Detroit teen robs nun inside church; mom says he was hungry

[DetroitPole]

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/27168973/index.html

http://grossepointe.patch.com/articl...bbery-of-nun#c

Where to begin? You can't make this shit up. The Japanese are helping each other dig out, and we've got people robbing nuns in churches and their mom's making excuses for it.
Hey mom, buy your little darling some fucking food. Food assistance is one of the few social programs that the US does pretty well and makes accessible.
There is a great school at St. Clare well-attended by both city and suburban kids. Biting the hand that feeds.

Guess he wasn't hip to the whole nuns' vow of poverty thing. I'm pretty sure he could have asked her for some food and she probably would have cooked something for him; something his mother probably never did.

Moms says he's a good kid? Just like the men who were drug-slingers and dog-fighters that got killed on the east side a month ago, the family predictably claims "good kids." Then what the hell constitutes a bad kid? Why is there no responsibility to anyone or anything anymore?

I'm sick of this. The most civil thing I can manage right now is that I hope he is locked up for a long time and his mom receives the justice she deserves too. No excuses for this one.

Different variations of this happening every day tell me that Detroit will never come back. What is hell ever for when there's Detroit?

[Goose]

He probably was a "good kid" in the mom's view because he never came around and his mother didn't have to deal with the crap of raising a kid, like discipline, clothing and feeding the kid, and teaching wrong from right. Left her free to hit the crack pipe without being disturbed.........

[rjk]

There's a good side to this story and that's the person who broke away from the no snitching way of thinking.

The nun was unharmed, someone turned in a rotten apple and the punk will be going to jail.
Considering all the criminal acts that take place this one turned out pretty good.

[mikefmich]

Your gonna risk an armed robbery charge, and you pick an elderly nun?

Good thinking genuis......

[eno]

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news...-20110314-wpms

[R8RBOB]

I really wished someone didn't make a thread out of this stupidity but since the thread has been made allow me to say the following.

This young man like many like him simply never had a chance. His mother all but confirmed that she failed this young man. Eighteen years old and he was hungry. I can understand the hungry part. We all have been hungry but where was the job in the mother's conversation with the press? If this young man had a work ethic, he would have no need to rob a nun which is a another fail by the mother. When I was 18, I knew nuns didn't walk around with money flowing from their robes yet this simpleton thought he could get some change off a nun. Wonderful.

This young man will have all the food he needs to fill his belly now. Too bad the grub is of the low end.

[DetroitTeacher]

I was thinking that if were that hungry, he could sell the gun to buy some food. I am sure his grandmother would have fed him, and like others said, so would the nun! Good kids don't go around toting guns and robbing churches.

[DetroitPole]

I really wished someone didn't make a thread out of this stupidity but since the thread has been made allow me to say the following.

This young man like many like him simply never had a chance. His mother all but confirmed that she failed this young man. Eighteen years old and he was hungry. I can understand the hungry part. We all have been hungry but where was the job in the mother's conversation with the press? If this young man had a work ethic, he would have no need to rob a nun which is a another fail by the mother. When I was 18, I knew nuns didn't walk around with money flowing from their robes yet this simpleton thought he could get some change off a nun. Wonderful.

This young man will have all the food he needs to fill his belly now. Too bad the grub is of the low end.

Yeah its stupidity, but this is less than a mile from where I live, and if we're just going to sit here and ignore the astronomical crime in our community, then count me out.

Sorry, if he could make it to St. Clare he could make it to a business in Grosse Pointe or along Jefferson in Detroit and sweep the floors or something. Don't feel much pity for this punk ass bitch. Shit's rough all over, kid.

I do appriciate rjk's assesment, though.

As an aside, he probably didn't know she was a nun [[if he even knows what that is). Most don't wear habits anymore, and in some of the news sources they specified that she wasn't. Maybe he thought he was hitting some loaded Grosse Pointer. Jokes on him.

[Gistok]

This happened back in February, and has been the talk of the far east side for nearly 3 weeks...

[bartock]

Yeah its stupidity, but this is less than a mile from where I live, and if we're just going to sit here and ignore the astronomical crime in our community, then count me out.

Sorry, if he could make it to St. Clare he could make it to a business in Grosse Pointe or along Jefferson in Detroit and sweep the floors or something. Don't feel much pity for this punk ass bitch. Shit's rough all over, kid.

I do appriciate rjk's assesment, though.

As an aside, he probably didn't know she was a nun [[if he even knows what that is). Most don't wear habits anymore, and in some of the news sources they specified that she wasn't. Maybe he thought he was hitting some loaded Grosse Pointer. Jokes on him.

It is a mile and a half from me, and just another reason why we're moving.

18 years old...18 years old!! NOT a kid as it relates to something like this. My God if he was hungry he could have stolen something from a store. Not that it is better, but unless the case is needed for drugs, the first step usually isn't to try and rob someone at gunpoint or toygunpoint.

Anyway, if I heard the one news report right, he was talking to other kids about it. Hungry, my ass.

[English]

I keep telling you that it's the MOTHERS and the GIRLFRIENDS [[less often, the wives) of these criminals who need to be chastised as well. Seriously, some of you can't say it, but as a woman who's from the same demographic, I can. I am SO tired of the excuses!

Girlfriend, my sista... no, he wasn't hungry. No, he isn't a good boy. And yeah, we know... you don't believe it. Why is your self-esteem so low that you can't admit your son, or your lover, or your brother, or your baby daddy CHOSE to be a criminal? CHOSE to rob, steal, kill, and destroy the community? CHOSE to become a predator? Yes, you love[[d) him... but ADMIT WHAT HE WAS!

Women all over this country need to have a come-to-Jesus moment when it comes to coddling these men. If Mama stopped offering three hots and a cot, and Girlfriend stopped throwing open her legs for these fools, Detroit's crime rate would drop overnight. What is needed is a hip-hop version of Lysistrata, I guess.

[oladub]

All this blame on his mother but where is his father? Mom should have just said no many years ago but a dad in the house would have improved the chances of food being on the table and more direction for the kid.

[SWMAP]

Think it was Sr. John clement Hungermann IHM, a professor at Marygrove, who was murdered one evening in Northwest Detroit [[possibly 1983) as she was walking home from work. The guy put a pistol in her mouth and pulled the trigger. Possibly she didn't have any money.

But I have to say this about mothers who say their sons are "good boys" when it patently isn't true: my own mother had some hint that my brother wasn't good or cooperative and even doing illegal, disreputable things, but she always stuck by him and would certainly have said he was "good." I think she could never forget the little boy she carried.

But unlike the mother in this story, my mother would have said that she shared some of the blame, when she patently did. This mother might be infering that society is to blame when young men go around with guns out of hunger. But anyway, she does not seem to shoulder any blame.

[English]

All this blame on his mother but where is his father? Mom should have just said no many years ago but a dad in the house would have improved the chances of food being on the table and more direction for the kid.

Deep down, these women know the man they're with isn't going to stay with them. It's just that in many communities, motherhood gives you status and respect. I'd say that motherhood is even more exalted than wifehood in many neighborhoods. People are esctatic about the news of a baby on the way, but when we hear of marriages, there's a lot of skepticism. "Hmph. Hope they stay together."

I am passionate about this because when you're in this skin and this gender, you get it. You get it more than other men or women from other demographics do, I swear. There is no one less partnered in the United States than African American women. It sucks being lonely. You get no status when you're not a mother -- in fact, the second I hit my thirties without a child, I've heard from black men that "you must be selfish," including a couple of relatives. So there's a lot of social pressure to make decisions that may not be the best for your life or for the community. There is also a lot of untreated depression among black women thanks to the myth that "therapy is for white people" -- I believe that it's almost an epidemic, and there's some research evidence to back it up.

When you don't feel very good about yourself, and the ONLY thing that you've gotten any status or accolades for is being a mother, you have to cling to that. Motherhood being the supreme calling of women transcends community, culture, or race -- it is a universal, biological imperative. You can be the most beautiful woman in the world. You can be the most successful, famous, smart, or wealthy woman in the world. But if you are a bad mother, people always hold it against you. And if you are not a mother, then societies don't know what to do with you.

One of the major parenting issues that affects what I do as a teacher educator is that many people from all demographics and walks of life no longer see parenting as synonymous with discipline. Yes, you can love your children beyond reason, but it is your responsibility to provide them with basic life skills. Children have to be awake and alert at school, so perhaps it's not a great idea to have them up with you until the wee hours of the morning... but so often, I see the young mothers that I know letting their kids stay up until they collapse, exhausted. Children do best with regular mealtimes and healthy food, but it's easier to wait until you are hungry and then do a McDonalds run. Children need to develop imagination and concentration and social skills, so it's good to read to them, do activities together as a family, and to have conversations with them about what's on their minds. Easier to use the TV as a babysitter and to tell them to get out of your face, because you're tired.

It's difficult to be a good parent if your own emotional, mental, and financial status is tenuous at best. I get it, I really do. I am not making up the behaviors above. I've witnessed them from folks that I love to pieces. However, life sucks for EVERYONE -- it's only a matter of degree. There used to be value in sucking it up and pushing through things, if only for the sake of your kids. Now, not so much.

No excuses. As a society, we can no longer afford them.

[jbd441]

One thing through all this that no one is discussing is the victim. I'm sure being a Nun she is more in tune mentally to handle tragedy, hatred, or life threatening situations but NO ONE can imagine the emotional stress a person goes through when they have a gun or any other weapon pointed at them and they can't deliver what the assailant wants. I know, I've been robbed a gunpoint and the upmost thing going through your mind is wondering if your life is going to end in the next few seconds.

Poor kid because he is hungry [[which is bs) and poor mother because she was under pressure to have a child even when she knew the father wouldn't stick around blah blah ad nauseum.

The sad thing is no one including myself has a answer to all this.

[English]

jbd441, you're right. Thanks for the reminder.

We do know what we could do to prevent this, but all of the solutions are far too draconian for a free society. You can't stop people from having babies, and you can't force them to stay together. You also can't take children away from their parents except for in extreme situations. So I agree that we're stuck.

[Danny]

It's not over yet for this kid, FORGIVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AND REPENT! When He dies, than it's over.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

Sounds to me like the mother said her son was "howngry". Guess I've been out of Detroit too long.

[R8RBOB]

Yeah its stupidity, but this is less than a mile from where I live, and if we're just going to sit here and ignore the astronomical crime in our community, then count me out.

Sorry, if he could make it to St. Clare he could make it to a business in Grosse Pointe or along Jefferson in Detroit and sweep the floors or something. Don't feel much pity for this punk ass bitch. Shit's rough all over, kid.

I do appriciate rjk's assesment, though.

As an aside, he probably didn't know she was a nun [[if he even knows what that is). Most don't wear habits anymore, and in some of the news sources they specified that she wasn't. Maybe he thought he was hitting some loaded Grosse Pointer. Jokes on him.

Let me just state I also don't feel sorry for this POS. If he had robbed you or I, his momma would have said the same thing. That he was hungry which is the point I was trying to make. His mother is a failure. Instead of raising him to stand on his two feet, she enables him to be a piece of shit. Rather than putting her foot up his ass, she will resort to rolling excuses as to why he fucked up his future.

[oladub]

English, Thank you for the thoughtful and insightful reply. I read it to my wife who is white. Her comment was that as a full time mother, she felt that she was looked down upon; that people tended to simplify their vocabulary when speaking to her as if being a full time mother meant she wasn't as smart. She was eventually vindicated somewhat as the kids did pretty well in most ways. However, she could see where motherhood could be shunned by many young middle class women.

Having gone through things like refusing to let my daughter date someone two years older when she was in 10th grade and really getting in one of my boy's face when he started getting into a little police trouble; making threats about cars keys etc., it irks me to witness and pay for the irresponsibility of fathers who abandon their babies. That's who I have it out for whatever their background.

[Maof]

Sounds to me like the mother said her son was "howngry". Guess I've been out of Detroit too long.

lmao........

[Detroitej72]

His mother says he's a little angel huh?

More than likely she either refuses to admit she is a lousy parent, or actually believes that the authorities are giving her thug a raw deal.

I have to agree, where the heck is the sperm donor? Any male who fails to support his kid should be sterilized and give 18 years of hard labor to compensate for their failure to accept responsibility for their actions. And they certainly are not a real man.

[Pam]

You get no status when you're not a mother -- in fact, the second I hit my thirties without a child, I've heard from black men that "you must be selfish," including a couple of relatives

On the contrary, having kids just to feed your own ego, is selfish.