In Detroit, where the low temperature averages 25 degrees in December, two brothers sleeping on their parents’ front porch have been a cause of concern.
The boys, ages 12 and 15, have been camping on the porch since summertime.
“It hurt every night to go to sleep and know these kids are out there,” neighbors Kiarra Collins told Fox 2 in Detroit. “In July, it was 80, 90 degrees. Now it’s 20 degrees, you know what I’m saying? So something needs to be done.”
Good Samaritans have offered help but they boys refuse to accept.
Independent journalist Marc D’Andre, distressed by the sight of the brothers lying on the porch in a heap of blankets and sleeping bags, visited their west Detroit home on Nov. 30 to check on the brothers and livestreamed their brief conversation.
“Everyone on the block has tried to get them to come into the house,” a woman tells him on the phone.
D’Andre repeatedly offers them a meal and a warm room but they tell him they’re fine.
“I’m doing this to help you, bro, no bullsh-t,” D’Andre tells the boys. “People have been hitting me up all day about ya’ll.”
“We’re good,” one of the boys replies.
D’Andre tells viewers he heard the parents wouldn’t allow the teens inside because they were “possessed by the outside world.”
Such rumors, along with recent media attention, led Detroit police’s child protection unit to launch an investigation.
“This has probably been one of the biggest challenges of my career,” said Detroit Police Commander Rebecca McKay.
She said the parents weren’t punishing their sons. They were allowed inside the home to use the bathroom or get food.
McKay said officers contacted teachers and coaches as part of their investigation. The boys get good grades and the older one is a star on his school’s basketball team, she said.
‘The parents don’t want them on the porch,” McKay said. “But they are not going to fight and chance getting into a physical altercation [with] a 6-foot-5, 220-pound 15-year-old.”
The older teen already has assault and battery charges stemming from a fight with a family member.
The parents, who face no criminal charges, have tried to get their children into therapy in hopes of convincing them to come inside, McKay said. The brothers have been staying with relatives during the police investigation.
Many who’ve followed the case aren’t convinced the parents have done everything they could.
Facebook user Lynn Ross commented, “It’s still something fishy with this story, the parents are being protected.”
“How is it that they can sleep inside a family members home but can’t sleep inside their own parents’ home? Make it make sense,” asked Chantell Taylor.
Community activist George Ward, in a lengthy post on Facebook acknowledging the doubters, insisted the parents are not the villains. He said he’s been trying to help the older brother for nearly two years.
“The family has reached out to everyone they could to provide assistance for him,” Ward wrote. “The older has some things going on and he refuses to accept assistance or follow simple directions.”
Ward confirmed the 15-year-old was on the honor roll at school but has refused counseling offered to him. The 12-year-old, he said, “simply decided to follow his older brother.”
“Now, what we can do is attempt to provide some mental health resources and services to a very disturbed young person, who needs us much more than his parents need to be villainized or fought,” Ward wrote. “Now, do we help the family or continue to tear it apart?”
Police say they, too, are working to get the boys back inside their home.
“We’re not giving up yet,” McKay said.
