Teach your Children Well

Now more than ever it’s time to hold your children close. Nothing brings those thoughts home faster than incidents like the murder of 8-year-old Martin Cobb, who was murdered attempting to protect his sister from a teen who was trying to attack her.

On the face of it the whole thing seems a bit of a twisted affair. The initial report was skewed, and when the truth finally came out it was apparent that a 16-year-old youth was the main suspect. According to reports in the Richmond-Times Dispatch, Martin was trying to protect his sister from an attack by the teen. At some point during his attempt to protect her, Martin was struck in the head, allegedly with a brick, which resulted in his death.

Shame and horror—that such a thing can happen to kids at any time is hard to comprehend. We know at some level that these types of incidents can and do happen, but some human quality makes us want to think that they happen in other places, big city places, like New York, Detroit, or Los Angeles. Certainly, a quick look at the crime logs in those cities would disclose all kinds of situations that rise to the level of Martin’s death. At some level, we come to expect such stories from other places, but not here in the RVA. Here in the RVA such things are not supposed to happen, right?

Wrong.

Such things have happened here for a long time. Sometimes they don’t peak quite as much as the one with Martin Cobb, but child murders are nothing new around here. They are, as my son Geordie put it, “Heinous.” Hatefully or shockingly evil pretty much captures the circumstances of this crime. No one, especially not a preteen child, should be killed in such a manner.

In an AP story printed in the Times-Dispatch, the police have only said the boy died from severe head trauma. As a parent, the whole thing is difficult to handle. To make matters worse, Martin was a student at my wife’s school in Richmond. Most teachers know that the relationship between teachers and their students comes close to that of a parent.

Such crimes and other accounts of child abuse exist right here in the Tri-Cities. At times, the incidents rise to the level of murder and sometimes to rape and abduction. But it’s not so often that such cases rise to the consciousness of the public. So many times I recall sitting in court rooms hearing the countless number of cases in which a child had been killed or damaged by child abuse is a sad testament to how some in this society treat children.

About 20 years ago, there was an incident not much different from the one with Martin. A 10-year old girl was abducted, raped, and murdered in Chester. Many of you may remember the Charity Powers story; I can’t forget it. At the time, I remember talking with members of the Chesterfield County Police Department, and I posed the question about who could have done such a thing?

In a Richmond minute the investigator told me that they had a main suspect, but that in reality there were six or eight people in the area who they felt were capable of such an act. While we know there is one fewer now, the other five or six remain. And, I am sure, that the roster of potential suspects hasn’t diminished any over the ensuing decades. If this teen is proof, and we have to wait for the court case to see about that, it means a new crop has arrived.

There’s little refuge in a world where people prey on little ones. It’s hard to imagine that such things can happen and yet they do. No one wants to keep their children under protective lock and key, but leaving them to play outside on their own is becoming less of an option.