According to this article on CNN online, a boy playing with matches may have started the Buckweed Fire which burned over 38,000 acres and destroyed 63 buildings, including 21 homes.
Since they don’t identify him as a teenager, we are left to believe he is 12 or under in age.
Unlike a clear-cut case of arson, this sounds from this point to be a real accident. What should be done with the boy? My personal hope is that nothing is done legally with him- or his parents. Matches are easily found and if the boy did not set out to make a fire, it is a difficult case to make that he did commit a crime.
Not to minimize the awful loss of property ( not loss of life in this case, as there are no reported deaths connected with this particular fire ), but lacking a malicious intent, what would authorities try to charge him with as a minor?
And more to the point, what purpose would be served by arresting both of his parents and prosecuting them as the responsible adults in his life? The fire burned, and the boy might lose both parents to prison.
What do you think should be done in this case? IANAL, I am not presenting my thoughts and opinions as though I am a lawyer.
I think that the boy and his parents should not be prosecuted. Sometimes terrible things happen and they are accidents.
Thoughts?
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( Mods: This feels more like a poll to me than a debate, so I put it in here. If it needs to slide to G.D. or somesuch, I understand. )