The public should be allowed to challenge anti-social behaviour without fearing prosecution

I agree that parents are entirely to permissive with their children these days. They are afraid to discipline. We are creating a generation of people with no good manners and a lot of selfishness.

you know I raised to very strong headed boys on my own. they knew not to ever cause a problem or to disrespect anyone. not one time did i ever have to lay a hand on my boys. they knew by the tone of my voice that if they were out of line that i would be the first to take action.. and if they got in trouble by a neighbor , they would be made to go back and fix the problem if there was one. They are both now grown and very respectful not just to me but to anyone they meet. I am now raising a 7 year old grandson. whom I can say proudly has the upmost respect for everyone. and always has a smile and a very kind heart. never one time have i laid a hand on him. I fully believe if a child is misbehaving then make that child mind.. if it takes a swat on his butt then so be it. My mom always said a willow switch worked good for her.lol.. damn I hated them trees sometimes..peace and love to all of you

The police don't respect half the people even if they don't do anything bad anyways...So why should we give them SPECIAL respect. I doesn't make any sense to me.

Im just amazed by the lack of backbone in parents today. I work at a venue where people bring their kids and so many of them just run wild. If I had done something like that when i was a kid my mom would have stopped it immediatly. She never hit me, maybe a spanking here or there but nothing i can really remember. But if I ran up and started climbing on stuff she would have been there to stop it immedietly. Now the kids can do whatever they please and the parents just watch and find it funny. Ok to be fair about 80% of them do. But that is still way to many parents who are not instilling the correct values of how to behave in public. I can only imagine how the kids run their house at home, im sure if they don't get their way they can yell and scream until they do.

Fast Forward to the future when they are in high school and then in life they are never going to know how to treat people properly and they will assume that everything belongs to them.

And by the way I am only 24 years old, so I myself am amazed in the shift in parenting in only 10-15 years. I think i grew up fine, and my mom or dad never gave me a "Time-out".

like the gollum picture

Funny this was brought up.

In my subdivision (subdivided nightmare) the kids run the streets with no fear of consequence.

Just last week I made the mistake of talking to a child about lifting up and playing with a manhole in the culdesac right in front of my house. He called his mother on his cellphone and 15 minutes later she was on my front porch threatening to "take care of" me for disrespecting her child. Should I instead have called the police on this kid? I would rather have taken a greenstick twig and spanked him AND his mom like my grandmother would have done. But we all know how that would have ended.

When I was growing up, I KNEW better than to act a fool in my community. It was a given that children of your neighbors and friends would be treated the same as you treated your own kids. There was no bother with having to call the police because the entire community was on the same page. This was not that long ago. So much has changed over the past 10 to 15 years.

Yes, but sometimes dealing with things on your own can get you shot or killed.

It takes a village to raise a child, especially when the parents aren't willing to stand up and discipline their own children.

Cool

OK...Gargaryun is a little upset right now. Massive postings on current are a perfectly harmless and socially acceptable way of venting, even if they are reminiscent of some 18th political pamphelts with the FREQUENT use of all CAPITALS to make the point perfectly CLEAR.

I was recently told by a Sherriffs' Dept. Detective that "The LAW has Nothing To Do with common sense & decency", when I told Him to apply same to an incident involving Me reclaiming, without violence, MY DOG from My ex-wife & Her new husband, after having allowing them to take Willy(My Daschund) for an agreed upon 3-day visit....After getting His ass chewed over the phone for trying to BLACKMAIL Me into giving up MY BEST FRIEND & COMPANION,(Who was returned to My permenent custody, IN WRITING, by My ex months before), He recommended to the local Persecuting Attorney that I be charged with "Aggravated Burglary" (I knocked on a door which swung open & then stepped AWAY from the interior) & "Misdemeanor Theft"...It took them 2 months to get around to sending the local police to take Me into custody, where I discovered the "Judge" in the county where it occurred had set a $25000.00 bond.
I spent 14 days in jail before the bond was reduced to an "Own Recognizance" Signature release....ONLY AFTER being forced to return MY DOG to My ex...
The Preliminary hearing for this case is set for March 12th, 2009...There are numerous witnesses as to Whose custody Willy has been in, as well as Who He PREFERS to be with, as well as a slew of People Who can testify to My Ex-wifes long term mental illness...but the fact Her new husband is willing to lie to the police & make a complaint has been enough to disrupt My life, & put Me in danger(no matter how slim their case is !) of being convicted of a felony.
This is what happens when Law-Abiding Citizens stand up for Themselves, & try to save the Taxpayers the cost of paying Police, Public Attorney, Judges,(overloaded) Jail Housing costs,...ETC !
By the way, There's also a witness as to exactly what happened that night, Who signed a statement mailed to the authorities involved weeks before I was arrested, Who has never even been interviewed...& My Ex admitted SHE never saw Me enter the house! (Their entire case is based on a lie from a convicted felon coke dealer)
Remember...The LAW has Nothing To DO with Common Sense & Decency !!!

By the Authority invested in me: I hereby grant and bestow upon you, the reader, complete and total authority to act in such way as you wish, in compliance with all federal, state, and local laws and restrictions, in such a manner so as to regulate and inform those youths and young people you perceive to be acting in an improper and/or anti-social manner.

*whew* There, it's done. It was difficult, but you are now empowered! Go forth and regulate. I know for me, I won't hesitate to regulate some middle-schooler for asinine behavior.

Violence does not equate discipline, we all know angry people who would use this as an excuse to feel powerful over a child . Doing work in appropriate community service would help socialize these kids we need to get creative for each kid is different . Many adults never get that it is better to be proud of your behavior( your self control, decency) than to feel powerful by being cruel to others .... Not easy to teach .

Kids are bigger these days, they can take most parents... or just cry abuse and some over zealous school counselor brings the fury of blind justice.

Kids 1, adults 0.

i think this is a great concept. thats how it works in the country. no one in the hills is afraid to be aggressive.

Someone says or does something stupid... Get in their face!

It's your Constitutional Right and Duty.

Of the People , For the People, and BY the People.

The original intent of the police was to be called upon when disputes could not be resolved by the individual.

Not to randomly patrol and question citizens at will.

Govern yourselves sheeple.

Pareo Nullus

Well...I think that our parents, teachers, principals, peers etc should feel comfortable to put us in our place when we're acting stupid...but times have changed.

If you correct someone else's child's behaviour, you're going to get the most craziest bitching of your life! I work at Ikea and see it all the time and everytime some other person tries to correct someone else' kid(s) behaviour, a fight will break loose!

In high school, parents will argue and fight with the principal when their children get suspended or penalized for bad behaviour. I remember, my friend had a magazine taken from her in class and her mother had to come in and talk to the teacher, instead she ended up screaming at him and calling him incompetent.

I wished more people would do something about these kid's behaviours by putting pressure on them and such, but parents have become completely over-protective of these kids. I know a lot of my aunts and uncles and teachers have helped shaped me to be the way that I am today and I don't think I've turned out to be a bad person

Ha, these conversations about the good ole days make me laugh. Kids are no worse than the were back in the day. True their are a few bad apples in the bunch I will agree, but they are KIDS. Chill out. Part of the reason the act out is that people are so ready to treat them like criminals as opposed to the people they are. As I grew up in a military family, I do believe in discipline. However, I suppose as people get older, they forget they used to engage in the same hellion tactics that kids use today. It is typical American religious dogma that presents the answer to everything is a beating. What if you got smacked in the face every time you did something wrong? Would that teach you love and respect? And from where I come from, respect is earned. One does not simply give you the privilege of being an authority figure without have some type of positive relationship being established, contrary to popular opinion, as many of these comments show, many adults do not have the insight, character and knowledge guide a young mind. Wake up, people...

I don't find this completely realistic. I was a former teacher who, after giving detentions to two boys for obvious infractions, got called to the carpet by the principal when the parents complained!! In the public arena a lot of parents who would seek revenge on someone who yelled at or wacked their kid.

And similarly, there are a lot of folks I wouldn't trust with my kid's discipline. I would prefer a person come to ME about my kid rather than call the cop. But in America we don't even know our neighbors anymore....

Honey, I grew up in the 70s during a time when kids feared the switch. We would get whipped on the bottom if we were repeat offenders--absolutely yes, it inflicted pain, but we never considered it abuse. During this time, there seemed to have been a more community oriented mindset toward discipline and, therefore, the community benefited by kids showing respect to whom they considered authority figures--all adults. AND, we would not even think about calling the police or turning our parents in for "abuse." I don't see this same level of respect in today's generation of kids. If I correct an errant child that's not mine, it is very common for that child to look at me as if I have ears coming out of my eye sockets AND totally ignore me. That never would have happened back in the day.

It about time for a little firm but calm push back against the anti-social behavior of children raised with an undue sense of entitlement and non accountability by permissive or absentee parents!

Most people simply do not know what they should do. The police tell us not to get involved and call them but they then complain that they are called to trivial events so we don't get involved OR call. We dare not hit anyone (large or small) because we could either bring the wrath of someone down on our heads, or get our property vandalised in revenge or be sued for assault so we don't intervene in anything anymore, even though we are often capable and willing. We don't tell off other people's children for bad behaviour because most children would tell us to f**k off and mind our own business so we do as we would be told.

Being polite, having manners, having respect for our elders and the police, being a proud citizen, upholding common decency and behaving towards others as we expect others to behave towards us are all long lost concepts and modern society is the poorer for it.

Oh... back in the day.... I'd hop on the ferry with my friend George, and Mr. Spot. We would get in soo much trouble, and then have to paint the fence. Hello!! there is a huge difference between giving a slap on the wrist or a little slap on the bottom than beating a child!! If it leaves whelts or bruises, way too much. The point shouldn't be about inflicting pain, it's about trying to change behavior.

hall-a-lu-jah! Hall-a-lu-jah!! If you're not willing to be a part of the solution, don't complain about the problem. Folk need to realize that increased crime and bad social behavior did not happen back in the day at the alarming rate that it does today. There is a strong correlation between corporeal discipline and proper social behavior (meaning respect of people and property). Personally, I don't spank my children, but they do (without a doubt) understand that the authority lies with me and their father--not with them!

What Would Clint Eastwood Do?

My parents will beat the crap out of me and everything got solved.
No more problems.

Back in the day, parents actually wanted other parents to correct their children when they got out of line. It was not unusual to get a scolding from an adult you didn't even know. They'd rat you out, too, by calling your parents to tell them what you were up to. And if that happened you knew you were in for it.

Nowadays if an adult called someone's parents the parents would probably curse them out and tell them to mind their own business.

Kids today are terrorist-types because they have never had any kind of discipline. Todays parents let the kids make all the rules and decisions. It never fails to amaze me the amount of family say-so even a toddler has, making his demands and his parents jumping to grant all his wishes. When, and how, did it happen that the kids became the bosses of families?

There are still many times that I will call a kid down for his behavior and let him know he's out of line. I don't play that old "politically correct" game. I would not smack someone's kid but I have as much right to speak up about his behavior as he does to terrorize the neighborhood.

Since I moved to the USA and north of the Mason Dixon line, I have come to realize that most people don't want to be "involved". They fear their neighbors wrath or something.

Where I grew up, antisocial behavior was not tolerated. I remember one girl in school getting into alot of trouble and she was taken out of school and put in the mental ward of the hospital for a time. When she came back, she was not quite as mean to people, and she wasn't trying to get laid by every boy she saw at the age of 12.

But would this be taking justice into our own hands?

I know when I was growing up if I acted up my military father would wack me upside the head to discipline me and let me know that he wasn't going to put up with any anti-social behavior from me or my friends . Nowadays the youth of today act like everything is owed to them and that they can act like jerks without fear of discipline. So if a adult tries to correct their anti-social behavior they can't because of the screwed up laws saying it is not politically correct to hit a young adult acting up in public or at home. It is no wonder so many act like little thugs, punks, and spoiled little brats(young adults) and hit their parents or other adults.

FUCPK YES!!!