24A008 A Foot in the Door by Jim Davies, 2/20/2024

One of the most ominous court decisions ever made in America took place on February 6th in Michigan: Jennifer Crumbley was found guilty of "involuntary manslaughter."

Her son Ethan had earlier confessed to a 2021 school shooting in Oxford, MI, in which he had killed four students and injured seven others. He has been caged for life. But this verdict placed blame on his mother. Next month, his father will be tried on a similar charge. It's the first time parents have been made responsible when their child commits murder; and it opens the door for a whole new level of witch-hunting by the government "justice" system.

A good summary of the trial is given by the BBC here.

It has so far been universally accepted that a person is responsible for his or her own actions. Exceptions apply if he is mentally ill or very young, not knowing right from wrong. But the Crumbley case blames the 15-year-old boy and his parents too, so setting an extremely dangerous precedent.

The Crumbley family seems to have been rather dysfunctional, though that's by no means unique and some have applied the term to the British Royals for example. Young Ethan did show signs of mental instability, yet his parents bought him a handgun for his birthday (though wisely took him to a range to learn and practice.) Jennifer engaged in adultery. So yes, there was a shortfall in the boy's upbringing; but again, that's hardly unique.

On the day of the shooting Ethan drew a bizarre picture of a handgun firing and targets bleeding, which was found by a teacher and caused such concern that Jennifer was called in to counsel her son; but not enough for either to check Ethan's backpack lest he was armed with a real weapon, nor enough for his mother to take him home. She was blamed; the school was not - even though at the time of the murders the teachers were in loco parentis. Government workers quite often get a break.

The erosion of freedom is usually done gradually; the example of How to Boil a Frog is a well known illustration. Now, the ruling class has a precedent, and over time they are sure to extend it.

To blame a parent for lawbreaking by his offspring gives it a wide-open opportunity to fill the prisons with undesirables. A drunk teenager drives dangerously? - lock up his father. The kid snorts coke? Find (or plant!) some in his room and confiscate the family home. Of course, that would never be done in the Biden White House, Hunter being over 21; but in those terrible teen years, as if some parents didn't have strain enough, government snoops will now be breathing down their neck. The Bible may not "visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children" but from now on, expect the State to visit the children's iniquity on the fathers.

That is, of course, just for as long as the State survives. There is zero hope that it will see the error of its ways and reform, but you and I can ensure that it does not survive for much longer.