12-Year-Old Suspect in Shooting, Rape

* Re “Family Defends 12-Year-Old as Outcry Grows,” Aug. 3, about the 12-year-old suspect arrested for his involvement in the shooting of the elderly woman and the rape of a child:

I found the focus of the article troubling. It expressed concern about everything from whether or not the suspect’s name should have been released to the serious and costly problem of vacant properties in the area where the boys tried to murder the child. I was disgusted at how the most important and deeply disturbing aspect of the story was completely overlooked. All I could think about were the women victims; a dead grandmother and a child whose life is irremediably destroyed through sexual violence of a nature I don’t think the most vicious animal could be capable of.

I literally cried to know I am part of a species that could do such a thing to one of its own. I myself, as a woman, feel vulnerable, scared and so angry that I could not be put in the same room with any one of those boys and trust myself not to become as ugly a human being as they are. The real concern in your story should be what is happening in this society to make young men choose to act out this kind of violence against women and girls! All I can think of is the horror of what this poor child has gone through. My heart is broken as if she were my own child, sister or neighbor. How will she ever heal? How will we all ever heal?

RHODA CHANDLER

Pasadena

* I am a former resident of the Los Angeles area. I grew up in the community of Lennox in the ‘50s and ‘60s. We had empty houses, empty business properties, etc., in those days too. I don’t understand the attitude of blaming the empty houses and their owners for the trouble some of these “kids” are causing.

Let’s put the blame where it belongs: on the “kids” and their parents. I put kids in quotes because any person who commits rape, murder or a violent felony is, to me, not a child anymore. They should receive the appropriate punishment for the crime just as if they were of age.

THOMAS ALLEN

Medford, Ore.

* I am an elementary school teacher in the L.A. Unified School District studying to become a school counselor. Every time I see a crime committed by a youngster I have wanted to write. But the possible rape and murder committed by a 12-year-old compel me to let our community know something that directly affects this kind of tragic outcome.

In LAUSD we have less than 50 elementary school counselors serving the needs of thousands of troubled elementary school children. This type of valuable help for children is stretched way too thin. Our community and state government need to wake up and start providing more early intervention services for these youngsters and their families. Help could have been provided as far back as kindergarten.

LESLIE WALLSTEDT

Los Angeles