name may be there.

Before you parents rush to give us a call, let’s offer some clarification on the law.

Commission of a felony by a juvenile makes their name and crimes public information.

The alarming part is these juveniles are not 15, 16, or 17, but are ages eight, nine, and 11.

We blew the calculator up more than once double-checking the dates.
Welcome to the new world.

Space may be the final frontier to Star Trek fans, but the true final frontier is surviving in our neighborhoods as juveniles run amuck of the system because there isn’t a true system. And we’re not talking about a stolen hubcap or a broken window.

According to the felony report from the Sheriff’s office, the charges are burglary of a dwelling or structure causing over $1,000 in damages, criminal mischief of $1,000 or more, and preventing or hindering fire fighters or equipment.

Sounds surreal, but we checked the information and Rod Serling was not at the typewriter on this one.

Kids will be kids, but this goes way beyond anything “child-like.”

This is utterly outrageous. It is easy to point the finger at parents, but if these “children” have graduated to felony charges this early it would easy to say the children are quite familiar with the justice system.

The biggest problem we face as a community—and a society—is how to fix a juvenile justice system in such utter disrepair.

The report does not say if this trio was turned over to their parents, but all three were booked and released the same day.

Why?

Shouldn’t these charges warrant some type of incarceration?

And we wonder why young people deal drugs.

The reasoning behind a dealer getting children to push drugs is because our justice system will just give them a slap on the wrist and turn them loose to go back out on the streets where they can do the same thing all over again.

Chance after chance we give these youth because we are a society of second chances, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Have we grown so tired as a society that we have become numb to what children do?

Must Milton, Pace, Jay, or Central (Allentown) become a Columbine or Heath High School before we wake up?

For the sake of our community, we need to put our foot down and expect more from the justice system that deals with these children.

A slap on the wrist or a polite word and forgiving nature doesn’t seem to be doing the job. The criminals keep getting younger and younger.

The only reason Billy the Kid or Baby Face Nelson were given those names was not because of their age, but how they looked.

We’re actually starting to wonder, with this downward trend, are the good times are really over for good?