On February 20, 5-year-old,Drake Whitker, was “abducted”
when a car-jacker took off with the 2012 Audi that was left running in the
driveway of his family’s Park Ridge home. Drake’s mother was bringing in
groceries when she had left her young son alone, in the back seat of the car.
When she came out, the car was driving away. The driver was a late teen or
early 20s male. There was an amber alert sent out and later that day in a
Skokie alley, the boy was found in the car, completely unharmed.
Related to the topic, we have had a miserable winter in
Northern Illinois so far. The weather is at record breaking lows, and the
economy isn’t at all helping low-income people through it. Low-income people
are worse off than in other seasons, and we are all seeing the effects this has
on our community, as a whole. That being said, are there ever certain
situations that you could see as perfect opportunities for shelter, safety, and
warmth; instead of malicious crime? I’d say so.
Although it is not right to steal, I think we should figure
out what is behind the choice of the car-jacker, before we assume what he did
was malicious and deviant. The car-jacker reportedly only took the car to get
home, prior to abandoning it. Therefore, it is safe to assume he did not want
to fully steal it or even sell it.
Now, logically speaking, a new Audi is a pretty expensive vehicle,
so it would not be a smart idea to leave it running, completely unattended. But
that is the chance Drake’s mother took when she did just that. She also did not
have her priorities straight when she decided that bringing in groceries was
more important than bringing in her child to his warm home.
Anna, a mother of four, said “I first of all would say that
the mother is absolutely wrong in this whole thing. Why you wouldn’t put your
child before yourself, especially material items, is beyond selfish. I couldn’t
imagine doing that to any of my children. They mean the world to me, and a big part
of being a parent involves being responsible, protective, and always thinking
ahead”.
Let’s also take a look at the other end of the situation. A
young man who was walking by foot in the 35 degree weather, who was not oozing
of finances, encounters a running car. To him, this probably appeared as an
opportunity for shelter, warmth, security, and comfort from the cold and relief
from the travels he had to do by foot. He did not want Drake, which is evident
because Drake was left in the car, completely unharmed, and still placed in his
car seat. I would not consider this a abduction, but rather a car-jacking by a
low-income Chicagoland civilian.
A lot of Chicagoland low-income residents can understand why
the car-jacker made the choice he did. Paul, a homeless man of the South Loop
area, said “You can’t even blame that kid for what he did. You can see he
didn’t want to hurt anybody; he didn’t hurt that little kid. All that guy did
was look for some relief, or maybe a bit of an answer to his problems. You can’t
knock that at all, cause if you were in his shoes, you’d do the same thing”.
With so many people shaming the car-jacker, why aren’t we
seeing nearly any coverage that is shaming the poor parenting of Whitker’s
mother? That is where this story got its opportunity to arise from in the first
place. I think that before outsiders are so quick question the morality or
intentions of the car-jacker, maybe they should walk a mile in his beat up
shoes…in freezing Chicagoland weather. Most likely, your opinion would change.
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