Foster children, Police shootouts, Education, A broken system

Foster Children Shootout With Police

Is the System Really Broken?

A tragic horror story: two Florida escapees from a group home, ages 12 and 14, broke into a home whose owners were absent. The pair found weapons including an AK-7 and fired those weapons for more than 30- minutes at police who had come to check the property. Officers finally shot back and wounded the 14-year-old girl.

No officers were hurt. The 14- year old was hospitalized in critical condition, and the 12-year-old later charged with attempted first-degree murder.

According to the sheriff, the juvenile justice system is broken. But the children were in the foster care system until the second they broke into a home, picked up guns and fired at police.

Yes, the children fired the guns and should be held responsible and rehabilitated for their actions, but society and the foster care system are complicit.

Police were called 289 times in 2020 to the foster group home from which the pair escaped. Why would an ineffective, and dangerous group home environment have been allowed to continue operating? Outrageous. Ask yourself these questions: Who profits? Who gains?

There is a long-documented history of profiteering by states and entrepreneurs in the foster care system, writes University of Baltimore law professor, Daniel Hatcher, in his book, The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens.

Experts say the system is broken, but the word broken is misleading because it implies the system in question was once whole.

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