8-year-old boy killed

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

The kids who safely walk home usually don't make the news.

Good news tends not to make the news.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Good news tends not to make the news.

Right. My point, of course, is that we have the impression that any child this young who walks home alone will wind up murdered. Who knows how many kids this age have this kind of freedom. Surely it's a lot less than when I was a kid. I was riding my bike back and forth from my friends house by myself early enough to have broken my skull at age 4.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Who knows how many kids this age have this kind of freedom.

I agree.

Yet, giving a child this type of freedom has always come with risks. Kids got abducted and murdered when I was a kid despite the freedom we were given. And my parents didn't give us the ultimate freedom. We were allowed to roam the neighborhood while playing different sports. We weren't allowed to hang out at each other's houses without parental supervision, be around adults without preapproval, or be in any environment that could defy the freedom our parents gave us.

Before the information superhighway, what happened to this 8 year old boy would not have been on my 7:00am news and on the Internet-accessible news agencies.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

I agree.

Yet, giving a child this type of freedom has always come with risks. Kids got abducted and murdered when I was a kid despite the freedom we were given. And my parents didn't give us the ultimate freedom. We were allowed to roam the neighborhood while playing different sports. We weren't allowed to hang out at each other's houses without parental supervision, be around adults without preapproval, or be in any environment that could defy the freedom our parents gave us.

Before the information superhighway, what happened to this 8 year old boy would not have been on my 7:00am news and on the Internet-accessible news agencies.

This is so sad. Apparently he took him out of town, hung out with him, and even made him lunch. It wasn't until he realized how extensive the search effort was that he panicked and killed the little boy.

One thing to know about this neighborhood is that it's extremely homogeneous and close-knit and, frankly, a little insular. It's probably one of the safest neighborhoods in Brooklyn in part because "outsiders" are not trusted. Thousands of Orthodox Jews from all over the Tri-state area volunteered and scoured the neighborhood within hours of his being reported missing. I did not know it had made the national news--where was Nancy Grace?

The killer, who's given his confession, is also Ultra-Orthodox (I'm not sure if they're Hasidic), and I'm sure that was a factor in why the little boy approached him. He most certainly would not have reached out to someone who did not look like he was "of the community."

[LXA SE285]

The kid was also autistic, which makes this even sadder to me.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by LXA SE285

The kid was also autistic, which makes this even sadder to me.

Where did you hear that?

Most of the local news sources have refuted reports that the boy was autistic or developmentally disabled. The perpetrator had been brain injured in a car accident when he was younger.

[LXA SE285]

Most of the local news sources have refuted reports that the boy was autistic or developmentally disabled.

I was just going by the initial reports I've read online—I'm not in NYC, so I'll take your word for it.

In any case, incredibly horrifying and sad.

[WCsweet<3]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

One thing to know about this neighborhood is that it's extremely homogeneous and close-knit and, frankly, a little insular. It's probably one of the safest neighborhoods in Brooklyn in part because "outsiders" are not trusted. Thousands of Orthodox Jews from all over the Tri-state area volunteered and scoured the neighborhood within hours of his being reported missing. I did not know it had made the national news--where was Nancy Grace?

Behind it being a horrific crime, it is also crazy to think that this guy was random. It seems that in cases such as these, the perpetrator was looking for a victim. How many people did the child walk by before choosing to talk to this one? It seems so weird and random.