Kansas CIty: 5 Year-Old Girl May Be Charged With Murder

[MattShizzle]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_kansas_drowning_charge

A 5-year-old girl could face murder charges in the recent drowning of a toddler in a bathtub, police said on Thursday.
Kansas City police are waiting for a medical examiner's report on how Jermane Johnson Jr., died, but have investigated the death as a homicide, spokesman Darin Snapp said Thursday.
"I've been in law enforcement for 20 years and it's the youngest suspect I can remember," Snapp said. "It's extremely rare."
Johnson, 18 months old, was in a Kansas City house on June 3rd with other children, but the 16-year-old girl who was supposed to be looking after them fell asleep, Snapp said.
Investigators learned through interviews that a 5-year-old girl in the house got irritated at the boy, Snapp said.
"She said she got angry because he would not stop crying and she held him under the water until he stopped crying," Snapp said.
Bolding added by me. Seriously, what the fuck??? I know there's been a lot of children charged as adults in the US lately (including giving 11 year olds life in prison) but 5????

[Тачанка]

Do they even have prison for such young folks?

I believe she doesn't even know whatever the fuck she did. How could she have learned, she's just 5. Babysitter should be charged, if at all.

[Sasha]

Jesus, the US are fucking insane, over here you can't even be charged at all if you are under 12 (with fucking good reason I might add) and any crime committed before you turn 18 gets you specialised therapie focused juvenile detention and an clean (well actually sealed) sheath the day you turn 18.
Sorry but to say it an bit blunt; If they can't vote you can't charge them with murder.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Such a sad story.The amount of neglect in this tragedy is heavy;the baby sitter, the parents who hired a lazy sitter, and the police for thinking that a five year old is some sort of malicious murderer.I'm not sure why the young girl killed the baby, but she needs mental health treatment, not to be locked away in some sort of detention facility for toddlers.

[PhoenixAsh]

Children are still developing their moral and ethical world view and have no way of comprehending the consequences and severity of the actions on any real distinctive level...nor can they completely be held accountable for their actions.

Abstract issues such as death may be known but more often than not it is not realised what it actually is.

This is insane. Totally and utterly insane.

The child may need psychological care or observation. Maybe that is warranted but WTF people? How can anybody in their right minds see the child as a a serious suspect.

I agree with Psycho here. Not old enough to vote...not old enough to be treated as an adult.

[Leftsolidarity]

The 5 year old probably has no idea what she actually did. I have a very large family including a 5 year old and a mental challenged sister who has the mental capacity of about a 5 year old. We also have 2 babies and they do not understand how to deal with babies at all. I strongly doubt that 5 year old knew that it would kill the baby and I doubt she even understands it now. It is absolutely stupid to put her in jail. She will need mental help though but probably more just for her dealing with the fact that she killed a baby.

[Terminator X]

No way the child gets charged with anything, and it's fucking ridiculous that this is even being investigated as a homicide. Accidental death due to neglect, or even at the absolute maximum, criminally negligent manslaughter charges against the babysitter would be even slightly understandable, but mulling murder charges against a five-year-old makes me seriously question the police examiner's intelligence.

[Robocommie]

The girl is probably black. No joke. They like to charge black kids with all kinds of crimes that they won't charge white kids with.

[khad]

I'm about 95% sure that the victim's black. How often does one see non-Afroamericans named Jermane or Jermaine?

[GPDP]

Who in blimey fuck would even think of charging a little kid for homici-


Kansas

Oh there we go.

[L.A.P.]

Who in blimey fuck would even think of charging a little kid for homici-


United States

Oh there we go.

Fixed.

[Reznov]

Such a sad story.The amount of neglect in this tragedy is heavy;the baby sitter, the parents who hired a lazy sitter, and the police for thinking that a five year old is some sort of malicious murderer.I'm not sure why the young girl killed the baby, but she needs mental health treatment, not to be locked away in some sort of detention facility for toddlers.

Agreed, but this seems all similar to the American mind set (All the way from your poor citizen to rich citizen, its always another persons fault or failing.)

[MattShizzle]

Who in blimey fuck would even think of charging a little kid for homici-



Oh there we go.

Technically, it's Missouri.

[GPDP]

Technically, it's Missouri.

Well that's what I get for not making note of the "City" part in the title. Thanks for the correction.

[MattShizzle]

The idea of charging children - and even charging them as adults and sending them to adult prisons as young as 10 or 11 is nothing new in the US. Came about due to people being outraged that a 15 or 16 year old got off for a major crime with only a couple/few years in juvie. But now they pretty much automatically charge as adults for murder (or even other serious crimes) no matter what the age (except, until now, when they are very, very young.) In fact I remember reading until a few years back when the US Supreme Court ruled anyone under 18 could not be executed that Indiana had the law where the youngest of any state could be sentenced to death - 10.

[MattShizzle]

Does anyone know - I've been wondering this. DOes any other country on the planet sentence pre-teen children to life in prison?

[Decolonize The Left]

In the comments below the article someone raised the point that there's no court in the states that will actually charge a 5-year-old with murder. It's that the police have to use 'homicide' as an investigative term...

- August

[Rakhmetov]

Crazy crazy crazy.

It was obiously an accident. The girl did not know what she was doing. Really ... a five year old will know what death is??

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Agreed, but this seems all similar to the American mind set (All the way from your poor citizen to rich citizen, its always another persons fault or failing.)

Well, in a way it is always someones fault since there are factors that individuals could have done to prevent such a event from occurring (such as those I listed above). However, I see you point in that sometimes awful things just happen and you cannot control them.I highly doubt the parents of the five year old could have had any comprehension of what could have happened.

[RadioRaheem84]

The US is so weird. In some cases it really mirrors the banality seen in third world nations.

After visiting both third world nations and developed Western European nations, I can safely say that the US is some where in between, mirroring more and more a post-Soviet Russia or Poland, rather than a France or Sweden.

Not to say that Western European social democracies are perfect, but that the US is seriously not the bastion of freedom we propagandize to the world.

At the bottom level of this country, we are right at the edge of a third world nation.

[tachosomoza]

There won't be murder. Gross negligence manslaughter for the 16 year old.

[PhoenixAsh]

ˆˆ

I never got that either. If you want your children to be safe...do NOT leave them in the care of other children. The girl fell asleep...yes...its horribly irresponsible. But hell...she is a child herself. They make mistakes and yes...sometimes taht has horrible consequences.

I don't think branding her for life and sentencing her to prison and ruining her future will in any way shape or form make the world a better place or help this girl in her future. The girl already has a huge trauma of guilt. Perhaps rightly so...but adding to that...will not serve any purpose than vengeance.

Vengeance on behalf of the parents who were stupid and irresponsible enough to leave the kids in teh care of another child, who probably had had no proper training in childcare whatsoever.

This is not a blame game however. The parents have to face a horrible loss. I don't think they should be punished either.

But these horrible things happen. Punishing anybody doesn't make a damned bit of difference.