Regarding the Devin Brown case - Where are the parents?

February 11, 2005

I wish to express my heart-felt sympathy to Officer Garcia for the anguish and trauma a shooting causes the shooter.

My big question since first seeing this incident on the news, and a question no one has asked that I have seen, is this: What the hell is a 13 year old doing out a 4am?!? Where are the kid's parents? Where is the outrage from the esteemed community elders over this kid's obvious neglect from his parents?

Has no one raised the point that this kid would not have started the whole chain of events that lead to this tragic end if he had been at home asleep, sleeping for his next "Honor Student" day at school? If this kid is such an Honor Student, what was he doing out 4 hours before school starts?

We see crap like this in Philly all the time, kids getting shot or beat on by other kids & gangs, but no reporter ever asks during the ensuing hysteria, "Why was an 8 year old out playing in the street at 11pm on a school-night?"

Isn't there a correlation between these parents obvious lack of interest in how their kids prepare for school, the kids performance at school, and their subsequent path in life?

Stay safe.

Mike Miller
Philadelphia