What goes around... Myspace Mom Shunned

[Adrian II]

When a child commits suicide, some people in her circle will feel guilty, others would rather blame anyone else than themselves. Looks like the latter is the case here.

Neighbourhood vigilantes do the rest: they need to think that evil has a face, and, being mostly cowards, they love to 'avenge' themselves on a woman. Some moron will probably set fire to the wrong house.

A reporter should question the neighbourhood mood, not reflect it.

EDIT
Being one myself, I have only done two reports of this kind before moving on to 'bigger game' as it is called. A misnomer, really, because there is nothing more fascinating than human relationships on a micro-scale. Anyway, in one of those cases, a suspected abuser was totally exonarated after a three year investigation and the father of the child arrested and found guilty of some pretty horrible abuse himself. To me, it showed how insiders (such as family members) tend to blame outsiders in order to keep the family together and keep up appearances, even if that family is completely disfunctional.

Short version: in these cases, you can never tell what's what from a few soundbites.