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Racism is an ugly thing and although I too often see the term bandied about with no credibility I do see it here and these punks need to be prosecuted . Kids are regularly out and about at 5:00pm..calling social services over an eight year old being in a neighbors yard is a waste of resources. As to the comments about Confederate flags and such..your point? Last time I looked we were still free to fly and represent whatever we want.
Racism is an ugly thing and although I too often see the term bandied about with no credibility I do see it here and these punks need to be prosecuted . Kids are regularly out and about at 5:00pm..calling social services over an eight year old being in a neighbors yard is a waste of resources. As to the comments about Confederate flags and such..your point? Last time I looked we were still free to fly and represent whatever we want.
People are free to fly it and other people are free to give their opinion on it. It's when people start saying "there oughta be a law" that our rights start to become threatened.
People are free to fly it and other people are free to give their opinion on it. It's when people start saying "there oughta be a law" that our rights start to become threatened.
Racism is an ugly thing and although I too often see the term bandied about with no credibility I do see it here and these punks need to be prosecuted . Kids are regularly out and about at 5:00pm..calling social services over an eight year old being in a neighbors yard is a waste of resources. As to the comments about Confederate flags and such..your point? Last time I looked we were still free to fly and represent whatever we want.
My point was that the family of that 8 year has to take the responsibility for what happened to their non-adult supervised 8 year old.
It's not NH's fault that his head was in that rope. The older boys were bullies, but not necessarily racist for using some racial slurs. Kids do and say stupid thoughtless things all of the time.
They also didn't find a length of rope and make a hangman's noose. The rope was part of an old tire swing where the tire broke and fell off. The rope loop was already there. What happened was not an actual lynching.
Anyway, I disagree with our current society's thinking that a victim has no fault in any dire situation they got themselves into. And I also think that society is far too quick to label every black/white incident as being racially motivated.
My point was that the family of that 8 year has to take the responsibility for what happened to their non-adult supervised 8 year old.
It's not NH's fault that his head was in that rope. The older boys were bullies, but not necessarily racist for using some racial slurs. Kids do and say stupid thoughtless things all of the time.
They also didn't find a length of rope and make a hangman's noose. The rope was part of an old tire swing where the tire broke and fell off. The rope loop was already there. What happened was not an actual lynching.
Anyway, I disagree with our current society's thinking that a victim has no fault in any dire situation they got themselves into. And I also think that society is far too quick to label every black/white incident as being racially motivated.
Oh I agree victims often bear a part of the blame. For instance had this family had foreknowledge that the teens intent was to do the child harm, or even a grain of concern then yes they bear responsibility. The same can be said to the young lady who has foreknowledge that women who get drunk at college parties often become targets for sexual assault yet decide to go ahead and put themselves in such a position anyway. However I find nothing that has been revealed that says that was even remotely the case here. 14 year olds know what they are doing, and what they are saying.
I think too many are trying to make this terrible incident a hate crime. Yes, the 14 year old boys need to be punished, but IMO it is very likely that it was a matter of 14 year boys bullying a much younger 8 year old boy. And while the older boys might be from white trash families... I also have a problem with the 8 year old boy being outside completely unsupervised by his parents or other authorized adult. 8 years of age seems too young to be outside and just hanging around and with no adults in sight.
Teen boys do lots of stupid things and say lots of stupid things. Hurling insults at the 8 year old, including some racial slurs, doesn't make them raging racists. Otherwise, according to the article in the Boston Globe today, the 8 year old's name is Lyric Merlin... which would also make him a target for other children making fun of him for his name. Anyway, I seems to me that the 8 year old wanted to hang out and be friends with the 14 year olds, and they weren't interested in being friends with him. They started off with verbal insults, then it escalated to physical abuse. IMO an 8 year old needs to be friends with other 8 year old children.
From the Boston Globe photo of Lyric Merlin hugging his mother, he seems very tall and big for his age. From the picture it looks like he is taller and bigger than she is.
None of us know what happened here, and regardless, I am sure it was traumatic for the kid, racism aside. Nevertheless, right from the beginning it struck me as adults applying their knowledge of the history of lynching to an incident involving kids who very well know nothing about "lynching." Also, I have seen several pictures of the 8 year old, and I would never have known he wasn't white, although his sisters do look more biracial.
I saw a segment about this on Nightline last week, and as of that point, a GoFundMe account had raised over $50,000 for the kid! For what? At the same time, I just Googled the mother of the "perp" and a mugshot came up - she was arrested in a Claremont drug sweep in 2014. The credibility of everyone involved is strained, in my opinion.
Re: the kid being named Lyric Merlin, all I could find was that that is the name of his uncle, not his name.
I don't have an issue with the kids playing outside unsupervised. I used to play with neighborhood kids when I was much younger than that.
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