A report was released on Monday by Crime Prevention Ottawa that dealt with street gangs in the Ottawa area. Among the many findings was that children as young as eight were being recruited into gangs while kids in the age range of 10 to 12 were routinely selling drugs.
It is not surprising that many of these children come from poor or immigrant families; but that is hardly an excuse for an eight year old running wild and beginning a life of crime.
According to the Ottawa Citizen, the purpose of this study was to get more money from the government to combat gangs or straighten out the little dears; however you prefer to characterize it. As critics were quick to point out, getting more government funding will only lead to more and more studies. In the end, neither gang members nor society at large will be any better off, but at least the do-gooders among us will be able to retain the lifestyle in which they have grown accustomed.
While the CBC seriously pondered whether the results of the study was “overblown” or merely “the tip of the iceberg”, the fact that such young children are involved or becoming involved in serious criminal activity should be a wake-up call to any civilized society. One eight year old gang member is too many. While passing reference is made to the fact that these young kids lack proper parental supervision (no kidding!) is a factor in this relatively recent phenomenon, it doesn’t seem to be any more important than any of the others. It seems today’s parents are given a free ride by our modern, liberal “caring” society.
As any kid who ever tried to get into a bar with a fake ID knows, there is a big difference between being seven and seventeen. While it is understandable that older teens cannot be supervised 24/7 and even the most actively involved parent cannot always know who their son or daughter are hanging around with and what they are doing, it is shocking that children as young as eight can join gangs and learn how to sell drugs while their parents are given a pass. Being poor or being an immigrant is no excuse. And it’s insulting to those poor and immigrant parents who do care enough about their youngsters to properly supervise them and keep them on the straight and narrow.
Michael Chettleburgh, the consultant who authored the report, was quoted as saying, “It is those kids [who show gangster-like behaviour] that I think we really need to focus on and show them that there is a different path in life”. That one statement says it all. It is a perfect illustration of today’s modern liberal society where it is the responsibility of us; society, the government and government funded groups that bear the burden of raising children. The parents have a minimal role to play and the fact that there are children as young as eight running around with gangs proves that some parents are playing their minimal role extremely well. We are an adult-centric society where kids don’t matter much anymore. Activities and problems of parents such as the necessity of working long hours or suffering from substance abuse problems are more important than how their children turn out. It is the responsibility of the parents to focus on their eight year olds – not everybody else.
When some parents do things that all decent members of society find abhorrent such as physically or sexually assault their offspring or take pornographic pictures of them and post these pictures in cyberspace, society becomes outraged. Life imprisonment doesn’t seem to be enough. But when these same parents work long hours or spend their evenings knocking back the booze or smoking crack and allow their 8-year-olds to be out at all hours, it never seems to be the parents’ fault.
The fact that such young children have the opportunity to join gangs and learn the ins and outs of the pharmaceutical business is solely the fault of the parents. Blaming poverty, our racist society and scary Stephen Harper just doesn’t cut it.
Parents have to be held responsible for the actions of their very young children. We will never solve this problem with the vicious circle of undertaking studies to get more money to produce more studies. Until parents are properly held accountable, too many young children under the age of 12 will be destined to live and die on the streets.
