Tuesday, March 18, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
What kind of life do you lead? Are your kids little robots? Why not write about something in your area of expertise?
Common sense says arresting 9-year-olds is a losing strategy. They'll only grow up and vote Democratic and liberal and investigate you.
Smile, your shriveled little soul can be revived with a major miracle. If you are a Christian, I'm sure you can visualize this.
Good luck...
Name Withheld
Thank you very much for the on-target article regarding the Jeremy Anderson story.
You were very clear in sticking to the facts... the facts are still the facts.... I believe you are the first person who has so clearly and accurately described the situation without getting caught up in the emotionalism and a mother who may be trying to milk the situation for all she can get from it.
Fred Leas
You are, I'm afraid, right on with your Jeremy Anderson column.
I've raised three children and they would have gotten a good spanking plus all their rights taken away for a good long time and then have to work for the next several years paying off the construction company. That cherubic little face doesn't do a thing to my cold, mean heart.
N.S.
Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your Monday column on Jeremy Anderson.
This is the most factually accurate account of the whole affair that I have seen in the media.
As you know, the initial reports, primarily those from the Associated Press, were extremely slanted. Again, many thanks for pursuing the story in an unbiased and throughly comprehensive way.
Ray Willis director, public information office Clark County School District
I was most pleased and gratified to read your column in the SUN concerning the vandalism done by a youngster who is definitely old enough to know better and who is probably lying about being given permission.
Even if it were said in jest by a workman, the young man is old enough to know (or should be) that such acts are totally out of line and damaging.
It is almost terrifying to realize the lack of responsibility on the part of many of today's parents and children...to the extent that it borders upon total anarchy.
And the idiots who pander to this kind of attitude are doing nothing to insure the future of our country.
Geraldo Rivera seems to have lost his good sense (what little he had) in the ever constant quest for bigger and bigger ratings and the subsequent money he can obtain for them.
First he makes an idiot of himself over the O.J. Simpson matter wherein the criminal system found O.J. not guilty (as did I from the evidence shown in court.) But he states, without the evidence, that he thinks O.J. is guilty, and therefore he is to be pilloried forever in Rivera's show.
There is no doubt in my mind that the civil trial brought against Simpson constitutes the matter of double jeopardy for a crime he was not proven to have committed to the complete satisfaction of the original jury, and that the Goldman family, despite decrying they really don't want money, turned about face and are asking for money now - tsk, tsk. Fie on all this irresponsibility.
Now the "perfect" Geraldo Rivera is using his platform to delve into a matter about which he knows little to deliver his "sermon" on the "mistreatment" of this young man.
The lad in question is the product of a very greedy and irresponsible parent and should have learned better at his mother's knee or over it.
Instead, the parent of today lashes out at whatever authority figure the child ignores, be it teacher, officer of the law, courts or whatever, and defends to the limits of excess the totally stupid upbringing they are giving their child.
This is child abuse of the very worst kind. The child is being abused by being made a media darling for a criminal act and by his mother at that.
Shame on all of them, the media, the mother, but least of all the child -- his shame is, and shall always be, a touch of stupidity concerning the lack of consideration for the rights of the rest of us.
Jeanne-Marie Soderquist
Thank you for the fine article you wrote on Jeremy Anderson. When I saw and heard the boy and his mother on Good Morning America, I could not believe my ears!
The nerve of that selfish woman using her son to get on national television and then having the nerve to say that he has done nothing wrong!
The TV jerks are just as wrong and selfish as the mother for having them on the air. Anything for a story, right? Let's omit many of the facts and distort many of the others and we will have us a helluva story, right? The attention-crazed, selfish society we live in is disgusting.
You are a brave and unusual man to inject logic and moderation in your thinking and mix them with the facts in your article.
Again, I thank you,
M.G. "Huck" Huckabay
I agree 100 percent.
It's actions like those of the mother and all those who actually "sympathize" with her to the point of rock throwing that create "hands-tied" situations for the police and teachers, and what causes so many of them to leave their professions.
Vicki Mildice
Thanks for printing your opinion of the "Vegas Vandal." I totally agree and would further state that the child and parent need a spanking.
Unfortunately, the local children have up on the notoriety and think it is "cool" - great example. But then, that's what this world has come to.
"Cool" means just plain meanness without accountability. Keep up the good work, and thanks again. Our children will see your column tomorrow morning at breakfast.
Mady and Douglas Oliverius
Thank you for your column.
Your article and others like it in the past few days have brought rationality to this whole "cement vandal" issue.
In this case where the victim was vilified, threatened and coerced and the unrepentent youngster portrayed as the victim, it is sincere relief to see reason reinjected into the scene.
After 24 years in this business, it is still disturbing to see how quickly many people turn hateful and aggressive towards others before they have even the most basic of facts.
Our mothers taught us better.
Dick Winget, Clark County undersheriff
My hat's off to you for a well written article. The article titled, "Actions by mother of 9-year old have been shameless" was an excellent write-up. You laid out what is understood to be the facts and laid the blame where it should be laid, with the boys mother.
Well done, Carol Shelton
Finally someone calls it like it is. I really appreciate your Las Vegas Sun article in which you called it like it is. I dread to think of what our street-savvy young people are learning from this travesty of justice.
First and foremost, the mother should be required to help pay for the damage her son performed. Three hundred feet of damage is outrageous! Once small name on one section would be considered normal. But this massive effort was pure vandalism. And what construction worker in their right mind would have invited a child to do this kind of damage? A competitor? What does the contractor say about this? Who else is building around the site! Who would have made such a statement?
The fact that the mother did not return calls suggests to me more than just a little culpability. And this campaign to accuse or disfocus the problem from herself and her son to the authorities is as you put it a "smoke screen!"
Kids need to KNOW that there is a price to pay for their mistakes. And if mom and dad have to pay it... so be it. Society is tired of all the graffiti and marring of public places by teens, and other young people whose parents are not doing their parental job.
I think it's a crying shame that the concrete company received threats and was mistreated with phone calls, and rock throwing. Our whole community sounds like they have lost perspective in this issue.
So it was warming to know that you can stand up and call it like it is. I appreciated the bulleted steps in the case which clearly show that if mom wanted to stem the tide of events, she should have been working with the law not at odds with it.
I for one hope the DA does more than just slap hands. I think, the youth of our community need to KNOW that this kind of mischief is going to cost them and their parents. To do otherwise, leaves the door open for more of the same. And you and I and the rest of Las Vegas will have to pick up the tab whether in a concrete job, or in taxes, or in loss of human dignity!
I hope you will write up a GLARING report when the hammer falls that will let the youth of Las Vegas see that our schools, our police and our system is NOT going to stand still for this kind of tyranny.
Thanks again for a great article. Well done!
Terry D. Smith
I enjoyed your column. You speak the truth. I am very close to the situation, as I work for the plaster organization, and know what is truly happening, and you have hit it on the head. All we wanted was to get the job done to the exact specifications of the city of Las Vegas, nothing more-nothing less.
What now one has discussed, is the fact that we have had to install the work to certain specifications as documented by the city of Las Vegas. Now we have to remove the "artistic work" properly, and then re-install same with due care (you were right on having Jeremy being cased as the security guard on the re-pour), and again in accordance with specific city of Las Vegas specifications. Everyone and their "uncle" have offered their services to re-install same, but no one really is aware that we can not just do it without going through the proper inspection process.
What you need to also address is whether Jeremy has vandalized any housing tracts in the area, may I suggest that you contact Stanpark Homes, and more specifically talk to them about Durango Trails. From what we understand the young man is not an angel, and is used to signing his name.
Name withheld
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your smart and sensible column regarding Jeremy Anderson! His mom is a disgrace. I was amazed at all the negative publicity that the cement company & police got over this little brat!
How Barbara Anderson can twist the fact around that her son is an out of control monster and that she is a morally bankrupt mother, absolutely amazes me!
I am a 33 year old married woman, and I shudder to think what my parents would have done to me if I had pulled the stunt that Jeremy did! But I guess that is the real difference here, the lessons taught to me by my parents make me think about my actions, while Ms. Anderson is raising an excuse loving delinquent.
Thanks again for bringing some sanity & common sense to an absolutely absurd tale of modern life.
Diana Roberts
Thanks for your column in today's Sun about the actions of Jeremy Anderson's mother. Your article echoed so many of my sentiments about Barbara Anderson. When I read the boy's story about being given permission to write in the cement the first time, I wondered the mother would not see right through her boy's story as excuse for his actions.
It sounds just like a lie of a child afraid of getting into trouble. How unfortunate his mother has taught her child by her actions to not be accountable for them -- but then from the sequence of events and actions of the police you outlined in your article, the mother herself does not seem responsible herself for she lies and avoids accountability for the damage her son did do. Unfortunately, there are too many parents like Anderson in many communities whose children constantly do damage and cause problems. Being a mother myself, I have often dealt with these kind of parents who neglect to give their children direction and attention, but who are so defensive of their child, even when wrongdoing can't be denied.
Thanks again.
Kathleen Miller
Kudos to you!! Thankfully somebody had the courage, to tell the truth about the Anderson incident. That boys mother needs to get a clue, unless condoning vandalism is her method of parenting. It is appalling to me that a parent would defend a child who had blatantly destroyed property and then act like it was not her child's fault. If it were my son, he would be grounded for months and would be out mowing lawns to pay for the damages. No wonder kids these days are out of control with parents like that.
Thanks for writing a great column. Keep up the good work and continue telling the truth!
Shelley Greenblatt North Las Vegas
I don't always agree with you on some of your assessments, but in your article about the mother and son, you hit it right on the head, what is wrong with today's kids is apparent. The parent needs to be tough on manners and discipline herself before she can teach it to a sibling. Thank you for an honest thought.
Mike D.
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