N.J. Boy Pleads Guilty to Killing Toddler

[raifield]

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - An 11-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering a 3-year-old, admitting he beat the toddler with a baseball bat and dumped him face down in a drainage ditch.

Aaron Kean, who was 10 at the time of the crime, told a judge Thursday that he brutalized the youngster because the boy was bothering him and wanted to use his scooter, people who attended the closed juvenile proceeding told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

more...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=5&u=/ap/20031212/ap_on_re_us/child_killed_plea

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:wtf:

That's roughly 20 minutes from me. Lovely. I should check the local papers about this. Disgusting, but even that word is inadequete to describe this. The English language is inadequete to describe this...outrage.

Edit: The boy was alledgely physically abused by his father and not removed from the house. Phsyical abuse creates physical abusers though, creating a very vicious cycle as sadly seen here.

[Robin Hood]

1. i'm shaking my head in disbelief.

I guess that all of this 24/7 war has an effect on kids. Aren't we always at war?

[raifield]

2. You know, that's a good point...

...I should start looking up statistics. Do violent crimes increase during times of war? Would be an interesting sociological report.

Undoubtably however, war imagery does affect children. Hell, I'm 20 years old and remember watching GI Joe. I always felt a little like doing what GI Joe does, shooting things and such. However, I took it out on the 386 computer, not the 3 year old child next door. What a sad state of society we're witnessing. :(

[sistersofmercy]

6. Actually the only significant drop in prisoners who commited violent

crimes was during the Vietnam war. After which the statistics reveal violent crime perpetraters to increase at a fairly steady rate over the past three decades. This was based on actual prisoners and not reported crimes.

[sistersofmercy]

3. This reminds of the case in England when the two boys of the same

age took the toddler from the mall. There was also another case in the US a few years back similar to this one. What conditions make it possible for something like this to happen? How can a ten year old be filled with such rage? What should be done in the name of justice? Is it possible to rehabilate such a human being? I just don't know but I do view it as a symptom of a greater problem within our society.

[LeftHander]

4. Did the prosecuter want to try him as an adult?

WOuldn't surprise me.

[raifield]

5. Doesn't sound like it...

Kean, of Woodbridge, could get up to 20 years in custody at sentencing Friday. He is expected to be sent out of state to a specialized children's mental health facility.

[maxanne]

7. for a society that claims to value children

we sure are doing a piss poor job with them. Kids seem to be increasingly angry and violent. And we aren't doing much to eliminate the root causes.