Normalizing The Criminal

The following story is heartbreaking and maddening all at the same time. I am conflicted between feelings of extreme sadness and anger.

An 11-year-old boy is accused of killing his father’s  26-year-old fiancee. The woman was 8 months pregnant with the boy’s would be, technically, half brother.

Jordan Brown allegedly used the shotgun that he had received as a Christmas gift; his father was teaching him how to be a hunter.

The boy’s attorney is trying to get the case moved to juvenile court. The youth might actually be freed. It is all so surreal. Here is an accused killer who will be receiving HOMEWORK in jail so that he doesn’t fall behind in school. That is his attorney’s plan, anyway.

Aside from being a sick and twisted and astonishing story, what shocked me even more was how the s0-called experts are explaining the crime.

By all accounts, it looks like what this kid did is being rationalized as an extreme reaction to the prospects of being integrated into a blended family!!

As both the father of kids in this age group as well as being the Michael Brady of a blended family myself, I take GREAT offense to this.

Can you believe that the psycho babblers are trying to explain this act away as that of an alienated and confused kid afraid of the new family structure before him? Apparently his now deceased stepmother (had she been given the chance to live long enough to become that) had two young daughters of her own, ages 7 and 4.

A psychologist who will remain nameless had this to say: “It looks awful from the outside and sort of unspeakable, but these are the kinds of feelings that are pretty normal in a new step family. You just hope there’s not a loaded gun around.”

It LOOKS awful?? It’s SORT of unspeakable?? These feelings are PRETTY NORMAL in a new stepfamily?? Oh, so maybe it’s the GUN’S fault for being around??

REALLY!

That’s odd. As a father and stepfather myself, I have NEVER witnessed such feelings! I don’t know ANYONE who has experienced these feelings, either.

Of course, it’s HARD to adjust to a blended family. But usually those involved do not feel or express criminal and homicidal rage.

I know I am not a doctor. I am not trained in the science of the mind, but sorry, it is NOT NORMAL to take a shotgun and shoot your father’s pregnant fiancee in the back of the head. NOPE.

Another so-called expert says: “Two out of three step families fail. Would you take your child on a plane to San Francisco with a one-third chance of making it there? That’s what millions of people are doing every day when they try to form these families.”

A point not mentioned by this expert is this: what if the family they were IN had a ZERO chance of succeeding?? THEN what? Then that one in three chance would look pretty good and a risk worth taking.

And millions of people aren’t forming blended families like it’s drinking a fast food meal. It’s not a recreational activity. It is a WAY OF LIFE for so many.

Sometimes the alternative–a slow and depressing spiritual DEATH one might experience staying in a rotten relationship–isn’t an option.

But thanks to the continuing psycho babble regarding this case, kids might get the message that it’s OK to unleash your frustration and fear in this way.

Even if that’s not what these people are saying outright, it’s the clearest message that  a kid this age will walk away with.