Several people sent me reports on a stolen car being re-stolen while the first set of thieves was preparing to rob a business… I think I got that right.
That’s all funny and such, but this isn’t:
The suspects in custody are teenagers aged 14 and 15, according to a spokesperson for the department. Police retrieved a shotgun and a handgun from them, both of which were loaded.
14 and 15 years old?
WTF happened to baseball trading cards, smuggled Playboy magazines, fishing in some farmer’s river without permission, riding their bicycles at breakneck speed through the neighborhood, trying to peek up girls’ skirts, sneaking into a movie house without paying, and all the other naughty stuff boys of that age used to do?
They’ve gone from infancy to adulthood* without bothering with adolescence, FFS.
Anyway, the only charges they’ll likely face is car theft and underage weapons carry because it doesn’t seem that they ever got round to robbing the store.
Ordinarily, I’d say just give them a good spanking and send them home to Momma, but these little shits would probably end up firebombing the judge’s house in revenge.
I dunno. Back in the eighteenth century a kid (of any age) would get hanged for stealing a sheep or a horse, but even I think that’s a little harsh.
Unless the eighteenth-century kid was carrying a knife and stabbed the shepherd to death first — in which case I’d be the one applauding while the feral little shit was dancing his mid-air jig.
And that’s kind of how I feel about this modern scenario. If kids are seemingly prepared to dish out death to get what they want — and yes, the guns were loaded — it seems quite fitting for society to nip these little murderers’ careers in the bud, with extreme prejudice.
No doubt someone is going to have a problem with this argument.
Adolescence: the period between infancy and adultery.
