People are still asking why...
...the "Barbie Bank Robbers" would do something so seemingly criminal. I have a feeling these girls don't really belong in jail for too long...they shouldn't lose their entire life to a stupid mistake they made as kids. I know that if they're old enough to do the crime they should be old enough to do the time but come on...how long is long enough when you're jailing 2 bright girls who could give back to society if this is handled properly?
But, forgetting about that, the "why" of it comes from something that's becoming so extremely common that it's almost a status symbol and has lost a bit of it's shock value...kids getting arrested for things that their parents would have handled 30 years ago. First, they took away the parent's ability to punish their own kids....kids were spanked for 5000 years...what the heck happened to make it suddenly evil? We all know the difference between abuse and discipline...if you don't, no law will stop you.
My parents spanked me and I remember what I did to deserve each spanking I ever got. They weren't frequent, that's why I remember them so well. They had other, more annoying punishments like the 2 hour Dad-lecture. I would've preferred that he just beat the hell outta me and let me go back to my room. (Funny how he always punished me by sending me to my room, I had a TV, radio, record player, magazines and books up there. Most likely I was on my way there anyway.) If I ever would have considered calling the cops, I knew that sooner or later, my father would get me alone and use that belt like a madman. He was always so well controlled when he spanked us, as opposed to my mother who very rarely got that angry, but when she did, she went nuts and scared us all. No one knew what to expect out of her when she was really annoyed.
Anyway, if I had called the cops, the cops would have laughed at me. Society let parents handle the kids in their own way just so that the cops DIDN'T have to deal with them. Then, if a COP beats someone up, we have to allow for the "fear" of a cop on the street. How about the fear of a parent whose kid just popped his sister in the face? Why can't parents ever get away with that crap?
The cops are called whenever anything happens in schools and the kids all get arrest warrants for things that used to get them suspended for 3 days. No cop would ever bring a kid home to his parents today...once they get you, you're going to the station...no matter how young you are. There was a time when the cops would take a kid home KNOWING that his parents would deal with it. Now, there were some parents who didn't deal with it, and the cops figured them out and arrested them eventually. But for the most part, parents were trusted to teach the lessons that the courts have now taken for themselves.
Every time one bad thing happens, politicians respond by making harsher laws and stiffer penalties. They can only win elections by appeasing the people and when the people are afraid of one kid with a bomb, the laws will get more restrictive. That's how they take the rights away, at the request of the people. People bitch about the LAST tragedy and the politicians respond to IT...after it's already happened.
So, that means that all of the kids are gonna get arrested sooner or later and they know it. But, in the case of the Barbies, their parents weren't allowed to teach them properly so they decided that they could get some attention by robbing a bank...like WOW! That is SO cool!
I never knew anyone who had gotten arrested as a child, meaning up to age 18 anyway. I don't remember the first crook I ever met. But, you didn't want to meet crooks back then. They were bad guys and good kids stayed away from them. But now, ask a regular teenager how many people he knows who have been arrested. He probably can't even remember all of them.
The evil stigma attached to getting arrested is gone. Going to jail certainly isn't fun, but those girls did seem to have some fun on the way there. So, send them to jail, they need a bit. But not twenty years, not even 10. And leave the kids alone and let the parents raise them. Parents won't beat kids with a stick, shoot them or lock them up in cages. The ones that do can go with the cops so that YOU can do it, too...but the normal people should be left alone. And the schools should call the parents like they used to...why are we arresting EVERYONE?
...the "Barbie Bank Robbers" would do something so seemingly criminal. I have a feeling these girls don't really belong in jail for too long...they shouldn't lose their entire life to a stupid mistake they made as kids. I know that if they're old enough to do the crime they should be old enough to do the time but come on...how long is long enough when you're jailing 2 bright girls who could give back to society if this is handled properly?
But, forgetting about that, the "why" of it comes from something that's becoming so extremely common that it's almost a status symbol and has lost a bit of it's shock value...kids getting arrested for things that their parents would have handled 30 years ago. First, they took away the parent's ability to punish their own kids....kids were spanked for 5000 years...what the heck happened to make it suddenly evil? We all know the difference between abuse and discipline...if you don't, no law will stop you.
My parents spanked me and I remember what I did to deserve each spanking I ever got. They weren't frequent, that's why I remember them so well. They had other, more annoying punishments like the 2 hour Dad-lecture. I would've preferred that he just beat the hell outta me and let me go back to my room. (Funny how he always punished me by sending me to my room, I had a TV, radio, record player, magazines and books up there. Most likely I was on my way there anyway.) If I ever would have considered calling the cops, I knew that sooner or later, my father would get me alone and use that belt like a madman. He was always so well controlled when he spanked us, as opposed to my mother who very rarely got that angry, but when she did, she went nuts and scared us all. No one knew what to expect out of her when she was really annoyed.
Anyway, if I had called the cops, the cops would have laughed at me. Society let parents handle the kids in their own way just so that the cops DIDN'T have to deal with them. Then, if a COP beats someone up, we have to allow for the "fear" of a cop on the street. How about the fear of a parent whose kid just popped his sister in the face? Why can't parents ever get away with that crap?
The cops are called whenever anything happens in schools and the kids all get arrest warrants for things that used to get them suspended for 3 days. No cop would ever bring a kid home to his parents today...once they get you, you're going to the station...no matter how young you are. There was a time when the cops would take a kid home KNOWING that his parents would deal with it. Now, there were some parents who didn't deal with it, and the cops figured them out and arrested them eventually. But for the most part, parents were trusted to teach the lessons that the courts have now taken for themselves.
Every time one bad thing happens, politicians respond by making harsher laws and stiffer penalties. They can only win elections by appeasing the people and when the people are afraid of one kid with a bomb, the laws will get more restrictive. That's how they take the rights away, at the request of the people. People bitch about the LAST tragedy and the politicians respond to IT...after it's already happened.
So, that means that all of the kids are gonna get arrested sooner or later and they know it. But, in the case of the Barbies, their parents weren't allowed to teach them properly so they decided that they could get some attention by robbing a bank...like WOW! That is SO cool!
I never knew anyone who had gotten arrested as a child, meaning up to age 18 anyway. I don't remember the first crook I ever met. But, you didn't want to meet crooks back then. They were bad guys and good kids stayed away from them. But now, ask a regular teenager how many people he knows who have been arrested. He probably can't even remember all of them.
The evil stigma attached to getting arrested is gone. Going to jail certainly isn't fun, but those girls did seem to have some fun on the way there. So, send them to jail, they need a bit. But not twenty years, not even 10. And leave the kids alone and let the parents raise them. Parents won't beat kids with a stick, shoot them or lock them up in cages. The ones that do can go with the cops so that YOU can do it, too...but the normal people should be left alone. And the schools should call the parents like they used to...why are we arresting EVERYONE?
posted by Meg Kelso | 8:48 AM
2 Comments:
Your right, todays kids can only be "punished" by the law, unfortunately that creates a stigma for them, even if they do come right in the end they have a record. Bad parents will continue to be bad parents regardless of the law, but the law punishes good parents for being responsible or caring enough to try and get their kids on the ride side of the track. Nothing wrong with a smack on the bum, its fleshy and stings but the real pain is disappointing your parents, that was the message but that message has been lost
Yep, it most certainly is a stigma when they grow up and try to get a job. There are some jobs that a kid will NEVER get because of some stupid arrest when they were under 18. They may think it's all games now, but when they grow up, they will find out how funny it ISN'T. They say that records are expunged at 18, but I wouldn't believe it for a minute.
Meg
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