Cali Fires: Will a 10 year old boy be charged for the fire/s?

[Prrkitty]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1681041,00.html?cnn=yes

Quote: Southern Californians are still sorting through the wreckage from the fires, which burned more than 800 square miles — an area 40 times as large as Manhattan — and destroyed some 2,100 homes. The 10-year-old's carelessness sparked the Buckweed fire in Los Angeles County, which destroyed 21 homes and injured at least three people. Those losses have left some residents in a less than forgiving mood. "If you accidentally set a massive fire that destroys homes, cause residents to flee for their lives and requires millions of dollars in resources to extinguish, then you damn well need to pay the piper," wrote Dave Bossert on his online newspaper, The West Ranch Beacon.

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Does the child know right from wrong about most things? At age 10 I'd have to say yes. But does the child have the mental capacity to fully understand *all* the possible consequences of his actions (ie: matches causing fires, fire burning down houses, fire killing people. etc)? I'd honestly have to say... probably/possibly not.

The end result has been horribly horribly horrendous. There is no question about that. But should this follow that child for the rest of his life?

Now granted... I'm looking at this from a point of view where I have not been one of those damaged. I have not had my house burned down, my life put in danger, etc.

But honestly I think this shouldn't damage the future of this 10 year old boy. I'm not sure how he should be punished, or even how his parents should be held accountable for their child's actions.

Ultimately it's a very sticky situation and I'm glad I'm not one of those that has to make decisions about any of this.

[Aegix Drakan]

duude...

0_0 This is nuts. I can understand people are upset, but...

Prosecuting a 10 year old boy? That's a little nuts, no?

Ok, yes, he caused a huge fire, but he could NOT have known that it could even POSSIBLY caused a gigantic blaze. A 10 year old kid can't understand things like dry humidity, and wind factors, and such, so how can they expect him to understand that it could have caused a disaster.

>_> Sides, what good will prosecuting this kid do? All it'll do is destroy the kids life (and the family), and give the other people satisfaction that SOMEONE was blamed for the whole thing.

What I find scary is, if the death penalty hadn't been banned against minors, someone would try to have this kid killed, which would be an atrocity.


...what do the people affected by the fire have to say? Cloral? Guys? What do you think seeing as you guys are "personally involved" in a way?

[Pineconn]

The kid was playing with matches. By age 8 I was fully aware of the consequences of playing with fire (thanks to organizations that educate young children about this). Do you pardon a person when he or she accidentally shoots a firearm at someone?

Obviously the kid shouldn't be tried as an adult, but he should have some kind of punishment. Would fining his family be unethical? I have no idea.

[Breaker]

Parents should be held responsible.

[Lilith]

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[Trevelyan_06]

The parents of the child defiantly have some responsibility in this situation in my opinion. As does the child, at least to the extent that at 10 he should have known better than to be playing with matches. However, children playing with matches have set houses on fire before. What was unique about this situation was the fact that it started a wildfire. I'm inclined to think that if this child would have just burned down his house we would have heard very little about it indeed.

At this point I think people are just angry and looking for someone to blame. Yes, the child did start a wildfire because he was playing with matches, but we have to look at the fact that this was in an area that is prone to wildfires. I understand that you can't just say, "Well if you don't like the wildfires you should just move." That's neither fair nor can everyone in that area just up and do that. That being said though, these people need to realize that they are in fact in an area that is prone to wildfires, and if it wasn't this child it could have been someone burning leaves, using their fireplace, or any other number of things that might have started the fire.

I think it's safe to say the child should NOT have been playing with fire, and the parents should have made doubly sure that the child knew not to play with fire and restrict access to matches and the like, especially in an area prone to wildfires. Another thing to consider though, maybe the parents DID warn their child about the dangers of playing with fire, took the necessary precautions, maybe even extraordinary measures, to prevent the access of matches, and the child still managed to do this. Once again as is often the case in these situations we don't have all the information nor can we know what's going through a person mind when something like this happens.

As for punishing the kid in some way. What's the point? Him and his family are going to know for the rest of his life that he's the one that started the fire and caused all that damage. Slapping him and his family with millions of dollars worth of fines will not unburn houses and the memories contained inside them. All it will really do is sate people's thirst for vengeance for losing their homes.

[Skulkraken]

I'm thinking something along those lines *is* what is going to happen to the kid's family. I mean, if people are denied a chance to get vengeance through a lawsuit, wouldn't it be possible that they'd then try to get vengeance through some other means?

So that huge wildfire people were talking about was started by a kid? Wow. Most wildfires around here are started on purpose, by deer hunters who bag game by burning the forests, thus driving the deer out into the open.

[Trevelyan_06]

I'm thinking something along those lines *is* what is going to happen to the kid's family. I mean, if people are denied a chance to get vengeance through a lawsuit, wouldn't it be possible that they'd then try to get vengeance through some other means?


If someone is going to seek out vengeance via means other than a lawsuit, they most likely would do that whether there is a pending lawsuit or not.

[Glitch]

They should burn all of the kid's toys in front of him.

[Breaker]

They should burn all of the kid's toys in front of him.

or delete his WOW account.

[Glitch]

or delete his WOW account.

Oh, now thats just fucking low.

[Lilith]

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[rock_nog]

If he hadn't started a wildfire, but had been caught playing with matches, would he have been in any trouble at all (besides, obviously, with his parents)? I mean, if there are legal repercussions for this kid, then there should be legal repercussions for kids who don't start wildfires, too, in my opinion. In this case, he's being punished for having the bad luck to start a fire, not for the actual problem of playing with matches to begin with. Yes, the one led to the other, but the point is, if playing with matches leads to wildfires, there needs to be consequences for playing with matches. You need consistency here.

[phattonez]

^^If that were the case then you have to outlaw matches for kids, and then what about the ones who do know how to use matches? They can't use them anymore?

[punkonjunk1024]

dude when I was like 13 or so, I was making explosives and flamable stupid shit in my garage. Thank god for the internet, so I could find out how to make fucking bombs and napalm. Anyhow, long story short, it went up in flames - using candles as lighting while experimenting with napalm wasn't a good idea. Fortunately, everything was incinerated, and I said the explosions were probobly paint cans, and it was considered accidental - our landlords couldn't press charges because they were at fault - they didn't insure the seperated from the house garage, which is illegal in wisconsin, or was at the time, so they just fixed it and all I had was some stupid fire class.

[biggiy05]

Parents should be held responsible.

Agreed


They should burn all of the kid's toys in front of him.

He would love watching everything burn though.

[Prrkitty]

But biggiy... no where in any of the articles that I've read has it been said that the kid is a pyro. Just because he was playing with matches does not automatically mean he is one.

We'd need more info on the kid. Plus the fact that he's 10... I doubt much will be said about him - for awhile anyway.