The Anglos are glowing. Better watch out. It's Walpurgis Nacht. This
is truly a story for Halloween.
Funny, I feel very English tonight.
Do you think they will hang the children as they used to do in England
before they discovered America and Rousseau wrote his book on education
founded in the Iroquois childrearing practices? Here in the U.S. white
folks still practice Pre-Columbian British law. Children are
"responsible."
In the old Cherokee Nation, someone from the clan of the children would be
responsible since any death required a payment to the clan of the person who
lost their life. In the case of a child it would be the clan's
responsibility to come up with something that the other Clan agreed with.
Children would be supervised because if they weren't the "law of blood"
would apply.
Now we have a different social contract and accidents are allowed. But we
also have science and science says that the endorphins in the brains of
children involved in intense physical activity do not allow for judgment.
America has resorted to Pre-Columbian British law to place children in
prison for murders and young children in Britain who kill other children are
still tried as adults.
I think Cherokee law was better. The adult clan members ARE responsible
because they did not teach their children to be good citizens. But from a
country where cells in a petri dish are babies (but once the baby is born
you can give it a blanket and forget about it because it's too expensive)
what could you expect? The parents are good because they are away at work
or looking the other way. People who are away at work are "good" no
matter what happens to their brood. My parents took both me and my sister,
to work with them. But that was unusual and still it was difficult. We
were both lucky to have survived it. The society was barbaric.
Perhaps what we need here is a rewriting of the social contract in a way
that we all can agree upon. I've had great British teachers and friends
who are from England but the history of the English and common law I find
strange. Much more strange than they have ever found me or my culture.
That is saying something because I suspect many do find my ways to be
inscrutable and my world to be incomprehensible. I find English children's
laws to be truly inscrutable, incomprehensible and barbaric.
The question, of course, is whether the English would have done better in a
world where we were powerful and they were not or would they have fared as
we have in their world. I would make the case that they would have been
better off had they learned our ways and let us effect their laws instead of
the reverse.
REH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4-Year-Old Can Be Sued, Judge Rules in Bike Case
By ALAN FEUER
Published: October 28, 2010
Citing cases dating back as far as 1928, a judge has ruled that a young
girl accused of running down an elderly woman while racing a bicycle with
training wheels on a Manhattan sidewalk two years ago can be sued for
negligence.
Readers'
The ruling by the judge, Justice Paul Wooten of State Supreme Court in
Manhattan, did not find that the girl was liable, but merely permitted a
lawsuit brought against her, another boy and their parents to move forward.
The suit that Justice Wooten allowed to proceed claims that in April 2009,
Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, who were both 4, were racing their bicycles,
under the supervision of their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, on
the sidewalk of a building on East 52nd Street. At some point in the race,
they struck an 87-year-old woman named Claire Menagh, who was walking in
front of the building and, according to the complaint, was "seriously and
severely injured," suffering a hip fracture that required surgery. She died
three weeks later.
Her estate sued the children and their mothers, claiming they had acted
negligently during the accident. In a response, Juliet's lawyer, James P.
Tyrie, argued that the girl was not "engaged in an adult activity" at the
time of the accident - "She was riding her bicycle with training wheels
under the supervision of her mother" - and was too young to be held liable
for negligence.
In legal papers, Mr. Tyrie added, "Courts have held that an infant under the
age of 4 is conclusively presumed to be incapable of negligence." (Rachel
and Jacob Kohn did not seek to dismiss the case against them.)
But Justice Wooten declined to stretch that rule to children over 4. On Oct.
1, he rejected a motion to dismiss the case because of Juliet's age, noting
that she was three months shy of turning 5 when Ms. Menagh was struck, and
thus old enough to be sued.
Mr. Tyrie "correctly notes that infants under the age of 4 are conclusively
presumed incapable of negligence," Justice Wooten wrote in his decision,
referring to the 1928 case. "Juliet Breitman, however, was over the age of 4
at the time of the subject incident. For infants above the age of 4, there
is no bright-line rule."
The New York Law Journal reported the decision on Thursday.
Mr. Tyrie had also argued that Juliet should not be held liable because her
mother was present; Justice Wooten disagreed.
"A parent's presence alone does not give a reasonable child carte blanche to
engage in risky behavior such as running across a street," the judge wrote.
He added that any "reasonably prudent child," who presumably has been told
to look both ways before crossing a street, should know that dashing out
without looking is dangerous, with or without a parent there. The crucial
factor is whether the parent encourages the risky behavior; if so, the child
should not be held accountable.
In Ms. Menagh's case, however, there was nothing to indicate that Juliet's
mother "had any active role in the alleged incident, only that the mother
was 'supervising,' a term that is too vague to hold meaning here," he wrote.
He concluded that there was no evidence of Juliet's "lack of intelligence or
maturity" or anything to "indicate that another child of similar age and
capacity under the circumstances could not have reasonably appreciated the
danger of riding a bicycle into an elderly woman."
Mr. Tyrie, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn did not respond to messages seeking
comment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:
William Blake: from his poem London
REH
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