Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Taking Responsibility

Mom blames cop, not boyfriend, for son’s death - Herald News

Please go read that and then come back here and make some sort of comment.  I'll wait, I have a few hours.  I just need someone to help me make some sense out of it.

It has my blood boiling!

A five year old boy is dead because the adults in the situation made poor choices.

Maybe the officer should have arrested Cecil Conner as well, maybe he should have removed the child from the vehicle and turned him over to DCFS.  Maybe Cecil Conner should have manned up and said, "Dude, I'm drunk, I can't drive."  Maybe Kathie LaFond should have protested a bit more and insisted that someone besides Conner take her child home.  Maybe she shouldn't have had her five year old out at 2:35am while she played taxi driver to her drunk boyfriend.

Maybe I'm just a little too emotionally attached to the scenario.  TOF is almost five and alcoholism and DUI's are all too familiar to me.

Maybe...

The one thing I am sure of is that adults need to grow up and take responsibility for their actions.  A domino effect of poor choices led to the death of Michael Langford and now no one wants to say, "It's my fault."
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7 comments:

Lisa Noel said...

I don't know. Alcoholism is a topic that touches close to home for me as well but I have to say that IF the claims are true and the officer gave him the keys even after being told (he should have been aware anyway) that he was drunk, I DO think the officer holds some responsibility. I'm the daughter of a police officer and think they regularly get blamed from crap unjustly but I also know that they can be stubborn and arogant at times too. If he told the man to drive and he protested he may have very likely have threatened him to drive or be arrested. This is very typical behavior, as officers usually react very unfavorably to anything they feel is disrespect towards them.
I consider this along the lines of the bartender who is held responsible when they over serve someone who is then in an accident. Yes, people should absolutely be more responsible for themselves but there are some situations where another individual does play into things. If this man was confindent that he had a DD, I can't take away his right to drink to sloppy drunk. Lord knows I've been there a few times.
Of course I'm left to question why, when he supposedly knew that he was too drunk to drive and attempted to reach someone else to drive, he would have been speeding at twice the legal limit. I understand alcohol can affect our judgment but I've seen a few people drive when they are concerned about their drunkenness and they are usually known to error on the side of caution and go too slow!
And then of course there is the question of wth, were they doing keeping a child out that late for. It's one thing if your significant other goes out and unexpectedly has too many so you're forced to drag a sleeping child out of bed in order to do the responsible thing (assuming no one has the cash to just pay a cab cuz that is WAY easier) but that's not how I read this. And I tend to jump to the conclusion that this is a woman who would chose her boyfriend over her child in almost any circumstance.

I don't know how girls can be like this. Despite what I am taught in church that my marriage should come before my kids, I can in now way live with myself if their safety is in question regardless of who is involved.

Wow! That was a whole lot of rambling to basically come down to this...IF I could believe that these were good upstanding citizens who are being completely honest about what happened that night, then yes I DO think that officer holds some responsibility for basically forcing a drunk man to drive. However, there is enough there to make me question their upstanding status that makes me consider that they aren't telling the whole truth.

Cranberry Morning said...

Accepting responsibility for our actions is a bygone virtue. Just look at our government officials (either party).

Melisa Wells said...

They definitely should've told the police officer that he was drunk. The officer could've either driven them home or escorted them while she drove, after writing her a ticket. There are so many different directions to go, blame-wise, and none of us were there, obvs, so it's a tough one. SO sad.

Unknown said...

I was fuming when I saw this yesterday. Yes, I do agree that the officer is responsible for not REALLY checking if the man was fit to drive. But seriously people, be adults and take responsibility for your own actions.

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

I didn't read it but I am assuming that it's a tragedy and I cannot read another tragedy just now. It doesn't really matter who's fault it is, though. The little boy is dead, and nothing will change that...

Michelle said...

I can't even form a coherent thought on this one. There are so many poor decisions by so many people - and look who really paid for it.

Dawn said...

It's sickeningly sad.

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