As we told you on Friday, the 13 year old and a 15 year old both detained under the SOE were moved to New Beginnings, formerly the Youth Hostel.
Today, the commissioner of police spoke in sweeping terms about the child and his mother - and said that he should become a ward of the state:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We had two other reports of the child being involved in going after people with the intent to shoot them, and so there was sufficient for us to be able to take him under the SOE. I still believe that it was the right thing to do. When we look at this whole situation, the child is now at New Beginnings. I believe that sending him there is a good thing, but we have to look at it more broadly what else can be done. The mother is fighting for the child to be released, but does she have the capacity to take care of that child? Care for that child? If you look at the history, the child's father was a street figure he was killed, the child's stepfather is a street figure and the mother is absent. So the child is back to her. How can she act in the best interest of that child as stated by the families and children's act? I don't think she has the capacity. So if it is that something can be done where the child can be taken in as a ward of the state and kept at New Beginnings until he attends the age of 18 I think that would be the best thing for that child in this particular instance, because at New Beginnings, he will be able to get the mentorship that he needs the guidance that he needs to be able to transfer him and become a more productive young person. If he is let back into the street in the hands of the mother, e might report of him being killed or him killing somebody. So as a society, we need to look at it holistically and not just try to demonize the system for what is being done in addition to that. Channel 7 reported a failure of law enforcement. It is not a failure because we are not the ones raising these children. It is a failure of parenthood and again, while there may be instances where we can say that a child acts out even though the parent are doing what they can to raise that child the right way we still cannot blame law enforcement, because when parenting fails and the child offends, then the child ends up in the hands of the police, and the police will have to do what needs to be done. And sometimes may not be what the public wants to see the police do, but we are law enforcement officers we have to do the law says that we must so as I had said this morning on SunUp the child is being charged today for threat of death and aggravated assault. he will be going before the courts and I am hoping that the courts are going to make some decision in terms of making sure that the child remains somewhere that is going to help the child to develop to become a better person as opposed to releasing the child back into the care of the mother where he might become or might be more dangerous to him than anything else."
