On Sunday night, I watched a Dateline piece on Alex and Derrick King, two brothers who, when they were 12 and 13, killed their father with a baseball bat and set fire to their home. I have since read a couple of articles and the comments to a HuffPo piece. The comments are divided between those who think that they should have been locked away for good or executed and those who support the apparent rehabilitation of the boys, now young men, by people caring about them while they were in prison. I tend to the latter as I cannot understand how a country who will not trust the judgment of an 18 year old to drink would put a 12 or 13 year old on trial as an adult. I also know that few people ever come out of our adult prison system better than they went in. The men seem to have made an exceptional adjustment to life on the outside and have a tremendous support system that may bode well for their full re-entry into society. I certainly hope so.
I had not planned on watching Dateline as I find it often lurid and showy. I watched an excellent piece on a woman in Pakistan and stayed to watch this. After watching, I am struck by several feelings. One is why these men were willing to go on national TV and thereby subject themselves to millions of people knowing who they are now and thereby unleashing the kind of vitriol I saw in so many of the comments. The interview provided no insight into the crime and was basically a waste of my time. However, I was struck by their absolute lack of acceptance of the enormity of their crime and the need to acknowledge what they did before they can move forward. They were oddly calm and reserved about their past and were at a loss to even explain what they had been imprisoned for. They were upbeat and looking forward to moving on. They were in a supportive adopted family with other strangers who had become friends after having rallied around them after the crime. All this gives one great hope that they in fact can put this behind them.
However, I am still bothered by this fairly innocuous and partly uplifting interview, because there was a feeling that the rage that had been unleashed the night they killed their father has not been vanquished but fully repressed. The piece provided no information on their life in Florida juvenile facilities, except one mention of the younger Alex's attempt to escape for which he fortunately escaped severe punishment. The piece said his adopted Mother has not discussed the murder with Alex and everyone seems content to pretend the past never happened. Alex, at the urging of Depak Chopra, is speaking to children about the evils of violence at a variety of events. When one was filmed, the student asked Alex why he had been in prison and he replied that he had made some bad decisions. I hardly think murder of your father and arson qualifies as just bad decisions.
Almost all serial killers were physically and mentally abused as children. Most pedophiles are repeating the crime that was done against them. These children were in foster homes from a very early age, abandoned by their mother, and perhaps abused by a father who was apparently pushed to take them in, when a foster home sent Derrick away because of his behavior. The father was a low wage worker who apparently was strict and unavailable emotionally and could provide little in the way of material goods the boys wanted. He allowed a convicted sex offender to befriend the boys and become a very important force in their lives. Alex was abused by this man; and its never been stated whether Derrick was or was not. These events in their lives do not mean they should have been thrown away in an adult prison for life, but they do suggest that these children needed extensive counseling. Growing up in a detention center has to be an emotionally difficult process even without their history. Since Florida has a criminal justice system which promotes law and order over everything else, I can't imagine they received the type of help they most likely needed. Perhaps I'm wrong and I hope I am.
The caring that the people who came to their side while they were in prison is a wonderful statement about how people can behave and how love can make a difference in people's lives; but it doesn't erase the scars that were created by their lives up to and including prison. I admire the woman who took Alex in and is now helping Derrick establish himself. Perhaps if I knew them I would feel more sanguine. But I hope this incredible act of charity [St. Paul's definition] doesn't come back to haunt them.
The interview left many questions and few answers.
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