Teen charged with setting 2,100-acre LA wildfire

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles County authorities have filed arson charges against a 13-year-old boy they believe started a 2,100-acre wildfire last month.

Prosecutors on Friday charged the boy from El Monte with two felony counts: arson of a forest and recklessly causing a fire. His name wasn't released.

The boy is accused of sparking a fire in the Angeles National Forest near Azusa on Aug. 25. The fire scorched more than 3 square miles, but no homes were damaged.

Another arson fire erupted in the forest a day later, burning nearly 251 square miles and destroying 89 homes. Authorities haven't accused the boy of involvement in that blaze.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/09/18/national/a130417D83.DTL

[Vidar]

1. A maximum sentence would be appropriate.

[robo50]

5. Put him in the middle of an uncontrolled fire, let him fight for his

life.

[WriteDown]

6. At 13?

:shrug:

[Trillo]

9. kids brains are wired differently.

I don't think a maximum sentence would be appropriate.

Maybe compulsory educators should learn how to channel some kids regularly repeating fascinations (judging from similar news stories over time), such as fire fascination, into some kind of hands-on lessons.

Perhaps that kid needs hands-on learning about a bunson burner or an oxy-acetelyne torch, how a flame front travels in an internal combustion engine, etc. Perhaps he's curious, and doesn't think about 'cause and effect' the same way an adult does. Curiously, many DUers seem to perceive that this was an intentful act of destruction in need of the severest punishment. Was it?

If kids brains are wired differently, than adults perceiving this act and calling for maximum punishment need questioning.

[mitchum]

11. Well, that's one really fucking stupid 13 year old...

by that age, I had long known the properties of fire

[Deja Q]

21. At age 6, starting a fire is probably deemed "cute". By age 13, he should know better.

One hell of a prank...

Whatever discipline is necessary to convince others not to set fires - as the fires themselves are annual, isn't it a couple months later when some antisocial punk is caught and accused of deliberately starting it?

Or maybe some idiot smoker threw the ciggie butt out the window (littering = $750 fine, you know) and, oops, started the Great Fire of Los Angeles...

[1monster]

10. Attitudes like that are why there are kids in Florida serving life terms for non murder crimes.

Might as well go back to the seventeen and eighteen hundreds when children were hung for stealing a loaf of bread. :eyes:

[robo50]

20. You are right, of course. I just was expressing my frustration in a

not so serious way. Sorry to offend, I just get very angry when kids are doing such destructive things at any age.

[enlightenment]

2. Perhaps they can give him a couple of summers

reseeding the burned areas and helping clean up the mess.

[Chulanowa]

3. No need to reseed...

After all, the local plants are adapted to there being fire in the area, so it was probably helpful to the flora. Even if it wasn't, the place is going to be green again in three months, max.

Now, sending him out there to water all that new growth, twice a day, over the entire area, until the new trees are twice as tall as he is...... now we're talking.

[enlightenment]

7. Works for me.

Just something that brings home the effect of his actions. He's young enough to learn. Maybe.

[wordpix]

4. and where were boy's parents while he was out having fun?

[goclark]

8. How did they find out again?

[Blandocyte]

12. So many parents these days are pathetically lazy with childrearing

there should be mandatory parenting training. Or maybe if we put enough of the shirker parents on trial with their kids there'd be a little more attention paid to what their litters are doing.

[abelenkpe2]

13. As a parent

Here I am at 6:30 at work. I have to work 12 hours today and 10 hours tomorrow. I'd rather be home with my kids. But in our economy with work situations so insecure most families need two parents working just to tread water. How do you know they parents are negligent and not just struggling and doing the best they can?

Anyway, Thanks for the heaping of guilt. It's not like I don't have enough anyway. :(

[wordpix]

16. not to make you feel more guilty ---I have plenty of my own guilt--but

when I was raising my daughter, I took a part-time job during her school hrs. and was home by the time her bus got there. I ran a home-based business out of my apt. which brought in an extra $10-12K/yr., not bad for the '90's. I could sometimes take daughter with me on the job and sometimes get things done when she was asleep.

I also had a friend in the neighborhood who could take my daughter sometimes and she charged not too much. I would do things for her, too, so we had swaps.

But I know what you mean about working a lot and taking care of children to boot. It's very tough.

[jasi2006]

14. How do they know this kid is quilty?

I must have missed something.

[slackmaster]

18. Article has no information about the evidence against him, but I'll hazard a guess

If he's like most kids that age, he probably bragged about it to another kid.

[Unvanguard]

15. "3 square miles" sounds a lot less scary than "2100-acre", doesn't it? n/t

[slackmaster]

17. So, was it SSRIs this time or was the kid just spanked a lot?

:argh:

[WriteDown]

19. He ate at Olive Garden the night before. nt