I may be wrong feeling this way... but... and this is my own opinion.... why is it that I look at Burke a little more differently than other children who have caused an accidental death of another child or sibling? This is where the whole accidental death thing rubs me wrong in regards to Burke. I do feel BDI. I always have since it first happened.
I think there is a lot of evidence to point to him as the cause of the head injury. Other children that have caused accidental deaths such as playing with a firearm and accidentally killing a sibling or friend, I feel were pretty much innocent. There was no intent to harm.
With Burke however, I feel there was intent to harm. I believe it happened multiple times too and finally this time it caused her death. So in his case I think he should have had some kind of punishment. He never even seemed remorseful or sad that his sister had been murdered. He still doesn't. That's what bothers me the most.
It makes me sick to think that a child could do this. But for me at least I do feel there was intent to harm, and severely harm at that.
So, therefore I have no sympathy for him. at all. I'm probably the only one who feels like this though and that's ok.
Burke definetly is disconnected to any emotions regarding the severity of what happened to his sister. During his first taped interview his expressive awareness regarding the seriousness of what was going on in his life at that time would be normal for a five year old child, not an almost ten year old. It was almost like the concept of death was as significant to him as a ham sandwich.
He's bright, but it's obvious his perceptions of the world around him are off, especially for his age.
We again see this same apathy even in adult Burke, who again has behaviors that would be far less weird on an 18 year old, not a 30 year old.
It appears to me from these brief glimpses into Burke that he is cognitively intelligent but emotionally immature, his social and self awareness are lacking, and it appears he has issues with perception of the world that are likely pathological.
Yes some of his behavior are consistent with aspergers....but aspergers dose not account for all of what we observe. I believe it would be more likely to be a different diagnosis entirely.
That all said to explain why it is so hard to be sympathetic to Burke....he doesn't have the same emotional affect you would expect to see in someone who is neurotypical.....which makes him look intentionally cold and distant.
I'm not saying he isn't guilty of a horrible act. But his inability to express emotion or perhaps even feel emotion, is sadly not his fault. It was likely how he was born.
Add onto that he was likely the victim of abuse himself....
It's pretty sad.
Burke didn't ask to be born the way he was, he didn't ask for abuse, he didn't ask for his issues to be glossed over and swept under the rug.....this was a very ill child (my opinion), who wasn't getting the help and support he so desperately needed, and honestly my heart breaks for him.
Those are the very children that pull at my heart strings, the ones everyone else has labeled a problem and have given up on. Those are the ones that need people to try to understand the world and life from their point of view, so you can slowly do the work of walking them down the path to healthy coping mechanism and self love.