You are guilty of manslaughter and capable of murder

Daughter of Helen
Jul 30, 2017 · 5 min read

“A 7 year old boy is physically and emotionally abused by his family at home. They rarely take him to school and when they do he has no lunch. He’s too hungry to pay attention and he falls behind in class. He wishes things were different.

At age 8 he starts being bounced around between his abusive family and foster care where he is treated like a trouble maker. He’s seperated from his siblings and misses them. He wishes things were different.

At age 14, after years of this mistreatment he eventually runs away to live on the streets where he finds refuge with a group of people in a similar situation to him. They don’t judge him, they show him what is required to survive on the streets. He wishes things were different.

At age 15 he is angry all the time. He steals to survive. He resents the people who enforce the law and those that abide by the law because they offer judgement and no alternatives to help him better his situation. This leads him further down a path of crime and violence. He wishes things were different.

At age 18, he is sentenced to prison for aggrevated theft. In prison he meets more people who deserved more but were neglected by society. He wishes things were different.

At age 20, when he comes out of prison he can’t get a job. He needs money and he enters a dairy with a knife. He wishes things were different.

The dairy owner fights back. He wishes things were different.

He panics. Everything is happening so quickly. He wishes things were different.

He stabs the dairy owner 3 times in the chest. He wishes things were different.”


It’s easy to judge this man. Easy to call him a murderer. Easy to say he had a choice and he made the wrong one. Easy to hate him and easy to hope he gets locked away in prison for the next 10 years. It’s much harder to acknowledge that some of the blame lies with you. Much harder to admit that you are guilty of manslaughter and capable of murder.

Where were you when this boy was neglected, forgotten about and abandoned by society? You can tell yourself there’s nothing you could have done. You might honestly believe there was nothing you could have done. However, without knowing you personally I know you had the power to help this boy and yet you did not. I know because you can read this article and because you have access to the internet to do so. Being privileged doesn’t always mean having a trust fund and attending a private school, sometimes it means being literate, or having a roof over your head or being part of a society where you are seen as a person of equal worth.

We may not all be in a position to make grand gestures but we are all in a position to speak up for those less privilaged than ourselves. All it takes for evil to to triumph over decency is for good people to do nothing. Why are people so surprised when people who are treated like thieves become thieves or when people treated like terrorists become terrorists? Treat someone like their life is worth less than yours and they’ll act in a way that supports that theory.

So the next time you hear that a horrific crime was committed remember that a person capable of this sort of violence doesn’t give a shit about society because society didn’t give a shit about them. We all have the power to help these vulnerable people and yet most of us don’t. Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a person without premeditation. So we may not have planned to commit a murder but we are aware that our actions could have prevented it and therefore we are aware that our lack of action caused it. In this way we are all guilty.

Secondly, this story demonstrates that given the same upbringing and the same circumstances you would have committed the murder too. You aren’t a law-abiding citizen because you were born better than criminals. You are a law-abiding citizen because you got lucky. You were born into a world that demonstated kindness and provided you with opportunities. The reality is that most criminals would have thrived with your upbringing too. This man was not born evil. He was born a gorgeous, healthy, innocent baby and was pushed down a path that ends in prison. Anyone of us that was made to walk an identical path would end up at the same destination.

It’s an instinctive reaction to hate the people who commit these types of crimes. I can still remember the day I heard about the murder of 40 year old, pizza delivery man, Michael Choy. He was murdered by a group of 6 teenagers when he went to deliver them pizza in Papakura, New Zealand. He was lured down a dark driveway and attacked with a softball bat. Michael Choy didn’t stand a chance. The teens then took the pizza back to a nearby flat to eat and left Choy to die.

I still feel sad when I think about the last moments of Choy’s life. It breaks my heart knowing that Choy, despite his injuries, staggered to his dad’s nearby house and was found dying on the back doorstep the next morning. It makes me angry when I think about the teens sitting around eating pizza while Choy was dying. For these reasons I can understand why New Zealand wanted justice for Choy’s death. I can understand if Choy’s family hated these thugs. I can understand why Choy’s dad became so active in the Sensible Sentencing Trust to lobby for longer prison sentences. What I cannot understand is the pain and loss you feel when you lose a son and I sincerely feel for anyone who has lost someone to a violent crime or has been a victim of a violent crime. No one deserves to endure such pain.

I will however say that hate, anger and judgement do not bring about a change that will stop this type of crime from re-occurring. The next time you go to judge the actions of a person that has committed a crime ask yourself the following questions:

Where was I when this person showed all the signs of a person destined for this life? What help did I offer? And even now when I know the same fate awaits another innocent victim if I do nothing, will I still do nothing?

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