Outrage

I just got off the phone with a very dear friend of our family. She called to congratulate me that our son's name wasn't on the front page of the paper today. We have been having trouble getting our newspapers lately and no one had bothered to go down and get the last one we still subscribe to, so I had to ask her what she meant. She said that she was glad he wasn't one of the ones arrested for burglary....or rather a whole string of burglaries in the town of Glen. (For the record, between college and working when he is home he doesn't really have time to be involved, but I am pretty darned sure he wouldn't be anyhow).

I sent the kid who isn't on the front page on a hurried trip down the driveway to get the paper, which, for a change was actually there.

There it was...or should I say there they were. Thirteen kids, every one of them someone he knew from our school, four of them football stars, arrested for stealing lap tops, ipods, cash, credit cards, car stereos, gps units, and radar detectors plus money out of a church donation box. We had heard weeks back that there was something nasty going on around here, with a lot of break ins, but didn't realize the scope of the ring.

The youngest ones were only fifteen. I am not going to get into wondering how they found unsupervised time to get into that much trouble. What really ticked me off is how the school bent the code of conduct so they only miss four football games.

Same thing happened several years ago when a bunch of guys from the football team blew up a bunch of mailboxes (including ours I do believe) with bottle bombs. There were championships games at stake. Suspensions were reversed just in time for them to play. I am sure they learned a lot from the non-punishment, no consequences approach to enforcement of the rules and laws.

What a way to teach them that stealing is wrong and crime doesn't pay. Sports are supposed to teach cooperation, following of rules, sportsmanship and all that aren't they?

Instead I am sure they feel a sense of entitlement and freedom from social constraints.
Dang it makes me mad. How on earth are you supposed to raise decent law-abiding, caring kids when they have to watch their peers get away with such stuff?

Here is an excerpt from the Gazette story linked to above

"Deputies said the 13 were charged after a month-long investigation by sheriff's investigators, Amsterdam and Johnstown police and state troopers into numerous reports of burglaries, larcenies and vandalism throughout the county, including the city of Amsterdam, the villages of Fort Johnson, Tribes Hill, Fort Hunter, Fonda and Fultonville and the towns of Glen, Florida and Amsterdam. Among the incidents were break-ins at Karen’s Produce, the Auriesville Shrine and a private residence, all in the town of Glen, deputies said."