Boy who started L.A. fires not charged
The ten year-old boy who admitted to playing with matches and starting a fire that cost 21 homes is not going to be charged with any crimes, according to the L.A. County District Attorney’s office. They came to their decision based on the fact that they boy never intended to set a fire (arson), but referred him to Family Services to have the family monitored to see if any intervention in other areas is needed. I’ve been wondering since the news broke if they were going to charge such a young kid with a felony, or even try him as an adult, but I’m sure many people like myself have very mixed feelings about the boy being released without being punished at all for destroying so many people’s lives.
According to California law, anyone under the age of 12 who ignites a fire is considered to simply be playing with fire, not arson, even though more than half of the fires started by human hands in California are juveniles. Does this mean we just have a lot of pyro curious kids around, or that we may need to change our way of dealing with firebugs, especially if they’re familiar with the law?
While the boy may be free of charges, however, his parents may be taken to civil court to pay for what their son has done, even though damages in the fire cost millions, and they wouldn’t even be able to make a sizable dent if they were forced to pay.
You can read the full story through the L.A. Times.
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