Photo via ClickOrlando.com
June 2, 2021, 12:56 pm
Florida police officers opened fire upon two young children, one 14 and one 12, after they ran away from a foster care home and found a house that contained what has been described as an “arsenal” of guns, including at least one AK-47. Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies searching for the pair received a report of shattering glass discovered signs of forced entry outside of the house and surrounded it.
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According to the officers, though it should be noted that just because the police said it doesn’t mean it’s true, the kids started firing on them from inside the house. After about half an hour, the 14-year-old walked out of the garage, allegedly with a shotgun, and the cops shot her in the chest and arm. After being rushed to the hospital, she was eventually reported to be in stable condition.
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The cops involved claim they had “no choice” but to shoot a 14-year-old girl in the chest, but have not been able to explain why negotiation attempts failed or why they couldn’t just back off of the empty house and monitor the situation until someone better at negotiation or perhaps child welfare experts could arrive. Thankfully, the 12-year-old soon surrendered without being injured.
Instead, County Sheriff Mike Chitwood rationalized the near killing of the children by referring to them as killers in spite of the fact that they didn’t actually shoot anybody, unlike his officers. He further used this incident to attack the entire idea of restorative justice, clearly not understanding what the term means.
“The brainiacs in Tallahassee, they want to do this restorative justice stuff,” he said. “They need to take a deep look and say, ‘Something’s not right here,’ because where the rubber meets the road, these kids are killers. They’re capable of killing.”
Of course, everyone is technically capable of killing, but that does not make each one of us a killer until we actually do the deed, as U.S. police do about three times per day.
Chitwood also reportedly referred to the children as “evil.” Not only that, but the department has now charged both of the kids with attempted murder of police officers as well as armed burglary in spite of their young age and the fact that they were only armed because the house was full of guns. He also admitted to having “no sympathy” for the pair and called them “thugs.”
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“You’ll have people out there that think little Johnny, if he got his head patted on a little more more, this wouldn’t happen, or if Janie if someone hugged her and kissed her, this wouldn’t have happened,” Chitwood said. “They don’t want to understand that there’s evil in the world, and I can’t explain why a 12- or 14-year-old are evil.”
Someone might explain to Sheriff Chitwood that the foster care system is rife with abuse and many kids come out of that system deeply traumatized, if only from being separated from their parents. He might try to consider that the 12- and 14-year-old children may have had a good reason for running away from their foster home and even had reason to prefer shooting at police to returning to that place.
The race of the children does not appear to have been reported, but a disproportionate number of kids in the foster care system are Black, possibly giving them another reason not to like or trust cops.
This will not be the first time a child as young as 12 has been charged with such a serious crime in the state of Florida, which leads the nation in trying children as adults despite the very much incomplete brain development of preteens. Between 2010 and 2015, 7,200 Florida kids were tried as adults for non-violent crimes, with another 4,800 facing a judge as a temporary adult for violent offenses.
Childhood development experts have resoundingly argued against this practice, pointing out that children are not actually adults no matter what a court might say, and putting kids through the adult justice system can be severely traumatizing to kids who are likely already traumatized.
*First Published: June 2, 2021, 12:56 pm
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