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[bryant]

My friend Jere pointed out, quite accurately, that the question isn't really "what did the kid in Kentucky write about?" The question is "when did we start arresting people for writing stories, no matter how disturbed?" Or, perhaps, "when did we stop trusting parents to raise kids and deal with problem situations?"

It's probably relevant that the biggest policy victory (pending) for the Democrats over the last few years has been Social Security, on which issue they're coming down on the side of the government protecting people. We really like being protected these days.

Comments

[roniliquidity.livejournal.com]

It stopped being the domain of the parents when the grandmother called police. The dispatcher can hardly say "Nah, I'm sure the kid's fine."

I think what the kid wrote, specifically, is somewhat irrelevent here. People aren't upset about the kid simply writing some fiction. They're upset that after he wrote the story about a group, including himself, massacring a school, he began to recruit his friends for No Limited soldiers. He was acting it out. That's what raises a red flag.

[bryant]

I don't know that he tried to recruit his friends for No Limited Soldiers. I know that a policeman testified that his writings contain evidence to that effect.

[roniliquidity.livejournal.com]

A couple of the links mentioned the journal writings but the first link of your prior posts says:

"Caudill testified that at least seven acquaintances of Poole's reported that Poole had attempted to recruit them into a gang, but that none of them were interested."

I take that to mean they actually talked to the kids in question. I thought there was an actual quote from an unamed peer in one of the articles, but I can't find it in a brief scan.

[bryant]

I have this awful picture in my head of the kids saying "Sure, he tried to recruit us into his Command and Conquer clan, but we weren't interested."