Gary Nelson Published Oct. 8, 2002

I'm thinking their parents had NO
idea where they were that night

At 10:30 last Sunday night my children were in bed sleeping so they could get up for school the next morning. I knew exactly where they were and exactly what they were doing. I usually do.

Unlike the parents of the kids in Milwaukee who are charged with beating a man to death on the front porch of his friend's home, I'm an involved parent. Oh, I'm sure you've heard the story I'm talking about.

I'm referring to the case where a mob of 16 to 18 kids chased a 36-year-old man down last Sunday night, smashed in windows of the home in which he was hiding, dragged him out onto the front porch and proceeded to pummel him to death with broomsticks, milk crates, baseball bats, rakes, a shovel, tree limbs, lawn chairs, and anything else they could get their little hands on.

Little hands I say because the ages of these little monsters range from 10 years to 18 - the majority of them being between 13-16 years old.

The brutal beating apparently occurred after a 13-year-old in the group threw an egg at Charles Young Jr. Young, who was hit with the egg on the shoulder, became agitated, chased the boy, shoved him down and punched a 14-year-old boy in the mouth who attempted to intervene. The blow knocked one of the boy's teeth out.

The boys then turned the tables, rallied together and chased Young for approximately a half-hour until he ran into a friend's home for help. As Young ran into the home the angry mob of boys smashed their way into the home, dragged Young back outside and began their outrageous, non-stop beating frenzy. He was declared brain dead late Sunday night and finally died Tuesday. All but two of the boys are now in custody.

Why and how could this happen?

Well, that's what everyone in the United States wants to know. The morning and evening news shows have been feasting on this luscious morsel of a story for days now. They want to know why and how. We all want to know why and how. And we want to know fast.

Add it to the endless ravel of unexplainable school shootings and random acts of violence being perpetrated by teens across the country and you begin to weave a common thread.

I think I've got it figured out.

It didn't happen because the victim punched one of the boys in the jaw after a 13-year-old hit him with an egg - that was a mere catalyst. It happened because of the uninvolvement of these so-called parents of the boys.

In just about every one of these cases where kids have gone psychotic, off the deep end and take out their pent-up frustrations on another person, there stands an uninvolved parent.

Their lives are hectic, they're tired, overworked, hooked on drugs, too busy, working at night, victims of poverty, suffering from mental illness, oppressed by society, you name the excuse and it will be brought forward by the parents.

And in this case - I guarantee it.

I say these parents are as guilty as the kids who performed the bludgeoning. The youngest boy in the mob, a 10-year-old, said he went out that night as his 62-year-old father dosed off in a chair. The boy could be the youngest in the country to be charged as an adult for murder. But that's another column waiting to be written on another day.

One of the 13-year-olds went into his home to get a jacket around 10 p.m. and asked his mother if he could go back out. She let him go out. Does anyone else see something wrong with that or is it just me?

This happened in a high-crime area on the north side of Milwaukee.

Hello - school night - kids roaming the neighborhood - high crime area - after 10 p.m. Don't let the kid go out.

This case amazes me.

After reading some of the profiles of these kids it's a wonder a horrific event like this didn't happen sooner.

These kids all come from broken homes, have single parents and are among eight or nine kids or more in their families. Didn't anybody in the neighborhood see any kind of warning signs?
Of course they did.

This mob of kids had been hanging out together for the whole summer. They went out and smoked pot and drank alcohol and roamed the neighborhood looking for something to do, something to steal or someone to rob, according to one of the boys' siblings.

But nothing was done.

All of them have been arrested before on various charges except for the 10-year-old. A 13-year-old and a 14-year-old from the mob even have kids themselves.

Now don't think that the public defense lawyers who are soaking up the taxpayers' money aren't going to play those cards.

Every excuse available will be used for the kids as well in an attempt to make them appear to be the victims in this case.

Young was a four-time convicted felon himself who obviously had some anger and aggression issues. He may have even flashed a knife at one of the boys. He hit one of the kids and made them feel threatened.

Yeah, right.

One of the boys reportedly said in court on Wednesday that if he thought the guy was going to die from the beating he wouldn't have hit him. He "just wanted to make him feel some pain" for knocking his tooth out.

According to the Associated Press, Erinn Payne, who has lived her entire life around the corner from where the beating happened, didn't do anything when she saw the attack. She said she thought the children were beating an animal.

"I'm not going to say you get used to it, but you deal with it and you have to just move on,'' said Payne, 22.

Five of the attackers - three 13-year-olds and a 15-year-old - appeared in court Tuesday evening, where a court commissioner ordered them held in a detention facility until they are charged.

"It ain't nothing new," said William Kennedy, who was visiting friends in the neighborhood and lives a few blocks from where the beating happened. "I just watch the news at night to make sure it ain't anyone from my family."

Anthony Brown, the man whose house Young ran into, said, "They were pounding on him and hollering, saying 'Hey, let me use that.'"

Brown said Tuesday, "It was like a game to them."

Does anybody get involved in anything anymore? Or is our society becoming one of pointing the finger at the other guy and refusing to answer to the consequences?

By the time this case comes to trial there will be so many fingers pointed in so many directions it will be impossible to determine who's getting sentenced for what.

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Gary Nelson is lifestyles editor of the Crossville Chronicle. His column appears periodically.