Anti social behavior or boys being boys

Really couldn’t get worked up about this.

After how much rain we have had most of our parks are unusable at the minute. Astro is better.

@JonesTown don’t you have parks near you?

I don’t think it’s particularly anti social to play football on a football pitch by opening a gate.

I did it, DH did it and DS1 did it.

Wow. We has loads of fun without being antisocial. We can tell exactly what kind of parent you are 😂

Maybe OP could be arrested for using the phrase boys will be boys, wish it could be an offence

No such thing as boys being boys.

Wouldn't you rather have police arresting rapists or even shop lifters rather than teenage boys playing football on gasp! A football pitch? Wouldn't you also no involved in crimes where they don't actually have an jurisdiction (trespass is a civil offence)?

Yes the boys were naughty but it's hardly the great train robbery is it

What a terrible expression OP boys will be boys.

I'm not a lawyer but I think that would be a real stretch.

We can only go on what OP told us which is that they were playing footbal. From an update it seems that the schools I dentifie them from cctv

Is it a theft of services as using a facility without paying for it?

Having read the update, I wouldn’t agree to any police discussion here without a lawyer present.

I’m not convinced they are dealing with it in an impartial or appropriate way at all.

What a pathetic reaction all round then. The club need to keep their gate locked if they don’t want people playing football without paying.

Why the police are spending so much time on a group of teens opening a gate and playing football on a football pitch I have no idea. Either a police officer on the committee or arsehole jobs worth trying to throw their power around.

@ChocolateSqueezyyogurts
Trespass is a civil matter not a criminal one, hence why they have to go for the anti social behaviour angle. And I would be extremely skeptical that the elements of the ASB offence are made out by boys playing football on... an actual football pitch...

I would be very wary of letting the police come, as there are not insignificant instances of police trying to give cautions in this kind of circumstance.
Many people do not realise cautions can only be given when the alleged perpetrator admits the alleged offence, so by permitting a caution to be issued, the person is admitting an offence which many times the police would not bother to action, or would be unable to get any realistic prospect of a conviction for. And that can potentially have future repercussions if DS ever needs a DBS check or similar, so it's not as harmless as the police often make out.

If it's just a conversation, then there's no consequence to that, but do be aware on the caution aspect, and make sure everything is very clear and that you have full notes/recordings of everything.

@sittingonabeach thank you for the update. I was not aware of this connotation, only that boys develop and behave differently to girls and so may require different outlets.
My understanding is that most of the behaviours referred to upthread are not exclusively male or female related and seemed to describe predominantly predatory behaviour and not that of boys per se

Wonder if it is a local community initiative, where community police officer is talking to youngsters to try and reduce anti social type behaviour

I would be interested to know if any police officers are on the committee of this club 🤔

I can’t fathom otherwise why so many resources of a service that cannot respond to phone thefts or burglaries would be used for this when no criminal offence has even been committed.

@covilha boys will be boys is an excuse for males to behave as they want, and very rarely describes desired behaviour but usually bad behaviour (which usually wouldn’t be excused if female)

A phrase very much discouraged in schools

Gosh OP, you ARE getting a hammering!
firstly, I had no idea about fragile nature of Astro turf and doubt a load of teenagers do either.
If there were reports of arson and wilful damage then I can understand the level of concern but if it was just to play football then I would have thought making them know they can’t use the facilities would be enough- provided it was a first offence???
as far as bwbb goes- - back in a different century me and my friends regularly climbed over the walls of a local school to use their field for rounders and cricket. When the school found out they did ban us (a ban which some ignored) until a sensible mother spoke with them and agreed each child would pay a small amount every time they used their field pitch. I can recall the spontaneous cheer which erupted from us when these negotiations were so positively concluded as we had no where outside to play otherwise.
Rather than your son being in trouble is it possible for a local area to be identified where the boys CAN play football. Because yes, boys will be boys ( no, not rapists, - BOYS. And I think it is unfair on you that other posters have conflated the two) and playing football, running off energy and letting off steam are ways in which they move through boyhood. Rather sad to learn that this is now being labelled as anti social- would they rather they sat at home on a computer game?

Another issue, that when many of the posters on here were teens getting up to mischief and they got hurt, it would have been seen as their fault. But if one of these lads got hurt while on club premises they could potentially make a claim against the club

Presumably the club is private and rents the pitch out, so they had no booking and had not paid a fee to play there.

And if the condition of having the pitch there is that it is only used at certain times of the day/week they could be causing a nuisance

Agree it's a do what you want society and parents allowing their kids to do it. Their kid was in the wrong and glad the police are involved. Time parents stood up and being accountable.

@Thechaseison71 we don’t actually know that. I assume there is more to it as police involved. Police know who they are. If they were club members I would assume club would remind them that they can only play there at certain times and not involve the police (especially if first time)