The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : A Lament for Leiby Kletzky

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A Lament for Leiby Kletzky

By Aaron Goldstein on 7.14.11 @ 10:26AM

This is just beyond awful. In fact, it was an act of evil.

On Monday afternoon, eight-year old Leiby Kletzky disappeared in Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood (home to the largest Orthodox Jewish community outside of Israel) after walking alone to meet his mother following day camp. Yesterday, his dismembered body was found in a dumpster while his feet were found in the home of Levi Aron, who has been charged with Kletzky's murder.

Normally Kletzky took the bus home from day camp but he had wanted to walk home on his own. Chances are some of his friends had done it and he wanted to do it too. This boy wanted a little autonomy. His parents agreed to his plan provided that he meet his mother half-way.

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens to young children (and even adults) he got lost. Leiby asked for directions. If he had asked nearly anyone else, Leiby would have found his way to his mother. Instead he met Levi Aron. At the risk of sounding cliche, it turned into every parent's worst nightmare. As if this whole situation wasn't bad enough, Borough Park has long had a reputation as one of the safest neighborhoods in New York City. Yet even the safest of places aren't immune from evil.

I cannot begin to imagine how frightened Leiby must have been when he realized his fate and that there was no one he could turn to for help. I also cannot begin to imagine the feelings of guilt his parents will likely endure for the rest of their lives. Yet his parents mapped out the route and did a dry run with Leiby beforehand. What more could they have done? The presumption of innocence notwithstanding, Levi Aron is the only person who bears any responsibility for what happened to Leiby Kletzky.

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

Con Chef (NB)| 7.14.11 @ 10:35AM

Strap Levi Aron to the gurney & get out the needle.

Conservative Bob| 7.14.11 @ 2:19PM

Strap Levi Aron to the table and send in Leiby's parents and extended family with axes and knives.

The penalty for crimes against children should be increased.

PCC| 7.14.11 @ 2:43PM

My family and I live downtown a city of 7 million people that is much safer for children and everyone else than NYC. There are no circumstances under which I would allow my 8 year-old son to walk home alone from the bus stop. This tragic story explains why.

Occam's Tool| 7.14.11 @ 6:39PM

I live in the Country for a reason. My heart goes out to the Kletzkys. I have my Children's fort, complete with swingset and slides, in my back yard. My front yard is viewable from huge picture windows, and the kids have 2 1/2 acres to play on.

I grew up in the Chicago Suburbs, trained in Fort Worth, Galveston and Los Angeles, and high tailed it to rural Alabama as soon as I finished training. I hate big cities, and would never live in one.

Janet T Strausbaugh| 7.17.11 @ 6:39AM

I am a pediatrician and a mother, and I just don't think there are many 8 year olds who are equipped to walk 7 blocks alone in a big city in this day and age! It doesn't matter if other kids had done it and he "wanted a little autonomy". The reason children have parents is because children don't have the judgment to know what is safe and they need our protection. A parent needs to say "no" when a child wants to do something that is not safe. This in no way absolves what Levi Aron did, but the reason Leiby's parents will forever feel guilty for his death is because they didn't exercise the cautious good judgment they should have as parents. This death was preventable!

Vance Frickey| 7.18.11 @ 10:34PM

My sympathies go out to the parents of 8 year old Leiby Kletsky. There but for the grace of God would have been one of my sons, who also began playing unsupervised in the neighborhoods where we lived (also considered very safe).

The fact is that no one can predict when or where a predator will surface and act out his sick impulses. The BTK killer worked in the Midwest, in neighborhoods remarkable for their benign, safe nature.

Blaming the Kletskys for this is wholly inappropriate. I hope they know that there are people who sympathize with their plight and decline to play the blame game with grieving parents.

After my own youngest son died in Iraq, some people played the blame game with me for supporting his decision to serve in Iraq, or for not turning my son's memorial service into a party for my wife's parents after they jumped on the press bandwagon to describe themselves as devoted grandparents - when the only thing they did to my son just before he deployed was to play head games with him and emotionally abuse him and his wife in person and by E-mail while he served overseas, just before his death by IED.

Blame-gamers have nothing better to do than to inflict gratuitous emotional harm to those who are already suffering deep emotional pain in order to feed their need to be self-righteous.

Hang in there, Mr. and Mrs. Kletsky. People with good sense know you did what you could to avoid this tragedy, and grieve with you. Your son's in the arms of God now.

yisong| 10.29.11 @ 2:13AM

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