The media has been buzzing about Tyshawn Lee, the 9 year old little boy who was executed on the southside of Chicago on November 2nd. His murder is believed to be in retaliation from a rival gang in connection with his father.
Since then, we’ve seen headline after headline about Tyshawn. But, his death isn’t the center of most of the coverage. Instead, the actions and backgrounds of his mother and father seem to take precedence, and apparently, make a better story.
There were a few published updates concerning the case, but most of the coverage scrutinized Karla Lee and Pierre Stokes, his parents, for everything from being bad parents to even being directly responsible for their son’s death.
Last weekend, the media went crazy with reports of the mother buying a car with GoFundMe donations and then slammed the father when he started his own account to raise funds. Today, the news reported that the mom had allegedly went on a trip to Vegas following the funeral. Meanwhile, Tyshawn’s murder is still unsolved. It seems that gossiping about his parents lives does nothing for solving the murder of this child.
I won’t pretend I understand what’s going on in their lives or why killing a little boy for the actions of grown folks make any sense at all. But, I do know that bullying them isn’t the answer. There have been numerous heartless and disgusting comments about these two people. It seems that people simply get a thrill out of kicking others while they’re down. Death threats, name calling, terribly indignant profane expressions — all while claiming to want justice for this little boy.
I try to understand exactly what is to be achieved by constantly downing the parents of a slain child. Surely, his death is enough pain and suffering for them. We can speculate all we want, but most of us really have no clue whether or not Pierre or Karla know anything about who killed their son or why.
No matter what we may feel (or speculate) about their lifestyles or values, we must give them room to grieve without judging. More importantly, all of the name calling and harsh comments are extremely unnecessary. Some may not realize that what they’re doing is bullying, but that’s exactly what it is, and it’s not solving anything.
