Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Lessons Are For Learning

Did you hear about the three kids who were handcuffed by the police for stealing bicycle parts? No. This is not a joke. It happened in Baltimore this week. Boys age 7, 8, and 11 jumped a fence and took the parts. The owner saw them, and called police. Police went to one boy's home, and he admitted to taking the stuff, and gave them the name of the other boys. Police handcuffed the first kid, then went to the other boys' homes and handcuffed them, and loaded them all in a paddy wagon and took them to a juvenile facility. After two hours, the boys were released to their parents, no charges filed. They will have to attend a diversionary program.

Here's where I spout off. Two of the mothers, with their kids, were on a morning news program. The moms were complaining about the handcuffing. The host asked one kid if he stole anything. The kid said, "No." He asked again. The kid said, "No." Then the host said, "I was told that you admitted to the police that you took the parts. Did you take them?" And the kid said, "Yes." Later on, after talking to the moms, the host asked both boys, "Will you ever steal anything again?" The Denier said, "No." He seemed sincere. The other boy did not answer. The host asked again. Again, the boy said nothing, but gazed at the floor. After a bit more prompting, Gazer spat out, "No," in a sullen manner.

The host asked the moms if they planned to seek any legal action. Gazer's mom said that was a possibility. Denier's mom jumped in to say that her son had been abused by the police, and that wasn't right.

PAULA DEEN IN MY FRONT YARD EATING A LOBSTER TAIL ! ! ! Get over it, lady! Your son got caught stealing! Getting hauled away in handcuffs is not abuse! Abuse is dragging your son on a national morning news show like some trick pony, a pony who knows how to jump a fence and steal bike parts. How embarrassing for the lad. Maybe he would have learned a lesson from the handcuffing and the hauling off to juvie, IF you hadn't undermined the police life lesson by calling the police abusers, then putting your kid on TV like some freakin' celebrity! Now the neighborhood kids will either see him as a hero, or as some chump who got caught and put on TV. So the lesson he learned is either that stealing leads to fame, or just don't get caught next time. Way to go, lady.

I'm thinkin' one of them got wind of this $40 million lawsuit from a kid 'arrest' a couple years ago. In Baltimore. And it looks like this wasn't the very first incident of neighborhood shenanigans from these young hooligans.

FYI, the picture of the kid in the first link is of the attitudinal Gazer of morning news show fame.

2 comments:

Mommy Needs a Xanax said...

If parents not only refuse to parent but also run interference when anyone else attempts to curtail their unparented children's bad behavior, what chance does our society have? What're we supposed to do? Just let kids do whatever they want, because the people who gave birth to them ("parent" might not be the right word for that) might sue you if you interfere?

What a CROCK.

This kind of crap might be why Baltimore is such a sh*t hole.

http://crimebaltimore.com/

Hillbilly Mom said...

Miss Ann,
You know that parents treat us teachers like we're the police. I know you do. I remember several of your parental incidents.

One of my most annoying was during my first year of teaching, when a parent told me that her daughter and I were just going to have to learn to get along, because she couldn't be running up to school for a conference all the time.

That was apparently easier for her to decree, rather than telling her 7th grade daughter to start doing her assignments during the time allotted, rather than drawing pictures of ME with the caption, Mrs. Hillbilly Mom, the ugly, ugly science teacher, so ugly even the dogs don't like her.

I really with I'd kept that drawing.