Texas Woman Stabbed by Two Children; Victim's Mental Illness Blamed, Attacker's Used as Excuse

The more I dug into this story, the more it upset me.  America's narratives are so toxic that I just stay to myself all the time.

What actually happened was bad, but not so out of range for every day in America.  Two people with mental illness collided, one of them almost died.  Our lack of mental health care, and our piss-poor parenting, are the true pandemic that will kill us all.

What bothers me about this first video:  the focus is entirely on the mental health of the victim.  The attackers are described as "small children," when actually the boy who stabbed her was 12, almost a teenager.  To me, "small children" would be toddlers.    If the 7-year-old were the older of the two that description might make sense.  But no.

Dave Chappelle's whole justification for rape trolling the shit out of Elizabeth Smart was, "How old is 13 anyway?" against two armed, adult kidnappers.  But this poor darling is a "small kid," sure.  Welcome to America, land of alternative facts.

The 7-year-old isn't being charged, and that's fine with me.  He's said to still be processing what happened.  He's a bystander and victim of  his shitty mother and doomed brother.  At 7 he was surely overwhelmed and had no way to understand what his negligent mother was allowing his undersupervised, mentally ill brother to do. 

The reporting has me furious.  I truly don't see what the survivor's mental health had to do with the price of milk in this story, other than blame-shifting.

The doorbell cam shows two boys in front of the neighbor's house on their bikes.  They're said to be having words with her when another neighbor comes and shoos them away.  Note that I'm not able to see the survivor in the doorbell video.  She appears to be in her own garage, minding her own business.

The two boys are seen about ten minutes later on their bikes, this time wearing gloves.  The 12-year-old (allegedly) runs into the garage, pulls out a knife, and stabs the woman.  They both get back on their bikes and race away.  The woman didn't die because her brother came to routinely check on her very shortly after the attack.  She was choppered out to a trauma center.  That's the only reason she survived.

Now here's the apology from the mother of the alleged attackers, who were brothers.  Let me break her statement down point-by-point.

1. I'm very remorseful.  I wouldn't want that to happen to nobody. [sic]
2. I'll keep my prayers up for both my son and their family.
3. My son struggles with mental problems.
4. He has mental issues, but other than that, he's just a boy.  [shrug]  They all learn.  We learn from our mistakes.
5. I'm sorry my sons committed "the incident."
6. I'm praying for your health and wellness.

Do you see how stripping her whiny mewling out, and reducing her statement to the simple words, makes her position a lot more clear?  Everything about her statement made me want to grab her by the throat and punch her face until it wasn't there anymore.

In Point 1, she's acting as her son's spokesperson. He needs to say this to the public and can't.

In Point 2, first problem, ma'am, we know and don't care that you're praying for your own son.  Filter that out of your "apology."  Because you're creating a level playing field where there isn't one.

Also, she's mimicking what every authority figure in America says when they don't plan to take responsibility for jack shit, like after every mass shooting.  "It's too soon... thoughts and prayers."  Decades later, that's still all we're doing other than throwing low-level individuals in jail after they shoot everybody.  The mechanisms that allow the mayhem are all left perfectly intact.

But she's added the piss-take of including herself as co-victim, by reminding everybody that her son is also a victim of having stabbed an elderly neighbor in a premeditated, unprovoked home invasion.  Whatever crazy thing the woman may have said to them ten minutes earlier, she never left her garage.

In Point 3, we're getting down to business.  Her son is mentally ill.  Now we're at the beating, bleeding heart of American hypocrisy:  the mentally ill have to fend for themselves in this country.   This incident happened at the intersection of need and responsibility.

The survivor is still alive because her brother took personal responsibility for her every single day as her mental state declined in old age.  He came by for his routine check-in just at the right moment.  She made it 59 years without getting stabbed by some unattended brat.

The kid who stabbed her will continue to be a menace to and burden on society all his days, because his mother has never taken responsibility for him.   He made it 12 years without attempting to kill someone in their own home. 

What was his mom doing during the pertinent timeframe?  Why was the mentally ill 12-year-old supervising his little brother?  Why did she not notice her two sons grabbing gloves and knives?  Why did the other neighbor shoo them away from arguing with the neighbor and she knew nothing about their whereabouts or activities?  What was she so preoccupied with, that was more important than her mentally ill son?  Where does this woman get off shrugging during her apology?

4. He has mental issues, but other than that, he's just a boy.  [shrug]  They all learn.  We learn from our mistakes.

This one right here is what made me want to personally beat this kid's mother beyond recognition.  She's why that lady got stabbed.  This statement is 1/2 an RCH from "boys will be boys."  In case you're not clear on how few fucks she gives, she literally followed it up with a shrug.  She created the little monster in that video. When she says in Point 1 "I'm very remorseful," she means "I'm sorry it happened" because now her life is all messed up.  

We all learn from our mistakes?  What did his mother learn about supervising her mentally ill son?  I'm left to wonder how much time she spent sitting around the house complaining about that neighbor in front of her children, griping that she was a danger to the community?  Where did her kids get the idea to go over there and argue with her in the first place?  Fuck this woman and her worthless apology.

Because she then followed that up with apologizing that her son committed "the incident."  I grew up having the violence against me continually minimized and dismissed. 

Ohio State News:
"In two separate experiments, Lewicki and his co-authors tested how 755 people reacted to apologies containing anywhere from one to all six of these elements:
1. Expression of regret
2. Explanation of what went wrong
3. Acknowledgment of responsibility
4. Declaration of repentance
5. Offer of repair
6. Request for forgiveness.
...
Our findings showed that the most important component is an acknowledgment of responsibility. Say it is your fault, that you made a mistake,” Lewicki said." [Emphasis added]

And that's exactly what made this woman's apology less valuable than used toilet paper, her utter lack of responsibility.  Her child's mental health combined with her lack of supervision is just whoopsie diddle.  The rest of us will be working around that as long as he's breathing and it's not her fault.  And she'll be mewling on TV and praying about it.  I could drown her in the toilet right now.

"The second most important element was an offer of repair.

One concern about apologies is that talk is cheap. But by saying, ‘I’ll fix what is wrong,’ you’re committing to take action to undo the damage,” he said.

The next three elements were essentially tied for third in effectiveness: expression of regret, explanation of what went wrong and declaration of repentance."

Nobody gives a shit about your prayers about things you refuse to own up to with your actions.