Cops Refuses To Charge Florida 5‑year-old Who Beat His Teacher, Hospitalizing Her…

Certain mark­ers must be laid down when cer­tain events occur, if not for any oth­er rea­son than to estab­lish prece­dent, day date, and time included.
The case of a Florida Special Education (5) year-old stu­dent alleged­ly beat­ing a female teacher neces­si­tat­ing a hos­pi­tal vis­it is one for the ages.
We are painful­ly aware that it is dif­fi­cult to bring crim­i­nal charges against chil­dren of a cer­tain age; nev­er­the­less, the ques­tion remains if the crime com­mit­ted by a young­ster of that age is any less painful to the vic­tim because the injury was inflict­ed by a child that young?
I cer­tain­ly do not have all the answers, but I find the Pembroke Pines Police Departments’ deci­sion [not] to charge the boy with any crimes a bit baf­fling. Shouldn’t that be the deci­sion of the pros­e­cu­tor’s office?

Jason B. Blank, chair­man of the Florida Bar’s Criminal Law Section, agreed with the deci­sion, espe­cial­ly with the attack hap­pen­ing in a spe­cial edu­ca­tion set­ting. “I have nev­er seen a 5‑year-old crim­i­nal­ly pros­e­cut­ed for any­thing like this, espe­cial­ly with the set of spe­cial cir­cum­stances on top of it,” Blank said. “I don’t think that was ever practical.”
The nar­ra­tive being that a five-year-old is inca­pable of form­ing intent seems strange. If a five-year-old is mad at his par­ent because he did not get his way goes into a room, picks up a gun, returns, and shoots his par­ent, is that par­ent any less seri­ous­ly hurt or dead because the child is only five?

The ulti­mate deci­sion rests with pros­e­cu­tors whether or not to bring charges. I am cer­tain­ly not advo­cat­ing that charges be brought against a child that young; how­ev­er, I can­not help won­der­ing whether the Pembroke Pines Police Department would have been that mag­nan­i­mous if the assailant was a lit­tle black boy?
I think not, that boy would have been charged with all kinds of felonies, and the ques­tion, “should he be charged as an adult,” would have been on the tongues of all the talk­ing heads.
For those rea­sons, mem­bers of the African-American com­mu­ni­ty must doc­u­ment these deci­sions as they are made so that they may demand equal treat­ment when the shoe is on the oth­er foot.

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.