[jane_sm1th73]

OMG. This is truly tragic. Those poor kids! There's generally an amnesty on kids, even by the most depraved. What on earth have we come to?

This would strike New Haven off my list as a target home location, if I had children and was looking to move. From today's Hartford Courant:

Police: Man Fires At Group Of Children In New Haven - Courant.com (http://tinyurl.com/663yxna - broken link)

This rattles me down to my toenails. This kind of depravity grew up and was fostered in a framework where it is acceptable. If people are not already too jaded, there will be loud bleats about prevention and countermeasures. Much of the bleating will involve adding bored bureaucrats to state agencies, in order to dispense paperwork.

My particular platform would be "No Mas". It would include policy measures that eliminate subsidies encouraging the propagation of this cultural mindset. The shooting reflects the world view of somebody who has been raised for his functionality as a poker chip, for his utility as a checkmark on the AFDC form, and for whom it is therefore natural to treat all others similarly as objects.

Who knows? He may have been so resentful at the happiness before him that he shot out of sheer anger. We will likely never get a follow up story.

One thing is certain. When cultural norms no longer include "conscience", and there are enough sociopaths that children are fair game, we have passed the tipping point. We may expect increasingly frequent acts of depravity.

One has to wonder how much of this is never reported. For example, at Riverwest in Milwaukee this past Sunday night, a mob that beat and looted its way through the park went unreported. Although the twenty bloody victims called the police and they responded and listened and advised the people to go home, no names were taken, no police reports written, and the officers didn't give their names. If a police report is not filed, the crime does not hit the statistics. The only reason it made the news was because several of the bloodied up victims were outraged enough to call the local newspaper, the Journal Sentinel, to demand coverage. The police chief (?Flynn?) dutifully held a press conference when it became apparent that the "damage" (to his numbers) was not going to be "contained" (never mind the victims). It was a mob, which perpetrated scores of hate crimes, including broken bones and teeth, on small groups of college students, totalling twenty. However, since a press conference does not equate to a police report, the crimes will still not hit the stats unless the police department can be shamed into writing police reports on a retroactive basis.

So, I fear that there will be an increasing number of random violent crimes that will never hit the numbers. Sort of like the veil of silence around domestic violence in the 50s and 60s.

PS - Milwaukee is also officially off my list. But it might not have been had I not read about this incident, and others like it.

[Tin Knocker]

While its a terrible thing to think about, a person shooting at kids, theres not enough detail in the linked story to draw a good perception of even what hapenned let alone why the guy did it. How old were these kids out after 9 PM? Was it a drug related thing? Where is this sort of thing acceptable as you seem to allege? I'v no idea about what hapenned in Milwaukee but it seems very different than the NH issue.

[LRPct]

If you take EVERY place off your "move to list" where something bad has happened the only place that will be "safe" for you will be an asteroid. Good luck.

+1 on what age/who were these "children" hanging out in the streets at almost 9:30pm.

[7 Wishes]

The article is very vague, I mean it doesn't say the ages of the kids, or if anyone was hurt or killed. While a very tragic story nonetheless, I'm surprised at how short the article is.

But saying (as I think you're alluding to) that giving social services to the poor caused this kind of mentality is a little far-fetched. Yes there are many people who "game the system" and basically "sit on their fanny", but how does that lead to murdering children (or anyone)? And if society didn't do anything to help someone with no job or income, would that have really changed his mindset not to commit crimes? And finally, it doesn't mean that we should do away with such help, why punish the people who really are down on their luck and need a hand? What's your solution to that? (and I don't want to hear "loosen regulation so we create $1/hour jobs for everyone", that will produce the same frustration and mentality)

[JViello]

Originally Posted by LRPct

If you take EVERY place off your "move to list" where something bad has happened the only place that will be "safe" for you will be an asteroid. Good luck.

LOL

Originally Posted by LRPct

+1 on what age/who were these "children" hanging out in the streets at almost 9:30pm.

Well, being the inner city, I think we know how that goes.

[LRPct]

Originally Posted by 7 Wishes

The article is very vague, I mean it doesn't say the ages of the kids, or if anyone was hurt or killed. While a very tragic story nonetheless, I'm surprised at how short the article is.

But saying (as I think you're alluding to) that giving social services to the poor caused this kind of mentality is a little far-fetched. Yes there are many people who "game the system" and basically "sit on their fanny", but how does that lead to murdering children (or anyone)? And if society didn't do anything to help someone with no job or income, would that have really changed his mindset not to commit crimes? And finally, it doesn't mean that we should do away with such help, why punish the people who really are down on their luck and need a hand? What's your solution to that? (and I don't want to hear "loosen regulation so we create $1/hour jobs for everyone", that will produce the same frustration and mentality)

The article was like 3 sentences. One of them saying "nobody was injured in the incident". Kind of hard to hide it in 3 sentences.

[Stylo]

20 year old shooting at 17 year olds?

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by mkiv808

20 year old shooting at 17 year olds?

I wondered that too. Given the time, most children are usually inside, not hanging out at the street corner. Jay

[JayCT]

Funny, I checked 3 New Haven news websites (New Haven Register, WTNH and New Haven Independent) and could not find anything on this. You would htink they would have something if this was a significant incident. Jay

[willow wind]

I agree with previous posters - nothing locally being said about this incident.
And very likely a " 20 year old shooting at 17 year olds" type of thing.

For those of you familiar with or semi familiar with New Haven- The shooting location is two blocks directly west of St. Raphael's, and two blocks east of the Boulevard, bordered on the north by Chapel St. & on the south by George St. No place to be out at night if you're a kid ( or an adult) .

I suspect if more info becomes known it will turn into a gang related incident.
Wouldn't be surprised if tonight the kids are shooting back at the adult.