8-year-old boy killed

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by article

An 8-year-old Brooklyn boy who got lost while walking home alone from day camp in his Orthodox Jewish neighborhood was killed and dismembered by a stranger he had asked for directions, and his remains were found stuffed in a trash bin and the man's refrigerator, police said Wednesday.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...membered_n.htm

This story has bothered me all morning. His parents never let him walk alone but the boy insisted. So, they let him walk home alone for the first time and awaited his arrival. He got lost and happened upon a killer.

These types of killings are so rare yet we never know when such rare occurrences will happen. I am sure the parents are not only angered by the killer but feel extremely guilty as parents.

[AZTheta]

My heart is broken. This, I do not understand. I will pray for his parents, family, and friends, that they may find some solace and comfort in their suffering.

And I mourn for the loss of carefree childhood freedom. My friends and I went everywhere, on bicycles, on foot, on horseback, or in a canoe on a river, without a second thought. We were only told "be in by dark."

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by AzTheta

And I mourn for the loss of carefree childhood freedom. My friends and I went everywhere, on bicycles, on foot, on horseback, or in a canoe on a river, without a second thought. We were only told "be in by dark."

My siblings and I walked everywhere but my parents and neighbors were extremely attentive. We lived in very socially organized neighborhoods where random people couldn't just sneak up on us without an adult asking who the hell they are. I was also always an observant and challenging person and, although that often annoyed the adults and children around me, my parents now reflect on how often that saved my siblings and me from getting into some crazy stuff.

That didn't prevent things from happen: We had wild dogs who terrorized us at the bus stop; we seriously injured ourselves while swinging from those harsh metal monkey bars that should've never been created; there were kids who thought they were going to use and sell drugs and get away with it;....

...and pedophiles and murderers still existed. Thank the Lord they didn't get us but they got other adults and children in my city. The news agencies weren't covering local and national news as much as they do now. That includes how news agencies only covered/cover the missing and murdered who they believed/believe the mainstream viewers and listeners wanted/want to hear about.

[SWTXBelle]

I too mourn the loss of carefree childhood - but am unwilling to run the risk of anything happening to my children. I remembered the writer who stirred up a controversy when she let her son (forget the age - 9? 10?) use the subway system to go home. He was fine - but this poor child? So tragic.
The risk is just too great. I am so heartbroken for that family.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I too mourn the loss of carefree childhood - but am unwilling to run the risk of anything happening to my children. I remembered the writer who stirred up a controversy when she let her son (forget the age - 9? 10?) use the subway system to go home. He was fine - but this poor child? So tragic.
The risk is just too great. I am so heartbroken for that family.

I know what you mean, but I can think of at least one other murder story off the top of my head that began just like this. That time, the child was murdered by a 12 year old. The kids who safely walk home usually don't make the news.

[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.

[SWTXBelle]

"Three rabbis spoke at the funeral service. The boy's father also spoke briefly, thanking God for such a "beautiful child" with a "beautiful soul." The boy's burial will be in Laurel Park, N.J."


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...35-504083.html

[Xidelt]

I saw this on GMA this morning. The funeral footage broke my heart.

[katydidKD]

It is a nightmare. You think something so gruesome and cruel would only happen in a bad horror movie. Praying for his family/the community.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

That didn't prevent things from happen: We had wild dogs who terrorized us at the bus stop; we seriously injured ourselves while swinging from those harsh metal monkey bars that should've never been created; there were kids who thought they were going to use and sell drugs and get away with it;....

I realize that this is wildly off-topic, but how did you get seriously injured on monkey bars?

Originally Posted by katydidKD

It is a nightmare. You think something so gruesome and cruel would only happen in a bad horror movie. Praying for his family/the community.

That was my first thought--this sounds like the plot of a slasher film. This is so awful it makes my stomach turn.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

I realize that this is wildly off-topic, but how did you get seriously injured on monkey bars?

For the monkey bars that are entirely made of metal, we used each other as backpacks and lost our grip sometimes resulting in limbs, heads, or faces hitting the metal bars and nails. Blood, lots of blood. Children do dumb and potentially dangerous things and metal monkey bars are still metal. This stuff has also happened with nonmetal monkey bars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_gym

*********

The children of the 1970s and 1980s (as with the children of previous decades) encountered a lot of potentially dangerous things prior to the child safety advocates of the 1990s-2000s (i.e., Safe Kids wasn't founded until 1987 and didn't get much attention until the 1990s). Hell, I had a principal who smoked in our elementary school. He used to smoke in his office, in the hallways, and in our classrooms. That wouldn't be allowed today. I say all of this to say that life hasn't gotten more dangerous and childhood is not in danger.

Co-sign Munchkin03.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

The children of the 1970s and 1980s (as with the children of previous decades) encountered a lot of potentially dangerous things prior to the child safety advocates of the 1990s-2000s (i.e., Safe Kids wasn't founded until 1987 and didn't get much attention until the 1990s). Hell, I had a principal who smoked in our elementary school. He used to smoke in his office, in the hallways, and in our classrooms. That wouldn't be allowed today. I say all of this to say that life hasn't gotten more dangerous and childhood is not in danger.

Co-sign Munchkin03.

Thank ya!

Have you ever heard about any correlation between the rise of child safety advocacy and the rise in assisted reproductive technology? I've heard a few people talk about it--because people are having kids when they get older and, in many cases, it takes a lot more to have a kid, people are much more protective than they were a few generations before, when it wasn't a big deal to have a kid?

[ASUADPi]

It is so sad that this is the world we are in and going to raise our children in. I remember being able to walk or ride my bike places around my neighborhood by myself or with one other friend and it wasn't a worry. I remember being able to go to the mall with my parents and my brothers and I would ride up and down the escalators while my parents were in a store shopping. And everything was okay. Times they have a changed.