Let’s wait before turning slain 13-year-old into a martyr
It’s too early to say with confidence just what happened in a Little Village neighborhood alley at 2:38 a.m. on March 29, when police shot and killed Adam Toledo.
Officials have described it as an “armed confrontation” at the conclusion of a foot chase of Toledo, 13, and a 21-year-old companion following reports of shots fired in the area. The implication behind this vague characterization is that Toledo or his companion either pointed a gun or fired at police, resulting in return fire that struck Toledo in the chest, killing him.
But further details have been slow to emerge, and police bodycam video, which authorities have promised to release sooner rather than later, may clarify what happened.
Activists and concerned community members are right to keep the heat on for answers. The public deserves them after any police shooting of a civilian. And they may be right that officers fired without justification and that Adam Toledo is a martyr whose killers should be prosecuted.
Or a thorough review may find that police shot in justifiable self-defense. Again, it’s too early to say.
Adeena Weiss Ortiz and Joel Hirschhorn, attorneys representing the Toledo family, have issued a statement that says, in part, “We are not going to let the anguish and emotion of the moment interfere with our objective to obtain the facts. We will address all public statements about the circumstances of Adam’s death once we have the facts before us.”
That said, however, it’s not too early to stop romanticizing and infantilizing 13-year-olds. The key detail in this story, the detail that has made this a national and an international topic of interest, is Toledo’s age.
“He was a baby,” said a tweet from local anti-violence activist Eva Maria Lewis that got 172,000 likes and 50,000 retweets. One of the retweets came from Black Lives Matter Chicago, which tweeted, “there is absolutely no ... justification for murdering our children.”
Organized Communities Against Deportation tweeted out a drawing of Toledo with angel wings and a halo over his head accompanied by a statement reading, “there are NO INSTANCES where murderous violence against a child is justified.”
News reports quoted his mother saying the seventh grader was “a happy boy who liked to play with
Hot Wheels and ride bikes with his siblings.” But news reports also noted that his mother had filed a missing person report about him March
26, withdrew it March 27 when he returned home and later reported that he disappeared a second time before police shot him dead in the middle of the night.
And headlines from around the country in just the last six months remind us that 13-year-olds aren’t inherently angelic.
Jackson, Mississippi: 13-year-old charged with killing woman also shot, killed father (March 25)
Washington, D.C.: Girls, 13 and 15, charged with murder after armed carjacking near Nationals Park (March 24)
Jersey City, New Jersey: 13-year-old girl charged in murder of 35-year-old man (Dec. 27, 2020)
Baltimore: 13-year-old arrested in connection to murder, attempted murder of two men (Dec. 16, 2020)
San Antonio: Two 13-year-olds charged with murder in slaying of man in Southeast Side home (Oct. 8, 2020)
What do these news stories say about Adam Toledo? Nothing. They simply suggest that using his age as shorthand for innocence and harmlessness in this situation generates heat but sheds no light.
He was not a “baby.” A 13-year-old pointing a gun, if that’s what he did, is as dangerous as a 23- or 33-year-old, maybe even more dangerous given what we know about the lack of judgment and impulse control in adolescents.
In fact, it’s that very lack of judgment in still-developing brains that inspires the hope for growth, reform and redemption that undergirds the concept of juvenile justice. It’s what renders it immoral to impose life sentences on young offenders. It’s what makes Adam Toledo’s death a tragedy no matter what the circumstances.
It’s too early to blame the police or label this a murder in the name of “justice,” as protesters are doing. It’s too early to fault Toledo’s family for not keeping him out of trouble.
As Mayor Lori Lightfoot has noted, this is “a complicated story” in which “our understanding of the facts is evolving.”
Looming over these facts, whatever they turn out to be, will be the bigger question of how we can better support young people — all people — in our most disadvantaged, crime-riddled communities. What employment, educational and recreational opportunities can we offer? What treatments and interventions will reduce the number of such shattering incidents?
It was never too early to ask those questions.