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11-Year-Old Murder Suspect Can't Stay in Jail
foxnews.com ^ | Sunday, February 22, 2009 | AP

Posted on 02/23/2009 12:11:39 PM PST by christianhomeschoolmommaof3

PITTSBURGH — A jail warden said Sunday he will ask a judge to move an 11-year-old boy accused of killing his father's pregnant girlfriend from an adult lockup to a juvenile detention center because the jail cannot accommodate the boy.

snip

Patricia Papernow, a psychologist from Hudson, Mass., and expert on blended families, said tensions from combining families, as Brown's father and Houk were doing, were "pretty normal in a new stepfamily."

"It looks awful from the outside and sort of unspeakable, but these are the kinds of feelings that are pretty normal in a new stepfamily," Papernow said. "You just hope there's not a loaded gun around."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boy; eleven; guncontrol; jail; murder
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Gotta love the last comment. Basically, everyone wants to murder their step family, they just don't because they dont have access to a loaded gun.
1 posted on 02/23/2009 12:11:40 PM PST by christianhomeschoolmommaof3
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

Blended families??? Feelings of plotting murder is pretty common? I have a feeling Ms Papernow has been smoking something she found in one of the outlying cow pastures.


2 posted on 02/23/2009 12:15:16 PM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

“You just hope there’s not a loaded gun around.”

Huh. I have been mad plenty of times with a loaded gun around, yet I have never thought of shooting anyone.


3 posted on 02/23/2009 12:15:17 PM PST by Tex Pete (Obama for Change: from our pockets, our piggy banks, and our couch cushions!)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

It’s a tragic case but I do find it ironic that Dem judges face being struck off for incarcerating youths for minor offenses while this murderer is freed.


4 posted on 02/23/2009 12:17:32 PM PST by relictele
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To: relictele

Well not freed but pampered a bit.


5 posted on 02/23/2009 12:18:22 PM PST by relictele
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To: Tex Pete

But dont you know that guns murder people? sarc

That last line really stood out at me. They think this is a normal little boy who should be keeping busy and be back in school. They think the gun killed the woman and the boy was just a pawn the gun used. These people are insane.


6 posted on 02/23/2009 12:18:27 PM PST by christianhomeschoolmommaof3 (I homeschool because I have seen the village and I dont want it raising my children.)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

The idea of charging this kid as an adult is just insane. He’s ELEVEN, for God’s sake (and in the mugshot he looks like he’s about 7). He can’t begin to understand or control his own feelings towards his father’s very pregnant live-in girlfriend, who has presumably replaced his mother. And then he hops on the school bus like nothing is wrong, accompanied by the dead woman’s 7 year old daughter, who apparently didn’t see any reason to raise an alarm about a gunshot that just went off inside the house. And from the dead woman’s brother-in-law: “’He actually told my son that he wanted to do that to her,’ Houk’s brother-in-law, Jason Kraner, said Saturday. ‘There was an issue with jealousy.’” So there was advance warning that this little boy was harboring some serious anger, but he was still left alone at the house with some younger children, the object of his anger, and a loaded gun??? They’ve got the wrong person in jail here.


7 posted on 02/23/2009 12:20:10 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: Tex Pete
I have never thought of shooting anyone.

Read that psychologist's statement to yourself ten times and THEN say that!

;->

8 posted on 02/23/2009 12:20:42 PM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

Call me old-fashioned, but I thought marriage had to be involved in being a “step FAMILY.” We certainly are defining “family” downward when a father shacking up with a girlfriend becomes a “blended family.”
Many children growing up in these hideous arrangements will not be well-adjusted.


9 posted on 02/23/2009 12:22:33 PM PST by kittymyrib
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

Then put the little devil in a padded room in the closest maximum security mental hospital.

Enough with the “kid glove” treatment of criminals — EVEN kids! PUNISH THEM. MAKE THEM UNCOMFORTABLE. DEMONSTRATE TO THEM THAT THERE IS A PRICE TO PAY FOR BLOWING SOMEONES HEAD OFF.


10 posted on 02/23/2009 12:25:04 PM PST by patriot preacher (To be a good American Citizen and a Christian IS NOT a contradiction. (www.mygration.blogspot.com))
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

11 posted on 02/23/2009 12:28:19 PM PST by mainestategop (MAINE: The way communism should be)
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To: kittymyrib

I don’t find the lack of a government-issued marriage license disturbing, but the lack of swift and comprehensive response to the boy’s advance warning that he wanted to kill his stepmother suggests some really colossal problems in this household — the sort that certainly wouldn’t have been remedied by a marriage license. Not to mention the 7 year old girl who just went ahead and got on the school bus right after a shotgun blast went off inside her home, and apparently didn’t say anything to the driver about a problem. There were obviously major, major, major problems in this household, and the little boy isn’t responsible for them.


12 posted on 02/23/2009 12:28:46 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: theDentist

Blended family is code for shacking up with your girlfriend, getting her pregnant, setting a fine example for all the children, while ignoring your son’s obvious anger and resentment with what you are doing.

Blended..... it’s not The Brady Bunch!


13 posted on 02/23/2009 12:32:04 PM PST by InsensitiveConservative
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To: GovernmentShrinker
The reason I posted the story was because of the obvious “blame the gun” defense. But assuming the boy is guilty this is what I think about the rest. I agree that he shouldn't be charged as an adult but he also shouldn't be released at 18 either. An eleven year old boy is able to understand and control his feelings. My eight year old boy can do that. This boy just didn't control his feelings. What does it matter how old he looks? He knew the gun would end her life and he decided to fire it, again this is assuming that he is guilty of the crime. There may be some merit to investigating the other circumstances. You are assuming that the father knew about the threats his son made. He may have and not taken it seriously or it all may have come out after the fact.
14 posted on 02/23/2009 12:32:30 PM PST by christianhomeschoolmommaof3 (I home school because I have seen the village and I don't want it raising my children.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

“There were obviously major, major, major problems in this household, and the little boy isn’t responsible for them.”

He’s responsible for everything that happened as a result of pulling the trigger.


15 posted on 02/23/2009 12:32:35 PM PST by Red in Blue PA (If guns cause crime, then all of mine are defective.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker
"The idea of charging this kid as an adult is just insane.

Clearly, this child is insane. Eleven year old children don't go around murdering people if they are sane. Additionally, this child must have exhibited some symptoms of mental illness prior to this. It's begs the question, why weren't they caught before this tragedy?

As much as people don't like to admit, sometime people with debilitating psychological problems do commit unspeakable, violent crimes. They need to be treated, especially when they're children. If they are "untreatable", then they need to be medicated and placed in a secure facility, to protect themselves and the public. But, they don't need to be placed in prison with life-long, violent offenders.

16 posted on 02/23/2009 12:32:51 PM PST by Big_Monkey
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3
Patricia Papernow, a psychologist from Hudson, Mass., and expert on blended families, said tensions from combining families, as Brown's father and Houk were doing, were "pretty normal in a new stepfamily."

"Blended family" hell, that 11 year old was living in a "hodge-podge." His "bio-parents" (isn't that a phrase guaranteed to chill your sh!t) and the knocked-up girl friend did it to him.

When deviancy becomes the norm, the envelope gets pushed further and further out.

17 posted on 02/23/2009 12:32:58 PM PST by RobinOfKingston (Democrats, the party of evil. Republicans, the party of stupid.)
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To: Big_Monkey
"Clearly, this child is insane."

Let's assume you are right. Why wouldn't prison be a good place to keep them...if they're insane they probably wouldn't even mind.

18 posted on 02/23/2009 12:35:36 PM PST by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: gorush
"Let's assume you are right. Why wouldn't prison be a good place to keep them...if they're insane they probably wouldn't even mind.

Please tell me this was a failed attempt at humor.

We don't treat people with mental illness as criminals, because they're not. They're sick. Sick people in a civilized society are treated and hopefully cured. If they can't be cured, then they are managed and possibly secured to protect themselves and the public.

19 posted on 02/23/2009 12:38:23 PM PST by Big_Monkey
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To: christianhomeschoolmommaof3

People have been living in “blended” famalies for thousands of years. We forget that prior to the 20th century life expectency wasn’t vary long (like on 30-35 years.) It was pretty common for one parent to die before the children were grown, and the remaining parent to remary.


20 posted on 02/23/2009 12:39:38 PM PST by Brookhaven (Until the three traitors are removed from the Republican Party, I am no longer a Republican.)
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