Failures in parenting...

So once again we have the media fanning the flames in search of ratings.  CNN has posted this report about a shooting in New Orleans.

A home owner goes to check on a noise in his yard at 2 AM.  This is generally a time when people not working the graveyard shift are in bed.  He finds an intruder in his yard by his car at 2 AM.  According to him, the intruder made a move towards him and he discharged his firearm, because he came prepared for the possibility of it not being a stray cat.  One head wound later, the intruder turns out to be a 14 year old with no business in that yard.  The police do not feel that the story is as the home owner has presented, and have arrested him and charged him with Second degree homicide.  They do not dispute that the intruder was in the yard, that he had no right to be there or that it was 2 AM.

Now we have the local church leaders claiming that because he was an unarmed black youth they can invoke the Zimmerman trial and take to the streets.  And of course they are joined by all those who are floundering for a protest now that we have left Iraq, the Occupy movement has run out of free food and the jury in Florida proved that you don't have to like the guy to find him not guilty.  I expect Al Sharpton to be on the next plane.

I am interested to see this unfold.  I want to see the police to explain to me why the 14 year old was out at 2 AM.  Was he walking home from his closing shift at McDonalds?  (No, and he'd probably be on strike anyway... )  Then, even if you have some justification for him being out at 2 AM, what was he doing behind a locked gate in a yard not owned by him, his family or friends?  Also, I am curious to find out about the eyewitness who happened to be there at 2 AM.  Usually at that time of night, when bad things happen, the only people around are the victims and the criminals.  I expect to hear about the witness being a friend who will vouch for the choirboy now in the hospital.  As for the location of the shell casing, I personally have seen my Walther .22 throw a piece of brass 15 feet, not to mention ricochets off nearby structures sending it in odd directions.  My Jericho with the 9mm barrel will throw them farther.   (No idea what the .41AE barrel would do, I've never been able to afford the ammo.)

At 2 AM, in the dark, the homeowner is not under any obligation to determine the age, race, religion, intentions or armed/unarmed status of an intruder.  This is a perfect example of "Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes."  Had this child's parents properly raised this child, he would not have been found in someone else's locked yard at 2 AM looking down the barrel of a gun.