What would you do??

[Bambi]

I'm in a quasi moral legal conundrum here people. Feel free to advise

Two nights ago im sitting at home when i hear some kids outside messing, I look out the upstairs window to see one of em fire off a stone at the downstairs window, they all scatter laughing. I know they'll only sprint a few 100 meters before they stop so i walk out the backdoor and circle em, by the time i walk past em theres maybe a dozen others, so i just walk past and tell the missile hurler i'll remember his face and see him when he's alone.

cut to ten minutes ago. Another bang on the window, i walk around the back way and guess who i meet? Missile boy. What a suprise. He has his head down, standard issue scumbag, maybe 13 years old tracksuit, chain etc. I smile and tell him i remember his face, he swears he never fired any rock, i tell him i saw him, he admits he did but swears he didnt do it this time. He's nervous and backing off (probably cos my face is 2 cms from his and closing), he turns and starts to half run. I tell him if anything happens to that window i'll take it out on him, he retaliates by threatening to smash all the windows. I tell him i might as well do him now then. he scarpers. I follow and call him back eventually by saying i wont hurt him. I'll tell him I've let him off twice and let that be and end to it. he's subdued and walks off.

sooo... now what? half the neighbourhood have seen/heard me threaten to physically harm this kid. If my windows get put in i probably will. Legally I'm know I'm !!!!ed if I lay hands on him and thats what held me back, he probably knows that too, he almost said as much. But in an area like mine you tend to have to let people know that you wont take !!!!.

He or his mates can choose their time and theres not much i can do other than post a 24 hour guard in the front garden :(

I'm thinking I should have just found out where he lives and let him know that I'll show him why people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones. Or have go to his parents, out here though that'll probably wind up in a digging match with some scumbag he has as a father. its lose-lose as far as i can see.

:mad:

[budoboy]

Did they break the window? How old was this kid?

Either way, when he returned and initially acted sheepish I would have gotten his name, address and phone number under the pretense that I would have him pay for any repairs if necessary. That way you would have recourse later and he would probably tell his friends you know where he lives.

If he did not want to give you his address I would tell him you were going to follow him until he went home. When he saw you were serious he might give you his information. I would then call his phone (with him there) to verify his address and talk to his parents (depending on age).

In the U.S. if your window was damaged you could have taken him into custody (reasonably) yourself and held him until the police arrived to get his information and give him a citation.

Just some ideas.

Jeff Sherwin

[Bill Gallant]

If you're willing to get involved in stopping crime of any sort, you need to be prepared to go right to the finish, or there's no point in starting at all. Never, ever threaten a kid in public, do not follow them, do not touch them. One word from them, true or not, and it will be your !!!.

Once you could identify him, call the police and point him out. His parents may very well be fine people who will punish him accordingly when the police show up on their door step. If they're not then the police will still have him on record as having been involved in crime of somesort and act accordingly in the future.

You never know what the police will find when they knock on the door of the parents. Perhaps other siblings of the home need to be put into foster care.

This kid is going do be involved in crap until his parents or the police do something to stop it.

Kids will be kids. Hopefully this one will turn out "normal" in the end.

[Soulend]

I would have simply called the police.

[william northcote]

Well my take on this with change from 2 Euro coins is that he now knows that something bad will happen. The kid said that he will smash your windows, so that is pre meditated vandalism. As long as you do not physically raise a hand, the kid can do nothing more than shout and piss and moan at you.

Best thing to do, and this is how I do things, is just say that one day it will be your turn. The ammount of kids that have stopped acting like troubled teens and moved on from my area/end of street has gone down a bit. One kid smashed my bedroom window with an air rifle, so we told his friends to tell him, and no nore trouble has come our way. The kid is now frineds with my friends son, and every time I go near :D

So just stay your ground. If the window is put through you just say to the police "It was this kid" ETC. He may not have done it, but he then becomes known as a suspect to everything.

[Bambi]

Well the windows are still intact so that might be that. Otherwise finding out where the kid lives and letting him know there'll be consequences to his actions seems the only route.

Soulend, in an ideal world the first thing i would have done is let the police deal with it, but experience has taught me not to trust or have much faith in our police force. Anyway I was just talking to my cousin who lives 5 minutes away and he was telling me on his road a copper got put in intensive care during an inter gang brawl a few days back, armed units been called out for a few days so they have bigger fish to fry out here at the moment.

[Soulend]

I dunno, if they are messing with someone else (apart from actually assaulting them or trying to break in their house), I call the police. That is, after all, their job. I'm not getting shot or stabbed over a stupid window, I tempt fate enough as it is. If it is my house or someone is being assaulted or in danger then I'll take action personally.

[heatMiser]

Now that the incident is over, I wouldn't expect much from the Gardai, considering a friend of mine who was stabbed several times, clearly identified his assailant, found him, and made several emergency calls, all of which amounted to nothing. There is never a great amount of interest in individual youth crimes, and rightly so, because a night in the cells, being brought home to mammy or even a childrens court appearance probably wont make an impression on him. Anything more than that requires a violent assault, because it is so difficult to convict children.

I think you did well to intervene at all, and it will probably have an effect on how soon, or if at all, the guy comes back your way. If he's actually there in front of you, call the guards. Any group of scumbags hanging around will hang around somewhere the police aren't.

[Douglas Wylie]

To have a clear conscience you must exhaust all legal means of resolving the situation before taking other action.

Since it is too late to try and talk to the parents since you threatened their kid-

Call the police and make a report.

Tell them exactly what happened down to the last detail.

Then, if your windows get broken the police will (hopefully) go straight to the kid.

Worst case scenario- you are forced to handle it street style- hire a punk from a different part of town (who no one knows and has no connection to you) to do the dirty work. Stay as detached as possible from the whole deal. It is hard to put you in jail if you have a good alibi.

Re the threat- it is just not smart to do. (Not to say I've never done it, I just always regretted it) No reasonable authority would sympathize with you after having threatened a minor (or major, really). I guess ideally you would avoid threatening altogether and just act when you need to.

[Jody Holeton]

STOP!!!


Call the cops.

I have had kids in my neighborhood f@#k with me.

Lazer lights shooting through windows, dogs being shot with BB guns, knocking on windowns, defacing property with spraypaint, golfballs, baseballs, waterguns being shot on windows, dog taunting, etc. etc.

CALL THE COPS! If you can, get them on video, then show the cops.

If the cops DO NOTHING, good ones will help you out, but lazy ones will...

If this continues you need to come down PHYSICALLY hard on these punks.


But first goto the LAW and have them enforce it.

This is an attention GAME for these KIDS.

Make it work against them and they STOP.

This is just another form of bullying.

[Bambi]

Ev calling the cops very rarely scares off this lot, the kids round here often WANT the cops to come so they can get chased on their stolen mopeds, they'll smash bottles etc to see if they can puncture the cops tyres.

As Ev touched on very few people have any faith in the police in this city. I dont even trust most of em. Too many bad experiences. Plus around here getting the police involved can have undesirable consequences.

I catch the kid at it again, i'm gonna find out where he lives and get in his parents faces. I doubt very much they'll care what ive said to him or threatened with.


Willie, I draw the line at calling a hit :D

[Douglas Wylie]

Ahhh... well then you have a problem with no solution. I hate those.

BTW- not a hit, a beating.

[william northcote]

Well Oisín, best thing to do is to flip out and do something from this looney. (http://www.realultimatepower.net) :D

[Bambi]

Originally posted by Douglas Wylie
Ahhh... well then you have a problem with no solution. I hate those.

BTW- not a hit, a beating.

Yeah i know, for once my stupidity was deliberate.

hmmm...ninjas eh? Is there any problem they CAN'T solve?

[william northcote]

The Chinese finger puzzle. It is the bane of all ninjers everywhere.