A mother in Indianapolis is criminally charged after a neighbor allegedly witnessed her encouraging her son to fight another boy with a stick. Amy Meehan is neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Her four children have been taken away from her during the resolution of the matter.
The two boys — ages 9 and 10 — used large stick to fight and Meehan admits that the encouraged her son to use a stick and even martial arts techniques that he knew. Yet, she insisted that it was self-defense.
Neighbor Clare Roberts called police after allegedly seeing her toss a stick to her son: “The mother was egging it on, telling her child to hit the other child, I tried to explain to the kids that’s not how you settle disputes.”
Yet, Meehan insists: “He had done hit him and had a stick and was coming after him.”
Interesting case. Under common law, there is not a duty to retreat and you can use a commensurate level of force to defend yourself. However, for the mother, the issue is a bit more complex. It is unclear why she did not intervene to stop the fight rather than escalate it. I am not sure that it warrants the removal of all of the children from the house, however, absent indications of abuse or danger.
For the full story, click here.
i love fighting and will someday you, all of you will remember my name when it is sayed becouse me and my christian bretheren and God will FIGHT for the lost souls of you people in 2010 i will leave in then night not telling anyone for three years i will fight phisicly and spirtualy for the unsaved then in 2014 i will come back and tell every one about my mission in 2015 i will leave in the same way as before find all the ones i saved and get all of them to come with me and go too every state and every country to save even more and more and keep doing this until the Lord comes back in raptur or I die. I promise this will happen this is what the Lord wants me to do AND SO I WILL DO SO!
“but I think it’s interesting that one of the loudest cheers during Biden’s speech the other night came during his discussion of his mother’s parenting style.”
1L,
Great catch. When Biden spoke those words I immediately flashed on this story and thread. When I was six and a tall child, I was getting beaten up in fights, because I didn’t want to hurt anyone with my size.
My father offered me a dollar for every kid I punched in the face. He was a good man, who grew up in an era when kids of different ethnic backgrounds, in NYC, would invariably have to fight each other for perceived turf violations. We always fight our current wars with the outmoded premises of our previous ones.
1L,
I think you’ve made a good point. The acceptance of violence against children by adults and the encouragment of child on child violence is not isolated in this society. In many ways, it seems to be the dominant MO.
The fact that there are weapons involved obviously makes this different, but I think it’s interesting that one of the loudest cheers during Biden’s speech the other night came during his discussion of his mother’s parenting style. One example was his discussion of how he came home after being bullied and his mom told him to “go outside and bloody their noses so you can walk down the street the next day.”
NOTE: I swear (or affirm) that the goal of this post was just to bring up the coincidence, and in no way meant to be a “russ-style” anti-Biden (or more specifically, anti-Mrs. Biden) rant. I think if you watch old episodes of Leave It to Beaver or I Love Lucy, you’ll see similar parenting in a fictional form. I just brought it up because it was topical.
We have a history in this world of encouraging male children to be violent as a proof of their manhood. This woman needed to be charged since as Mercie said:”Any sensible person would stop the fight—end of story, period.” The solution of taking the children away, if this was a first child welfare complaint, was draconian and unnecessary.
Rafflaw,
Hey is that cranky old lady judge still on the bench in McHenry County, Illinois??!! What a shrew!!!!
I have seen this kind of parental involvement in pushing a kid to fight first hand. A few years ago I was on the Square in Woodstock, Illinois when I noticed three of my daughter’s friends whom I had coached in basketball talking to another girl. I was on the other side of the street and couldn’t tell what they were saying. I went over there to see what was going on and witnessed the parents of the one girl prodding their daughter to go ahead and fight one of my daughter’s friends. I couldn’t believe the parents and in breaking up what had quickly grown into a skirmish, I had my shirt torn. Once I had the girls apart, I turned to the parents and let them know that if they didn’t leave with their child right away, I was going to swear out a child endangerment complaint. They left and then I “reasoned” with my daughter’s friends. I tell you this because I was and still am shocked at the actions of the adults in that situation. Grade school kids are going to have fights and battles, but for the adults in their life trying to steer the child into fighting instead of breaking up the fight is criminal. If Mrs. Meehan is guilty of what she is charged with, she needs to find out what a reasonable parent would do by being separated from all of her children, for their protection.
Russ–we don’t appreciate off topic posts, you troll.
Concerning the story, I find it fascinating that people can be this horribly violent, even when it comes to children. How is it possible that this woman could ever think it’s acceptable to encourage fighting? Any sensible person would stop the fight—end of story, period. Regardless, I agree that taking away her children for this alone is draconian and more than likely unconstitutional.
I can’t see how anyone would encourage violence. It would take much needed energy away from the kid perfecting the solo violin part to Danse Macabre.
Or demonstrate…
When will people learn??? Only the government is allowed to encourage your kids to be violent. And then, it’s only appropriate to be violent towards people who talk funny and eat weird food.