In Chicago, police and prosecutors are dealing with a shooting in an unexpected way. Margaret Matthews, 68, had long complained about a 12-year-old who has been “terrorizing” her. When the boy joined friends in throwing bricks through her windows, she shot him. Police, however, did not charge her — instead charging the boy.
Another boy, 13, is also charged as a juvenile misdemeanor aggravated assault to a senior citizen.
Neighbors told police that the boy has been leading a group of kids who have been terrorizing the whole block.
Other neighbors, however, said that the boy told them that he was just walking by when the woman shot him and insist that he is not a bad kid.
We have seen these type of controversies in “castle doctrine” or “make my day” jurisdictions. However, Chicago is not such a jurisdiction. Courts have generally required a commensurate level of force to be used in self defense actions. The age of the individual can factor into this determination. Yet, I have never seen a brick through a window treated as justification for the use of potentially lethal force.
Source: CBS
I stand on the woman’s side–she had every right to stop this violence against her. I knew some very large for their age bullies at 12 years.
Forgot to add.
Having made enquiries around the neighbourhood, there had been several such incidents, with one old couples flat being targetted for several weeks.
Three weeks after my amateur theatricals there have been no further incidents. Fingers crossed.
Good Girl!!
Had a similar incident a few nights ago – fortunately no breakages, just a fair bit of cleaning up.
Local teenagers thinking they were hard.
My wife is only 4’8″ and was terrified. I came out of the house with gob blazing. Basically told the bunch of silly little boys to go home to Mummy if they couldn’t come right over and slug it out with me.
Think yourselves lucky you live in a country where an old Lady can still protect herself.
Here in the UK, had I or my wife (or a frail old lady) so much as lifted a finger against one of these louts it would have been straight off to the cells (geniune fear for life or not) and a criminal record/large fine/possible jail time. If a gun were involved it would be 8 years just for the ownership.
And many on this forum want a ban on smacking naughty kids. Sheer lunacy! We have it in the UK and it has proven to be nothing more than a license for the badly behaved to do as they please without any fear.
These young cowards and hooligans obviously thought there would be no consequences to them for their actions of terrorism to a senior citizen who could not physically apprehend them. Would they have done this to a 40 year man who could have run them down on foot to catch them.
Times are changing in that the U.S. economy will no longer be always expanding, giving us higher standard of living but going the other way. A senior citizen on a fixed income might not be able to afford to replace all the broken windows before winter. I would have trouble replacing one of my double plane windows, at the moment. If this property damage to her windows could only be repaired with temporary coverings that caused her to freeze next winter, they would be guilty of murder. Look at this that way and a brick through a window could be treated as justification for the use of potentially lethal force.
Mr.Turley has written about the loss of civility toward on another but with the banksters waging class warfare against the lower 98% of Americans and the conservatives rigging the game and buying the refs, the kid should consider himself lucky that he isn’t declared a domestic terrorist and shipped to Gitmo.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/29/906223/-NYT-Editorial:-The-Stealth-Takeover-Of-Americas-Judiciary
Sounds like the kid got what he deserved imo. Hopefully he learned his lesson. Re-load your gun Granny just incase he didn’t learn what he needed to. 🙂
Blouise: As was yours.
culheath
1, September 30, 2010 at 1:23 pm
“The kid is 12 years old … what are the odds he will be rehabilitated and become a productive member of society?”
What are the odds that society will even make the attempt to rehabilitate and make him a productive member of society?
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good point
I have to agree with Andrew F. According to the news story, the kids were on her property and throwing bricks at her. She yelled at them and they didn’t leave. One brick hit her in the chest — what if it had hit her in the head? The police obviously weren’t coming, and the kids’ parents were no where in sight. I can see clearly how this woman was in fear for her life.
You go, girl! In an ideal world where everyone respects the rights of others and their property the idea of using lethal force for a brick thrower does seem a bit over the top. But we live in an increasingly uncivil society where those tasked to serve and protect have no legal duty to do that. And she’d called the cops repeatedly. It’s not like this was the first time; this was the culmination of a long running problem that apparently the local authorities could not or would not solve.
We’re all encouraged to get involved and protest the stoning of a woman in Iran for a non-crime. When do we protest the bricking of a woman in the US because she’s 68 and lives in a neighborhood with juvenile delinquents? Let’s see how you feel when you’re 68 and get hit with a brick.
Tom
“The kid is 12 years old … what are the odds he will be rehabilitated and become a productive member of society?”
What are the odds that society will even make the attempt to rehabilitate and make him a productive member of society?
Thanks for pointing that out, Blouise.
This was clearly cumulative harassment which came to head in this brick throwing incident where, undoubtedly, this lady feared for her safety and life.
Good for Grandma.
“The young man hit me in the chest with a brick,” she said. “After a year of harassment, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” (Chicago Tribune By Duaa Eldeib and William Lee
Tribune staff reporters)
She shot him in the arm … and she had called the police as several windows were already broken. The kids jumped her fence and were standing on the roof of a shed throwing bricks through her windows and also at her.
The kid is 12 years old … what are the odds he will be rehabilitated and become a productive member of society?
“Courts have generally required a commensurate level of force to be used in self defense actions.”
Let’s see… 68 year old woman v. 12 year old boy. She probably has physical limitation and the boy only has a mental limitation. Both are throwing objects.
Remember, “They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way!”
The kid is lucky he didn’t get sent to the morgue!
Professor Turley,
I’ve read later articles about this indicating that the lady’s story is that the kids were actually throwing bricks AT her, and that she only shot at them when a brick actually hit her. If that’s true, then it certainly makes the case a tad more ambiguous than how you frame it.
I agree about that this seems minor to respond with lethal force, but like the man from England said, it all depends on the woman’s state of mind. I hope there is remorse on both sides. It is indeed tragic if young boys are harassing the elderly with physical force. Everyone threw an egg or two at the grumpy guy on the corner, but not a brick.
I guess this is what “justice” is supposed to look like.
Incidentally, Prof. Turley, do you know why the dates and times on this site all appear to be preceded by the characters “1, “? The problem appears in the archives as well as on recent posts and comments.
I don’t know how it works in Illinois, but in Britain the state of mind of the person invoking self defence is what matters. If she was in imminent fear of her life (and I can easily imagine she might have been) then that fear does not have to be reasonable.
I’m emphatically not a fan of guns or the use of lethal violence against trespass, but a brick through the window strikes me as an attack that can have no other reason than to instill a fear of imminent threat to life in the victim’s mind. A brick is certainly a potential lethal missile when thrown at a frail elderly woman. She claims that one of the bricks hit her in the chest, and presumably there would be medical evidence of that, though I don’t find that to be necessary to justify self defense in this instance.
If this young boy has been charged, presumably there is enough witness or other evidence to support a prosecution. Police do, of course, occasionally make egregious errors.
Kids can be rather scary….in a couple of states the age requirement for some crimes has been removed and the child can be treated as an adult….
I don’t disagree with the woman…it must have been frightening….
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-woman-shoots-kid-0930-20100929,0,2723660.story My sister who lives there was telling me about the woman yesterday and she was even cheering the woman on.