I hope his death doesn’t make his “artwork” more valuable.
The point here isnt whether the kid “deserved” death, its that he put himself into the crosshairs and got smacked! He’s dead, and his friends and his family grieved. Now do you think for one minute, that his tagger friends realized that what he was doing was dangerous and stupid? I doubt it. I bet they were back at the same spot within a week.
Now am I supposed to feel sympathy for someone who intentionally risks their life over something so stupid as painting their name on the side of a boxcar?
No, no sympathy for him, or the idiots who die from trying to tag their name on a highway overpass, or tunnel portal or other dangerous location. Its the family that suffers as do those who have to respond to the emergency call, Those are the ones I feel sympathy for. But to knowingly and intentionally do something really stupid is just plain idiotic.
Are we “playing God” by saying he deserved this fate, NO, because it wasn’t us personally pushing him into the path of the train or off the bridge, no, HE PUT HIMSELF there, he stepped into the crosshairs of his own free will and payed for it, in essence, he GOT the result of what his actions DICTATED. It was entirely of his own choice to do do the actions that ended his life, thats why my symapthy for the kid is nil. It wasn’t an accident, it was due intentional actions that put this kid in the place where he died.
Call it Stupid, call it Fate, its certainly tragic for the family, but please dont expect me to feel sorrow for someone who intentionally jumps into the lioncage.
So if it was your teenage son doing something stupid and getting killed would you tell your relatives that the idiot punk kid got what he deserved? I do agree that tagging freights is a crime and they were somewhere that they should not have been,but show some respect for a human life.
All of my relatives would certainly be very disappointed in the boy deliberately putting himself into a postion where he might get hurt or killed. My family teaches things like obeying the crossing gates, staying out of areas where we dont belong and away from yards where equiptment can silently roll down the track and hit you.
If the child is brought up to respect the property and not engage in tagging then there is not any problem. But if the child disobeys the rules and gets injured or killed… the entire family will go:
Aww that is just too bad. Now we gotta fix him up in the hospital or bury him. Life is like that.
Let me briefly explain something. I am trained in Hazmat for trucking. If I am in a situation where there is a incident developing with other people… I will NOT be the last man fleeing the scene. Anyone behind me who stumbles and calls for help will be left behind.
That is just the way it is.
There is somewhere a video of a European Train bearing down on a child playing chicken on these forums. You watch this video and then come back here and tell us if you still feel respect for this kid.
Young people do not fully mature in their thought processes until they are about 25 years old. I note that several people have made reference to doing stupid things when they were young (I know I did). When I look back , I realize now that I could have been killed or very seriously injured. But at the time I had no real understanding of the dangers involved much less did I think about possible consequences of my actions. Fortunately most of us don’t die from our stupidity.
I certainly am sorry that he was killed and my heart goes out to his parents who grieve over this tragedy.
Paul
Unfortunately, the fathers of the idiots won’t be kicking their butts, they’ll be suing the railroads.
And the worst part is, they will probably win.
Talk about REWARDING stupidity.
Why does it seem that no matter how stupid the idiot…no matter how stupid the act…there is always some moron trashing the railroad?.. We had a pair of teens hit by a bnsf train in the town where I lived in southern Colorado in 1999, one was killed…An eye witness saw the accident and said they were racing the train across the tracks. Yet, the public opinion was…“BAD, RAILROAD…BAD!” The same with the punk who got his art class cut short…somewhere someone is saying…“HOW DARE THAT TRAIN RUN ON PRIVATE PROPERTY ALL FENCED IN…SUCH A TEMPTATION” The real problem is in the court system! These punks should be made to scrub that filth off by hand for 20 hours each time they get caught… not COUNCILING. no pitty here., except for the crews and emergency response teams.
eh, you guys act like this is the only person who has been killed,sure he was painting, stupid sure…but people who arent painting get killed by their own faults,why dont you say how stupid they are…
For example; i recently saw this “terror on the rails” show. At the end, this 16 year old kid raced a train for more than half of a mile. He dodged the gates, and was struck by the train, killing his passenger, his younger sister. My thoughts “this kid is totally at fault, he deserves the feeling that he is the reason his sister died”. It was becasue of his own actions that his sister was killed.
Of course, the next scene, his father started a campaign or something of that nature, to try and force railroad companies to put proper barriers on railroad crossings. He felt that it was metra’s fault for only having barriers on half the road.
I was simply appauled. This kid knew that this train was unable to stop, it was his fault he was late for school. He knew the consiquences of his actions, yet of course, the father makes it out to be the railroads fault.
Ive lost track of why this relates to the writer getting killed, but that made me angry to watch the whole show.
If he was MY kid he wouldnt be hanging with taggers and if I found out he WAS, BOOM [:0]straight to the Moon Alice, Straight to the Moon!
As a parent I would make sure I knew who my kids friends were and what they were doing. Thats what my parents did and that exactly what most parents today DO NOT do. I would have layed down th LAW early with my kids, let them know EXACTLY what I expected in their behavior and what would happen if they ever tripped up. Just like my parents who said “we’ll support you, be encouraging, help you with whatever endevor you want to try, but if you screw up and do something really stupid, dont expect us to bail you out! You have to learn actions in life has repercussions”. Stearn but fair.
Its a high likelyhood that this kids parents didnt give a ratsass about the who’s and what’s. Kids need borders. Taggers are just a hairsbreath under being Gang Members, which I would never allow my kids to associate with, if I found out that inspite of my parental limits my kid was still associating with taggers or gangsters, Bada-boom-bada-bing! Its off to Catholic Military School in Nevada (You thought your DI in the Marines was tough ?, wait till you meet DI Master Sgt Sister Mary Margaret!!! [:0][:0][:0][:0])