News & Politics - And that's why...You Don't Teach Lessons to Your Son

JediBlastoise · 08-31-2006, 10:17 AM

I feel bad for laughing at this. Maybe it's cause I've been watching too much Arrested Development.

Parents seek answers over son's death | NATIONAL | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

Quote:

The parents of 17-year-old Liam Ashley, who was beaten to death en route to prison, say they were the ones who charged him with theft.

Ashley was found badly beaten in the back of a Chubb Security van on Thursday night. Although he was revived by paramedics at the scene, he died on Friday.

Ashley's family say his parents wanted to teach him a lesson about the consequences of breaking the law. He had taken his mother's car without permission so they had him charged him with theft.

On Thursday Ashley appeared at the North Shore District Court. The judge offered him bail but his parents chose to send him to prison as a deterrent.

But on the trip to Auckland Central Remand prison, he was believed to have been strangled and assaulted by two others in the van.

Ashley's family have issued a statement listing 10 questions they want answered, such as why was a 17-year-old with no history of serious crime or violence was transported unattended with more serious offenders?

Head of Public Prisons Harry Hawthorne says that "best practice would be that young prisoners should be separated from older prisoners. That may not always be possible."

Chubb Security says it is investigating the incident but will not comment further.

Police, the Department of Corrections and Chubb Security are all running separate investigations but no arrests have yet been made.

I guess the parents were the ones that got taught a lesson! Still sad..but I can't help finding it funny also.

I'm a bad person

quaist · 08-31-2006, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JediBlastoise (View Post)

I feel bad for laughing at this. Maybe it's cause I've been watching too much Arrested Development.

Parents seek answers over son's death | NATIONAL | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

I guess the parents were the ones that got taught a lesson! Still sad..but I can't help finding it funny also.

I'm a bad person

No, you're not. It's really ridiculous because the death of their son could have been easily avoided.

Lexis · 08-31-2006, 11:05 AM

That's just awful. Just shows our screwed up the prison system is across the globe. In my mind, prison should be split up a bit between those that are beyond help and those that can be rehabilitated - putting them together is just nuts.

Lain · 08-31-2006, 11:39 AM

I read this a couple of days ago. That was messed up right there. They could have posted the bail but they wanted the son to see what "reality" is.

quaist · 08-31-2006, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by angel_boogiepop (View Post)

I read this a couple of days ago. That was messed up right there. They could have posted the bail but they wanted the son to see what "reality" is.

...and now they've got their "reality".

goodnightboy · 09-01-2006, 05:22 AM

Two problems arise - the first: why did the parents have to go to such an extent to teach their son a lesson? Granted, they didn't expect their son to be beaten to death on the way to prison, but sending him to jail seems rather over-the-top to me.

And secondly: there's obviously something wrong with the prison system. Not just this, but in the abuses at Abu Ghairab etc - things need to be sorted out, and quickly.

Heh, Arrested Development.

jalapeno_wildchild · 09-01-2006, 10:04 AM

i bet the parents feel sorry that they didn't bail their son out, they wanted to give him a lesson about consequenses and it cost him his life.

quaist · 09-01-2006, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodnightboy (View Post)

Two problems arise - the first: why did the parents have to go to such an extent to teach their son a lesson? Granted, they didn't expect their son to be beaten to death on the way to prison, but sending him to jail seems rather over-the-top to me.

Of course it's over-the-top, I don't know a single family which would send their son to prison to "teach him a lesson". There are many other ways to do that. But I'm afraid the public will blame his parents for his death...

***Raonaild*** · 09-01-2006, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jalapeno_wildchild (View Post)

i bet the parents feel sorry that they didn't bail their son out, they wanted to give him a lesson about consequenses and it cost him his life.

It's not just that they didn't bail him out, they got him sent to jail in the first place.

Oh, and funny? No, it's horrible. Imagine yourself in this poor kid's shoes, then tell me any bit of it is funny. This isn't just a story, it's a real human life that was snuffed out. I even feel sorry for the parents ... it was stupid to do something so extreme over what sounded like normal teenage rebelliousness, and now they have to live the rest of their lives knowing they were responsible for their own son's death.

**TheAngel** · 09-01-2006, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexis (View Post)

That's just awful. Just shows our screwed up the prison system is across the globe. In my mind, prison should be split up a bit between those that are beyond help and those that can be rehabilitated - putting them together is just nuts.

But how do we know who is beyond rehabilitation and who isn't. You have tons of people that want to say that even the worst person in the world can change. My philosophy in many cases, once a dog, always a dog, it doesn't matter if you change his spots.

Quote:

Two problems arise - the first: why did the parents have to go to such an extent to teach their son a lesson? Granted, they didn't expect their son to be beaten to death on the way to prison, but sending him to jail seems rather over-the-top to me.

He probably would have been in jail for about a month, three months tops, and since he was seventeen, at eighteen his record would have been wiped clean, it never would have happened. We don't know if this kid had a history of other behavoral problems so we can't make assumptions about why the boy's parents did this. If he took the car without permission it could be that drugs and alcohol were involved, this could be one in a long line of instances and the parents might have been unsure where else to turn to.
In no way does this repair what has happened, but before placing blame on the parents it would be good to discover their reasoning behind their actions.

**TheAngel** · 09-01-2006, 03:07 PM

Sorry, double post.

spent cigarette · 09-15-2006, 02:37 AM

Why did his parents even charge him in the first place? Not that I understand their refusal to pay the bail, but if they're the ones who called the cops on their seventeen-year-old to begin with ...

Seventeen. For crying out loud. You don't want your teenaged son to use your car without your permission? Fair enough. But there are other, more fair, most just punishments out there. Unless he has serious behavioural issues, or this was a consistant problem that was esculating, his parents shouldn't need to send him to jail in order to get the message across.


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