11-year-old US girl has been spared a felony trial for throwing a stone at boys pelting her with water balloons.
Thank gawd the lawyers managed to agree a deal. Let’s hear it for the lawyers! Huzzah, huzzah for the shysters!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4744025.stm
No, it’s an 11-year-old acting like a 6-year-old.
I’m sorry, but anyone who cuts loose with a two pound rock in response to a water balloon has some issues. Barring some type of intervention, this child will amost certainly be putting in a repeat performance before she reaches majority.
I had a situation like that with my daughter when she was nine. She was
charged with Battery for defending herself from an older girl on the
playground at school. Needless to say we fought that one through the
court system. When she showed up in the court room in her little pink
dress, the judge just shook his head, had a little chat with the
prosecuting attorney, and promptly dismissed the charges. The system
is getting a little ridiculous when it comes to matters like this now days.
It seems such a waste of time and money for everyone involved. I have
no problem with justice, but it makes me sick that the legal system is
getting so namby pamby that it forgets that children tend to act
childish at times, and that this is a natural part of growing up.
It’s a kid acting like a kid. 6, 8, 11, still a kid.
Issues? 
Hmm. I’d have thought that three cop cars, a helicopter, 5 days in detention (with only one 30-minute visit from her parents), and 30 days of house arrest is “some type of intervention” for sure.
in the case of kids - I think, before a “sentence” is handed out, the entire family situation needs some real scrutiny.
We recently had two 8 year olds 
rob someone - and they used GUNS! That judge (who is an adult court judge) I referred to in a different thread asked our COP group if we thought that these two kids can be “helped”. I stated that ONLY if they are removed from their family surroundings and put into a different one. I’m sorry, there has to be something majorly lacking if 8 year olds are using guns to rob someone.
We always hear about a perps “family” and background when they are accused of a crime (the infamous “They are such a good boy” comments from relatives). I think with children, the family really needs to be looked at to see if there are opportunites for change - and if not, the child should be placed in a different atmosphere.
I’m left wondering if the injured 8-year old boy felt he may have done anything to incite the girl, and also how the heck she managed to hurl a 2 pound rock far enough to hit him, unless she dropped it on him?
I think at 11 I’d have known throwing a big rock was using excessive force - a bit like the excessive Police response. What if she’s just kicked him, or thumped him? She’d probably still have got in trouble with the authorities.
Spot on. If she was an adult/teenager, throwing a 2lb stone to do the kind of damage described would be no problem. I’ve always been athletic, played ice hockey and kendo most of my life, and at 11 I was pretty stout, but I don’t recall that 2lbs of stone would have been the first weapon most easily weilded…I wouldn’t have needed a rock, but I’d still have to get pretty close to use 2lbs of it at that age.
From having had much experience (through my wife teaching elementary school) with kids near that age, I’d be willing to bet that the boys had done more that their fair share of inciting this incident in the form of past torment.
In my time I have seen some little shits (pardon the expression, but that’s what some of them are, mostly because their parents refuse to dicipline them) torment other kids, younger and older than themselves, and if the victims of the torment eventually retaliate, the original victim always seems to get the stiffer punishment regardless of what kind of home life they live in, and the bullies are usually off scott free. Kids can only take so much torment before they just can’t take it anymore, and they all react diferently. I feel that more research into the boy’s behavior in the past should be looked into more. Maybe he’s the one who needs the intervention.
The police overkill was definately uncalled for.
There’s obviously too much going on that we don’t know.
I’m just waiting for the inevitable.
There is admittedly some difference between a two pound jagged edged rock and a two pound water balloon, but the fact that the assault by the boys on their drive by is not even considered a contributing factor is a bit telling, don’t you think? Nice young boys, just being boys, but the young girl who stands up for herself and her brother, with the only weapon at hand, is arrested and charged with assault? Let’s get a bit more realistic here and charge the hooligans who started this little interaction as well.
Think “Draco Malfoy” “suffering” in the infirmary from the “dreadful” injuries inflicted upon him by… well… gee… the very beings whom he had been tormenting… poor little innocent Draco… (choke)
I agree that the incident with the ballons was aggressive and was the instigation of the confrontation. I agree that hurling a rock in response was not a wise thing to do. But perhaps the girl was unprepared to be attacked by strangers and was not aware of an appropriate response. How do you think the girl should have been prepared before hand? What kind of counselling is correct regarding being attacked by strangers, regardless of the severity of the weapons used?
In my experience, when a child first perceives a hostile invasion of their personal space, their immediate reaction is one of outrage, and irrational behaviour is the typical response. Its what children do. Going to court over such a matter is an abuse of the police’ and court’s time IMHO, and the accusing parents should have been fined proportionally.
djm
According to her laywers, the water balloons were far from the first provocation that these particular boys had engaged in with this girl. It was the time she snapped, but they had been bullying her for some time.
As the parent of a child who has been unmercifully bullied (and who also has emotional issues, which is why other kids feel free to bully her in the first place), I can say that I’m only surprised we don’t hear about more of this kind of thing. Too often the adults in the situation either ignore it or tell the victim she’s being “overly sensitive” until one day the victim just loses it.
The felony charge was ridiculously extreme. Intervention? You bet! All the kids involved need intervention, as far as I can tell. But felony “assault with a deadly weapon” charge? That’s just insane.
Redwolf
Also according to the child’s lawyers, the stone she threw had first been hurled at her, narrowly missing her 6-year-old brother. And apparently the stone wasn’t the girt big rock the police and prosecutors were offering in evidence. Interesting detail at: http://www.freemaribel.org/
At first, I thought that this happened in New Mexico, where it is a felony for anyone to throw
a rock of any size. The story I heard was that a lawmaker pushed the law through after his
child was killed by a thrown rock. But, in California this is not so clear cut, law-wise.
As I suspected…
The boys are lucky that she didn’t beat the 'kin’ell outta them! 
I find it interesting that the report listed it as “a water balloon fight”, as if she had been participating in a playful game and had substituted a rock for the agreed-upon waterballoon. Hardly the fact at all.
And the injured boy was the police commissioner’s son? [I’m just making that up.]
Really silly and awful. To separate her from her parent for five days…
In most European countries btw you cannot commit a crime before age 14 or so. You are not considered sufficiently mature to fully understand your actions, and therefore cannot be held responsible for them. Remember that crime requires intent and intent requires the ability to understand the consequences of your actions, to understand what is expected of you, and to have the ability to conduct yourself accordingly. A bit much to ask of an 11-year old, imo.
After the assault on her with the BA.1100-N missile system (AKA H-20 bombs) she defended herself with the S.T.one missile system (preferred anti-aircraft device of the mujahideen).
Ban rocks!
OK no more coffee.
This kind of behavior in children has always occurred. The bullies choose a target and pick on them until the person being bullied snaps. It sounds like the response of the “justice system” was completely overboard in this case (in my opinion, of course). There’s a reason why the “Scut Farkas Affair” in the movie A Christmas Story is so memorable: we’ve all experienced or seen it in our own lives.
In grade school, I was the target of a bully for a couple of years. In 7th grade, I finally snapped and fought back. (Schoolyard fist fight; we might have landed one or two good hits each before a teacher showed up.) After that, he left me alone, and he actually stopped picking on others as well. In fact, we eventually became friends. Of course, I was sure my father would be furious and that I’d get the spanking of my life. To my surprise, he sat me down and told me about going through a similar situation in school himself.