Anti social behavior or boys being boys

I am astonished that the police seemingly have time to deal with such a trivial issue.

Of course teens who are causing vandalism and damage should be dealt with, but in my view it’s a major waste of resources to be doing individual home visits because some boys have jumped a fence to play football.

I’d be disappointed in the way the club have behaved too.

Of course it's not an over reaction.

You can be fairly sure this incident with OP's son and his pals is not an isolated one. The club will have been experiencing similar behaviour on a regular basis from various anti social groups, and probably for some period of time .

They will have involved the police because the facility is at serious risk of being permanently damaged, causing them expense and possibly even threatening it's continuing existence. To suggest the police " resent" having to deal with this criminal activity is ridiculous.

Why are you minimising behaviour which causes problems for the local community?

Why should decent people have to put up with bad behaviour just because people like yourself appear to have no sense of right and wrong and don't see the point in teaching young people about it either.

“Boys being boys” and anti-social behaviour sre synonymous.

People trot out the former to excuse the latter.

It's a bit sad if you are using 'boys will be boys' with a straight face.

It may or may not be over the top for police to be involved. But it could be a useful warning shot across the bow to act as a heads up for your son not to enroach on property that he doesn't have permission to go on, and for you, that sometimes the reaction to our kids doing something isn't what we'd like, and might not seem proportionate, but it's what their actions have got them.

How would you call it if girls had been caught @ChocolateSqueezyyogurts?

I’ve called the police a couple of times (on non emergency number) when I have seen youth in places they shouldn’t be and could either be a danger to themselves or potentially causing criminal damage

I’m assuming the issue here is that they could cause damage to the pitch, so more than just trespassing.

Teenagers test boundries. They have discovered that this is not something they can get away with. If they didnt do any damage i would just put it down as a learning experience and hope the police visit is a wake up call.

Personally I'd bollock my boy and his mates. But point out to the police that this isn't anti social given they were playing football on a football pitch, it's a civil law case of trespass and they need to concentrate on dealing with actual crime.
For the record a group of us lads used to sneek into the local school and play football on their field prior to going to the pub on a Sunday morning, until the headmaster and caretaker bollocked us... given that we were in our early twenties/late teens and most of us had left that school 10 years earlier, he had a point!

Ah yes, the old 'boys will be boys' bullshit, in other words, letting boys behave in ways you wouldn't let a girl get away with.

Rather than ‘boys being boys’ it sounds like teens chancing their luck. No big deal. I can recall us entering a school and using their swimming pool in the school holidays. I’m certainly not a criminal and have brought up many teenagers who have also not turned into criminals. Teenagers do behave erratically at times.
The owners have made a complaint and the police need to respond. Just advice your son to take responsibility and state it won’t happen again . Do not let him accept a caution

I would be surprised if the cctv didn’t cover the gate and show them climbing over

Just what I was thinking: trespass is a civil matter, not a criminal one.

Be wary of the type of "warning". If it's just a telling off and advised not to do it again, then fine. But if it's an official warning/caution, I would push back and question the nature of the alleged criminal offence. The police using the term "anti-social behaviour" sounds like they're trying to frame it in criminal terms.

https://www.gov.uk/caution-warning-penalty

Different in Scotland but there's a link on that page.

I am surprised that the police are involved, I thought that trespass was a civil matter. Unless they refused to leave when asked? Or did they have vehicles and/or firearms?

Would you be happy if you came home to find some kids you don't know playing in your garden? Or maybe a stranger sitting on your sofa watching your TV? It's no different. Whether they climbed in or walked in, it was private land, they shouldn't have been there, it was disrespectful and they were trespassing. Hopefully this will give them a wake up call.

Playing sport with intent hardly seems like the crime of the century. But yes, he needs a good telling off for trespassing regardless. My brother got into far worse scrapes but has since turned into a fine upstanding member of the community, so all hope is not lost. Keep him in studying for the weekend to make up for it. If there is any damage, they should fix it or pay for it.

It’s not at the more extreme level of antisocial behaviour but yes, breaking into an AstroTurf pitch and mucking about on it - bearing in mind that most people will have to pay to use them and they’re expensive to use repair and maintain - isn’t something they should get away with. The response was appropriate. Also there’s no way the gates were open and they thought it was OK and you’re naive if you think that’s the truth.

‘Boys will be boys‘ isn’t a thing. Boys aren’t hardwired to behave like tossers and pretending that they are is what actually does make them into tossers.

Trespass and a warning - seems a wholly proportionate response.

Mothers and their sons 🙄

Just having monitored CCTV costs way less than having monitored CCTV plus attendance cover.

A bit of responsibility for his actions wouldn't go amiss and is a reminder him and his mates can't do what they like.
And mum asking is it a case of bbb doesnt help as it's a get out of jail card.

Fair point though the companies I know either send their own security team or call a member of staff that’s a key holder and they attend.

Only time police are normally called would be if it was deemed unsafe to attend.

Bit odd to send out your cctv work to a company that don’t have people available to attend.

Can’t believe people still say ‘boys will be boys’ 🙄

Boys will be boys is sex-specific bollocks, but this does sound like kids being kids and not really appreciating the potential problems with what they did.

I would want to be clear that they didn't break in though as I think that would be more of an intentional boundary crossing, whereas I could believe that an open gate didn't seem 'as bad' if I knew that they wouldn't appreciate the issues surrounding playing on AstroTurf etc (which I wouldnt have known about either TBF.)

Or possibly the people monitoring the CCTV work in an out-sourced property management call centre miles away and just phoned the police as a matter of course. There are lots of possibilities.

Boys will be boys shouldn’t ever be a thing. It’s always a cop out for poor behaviour.

They entered somewhere they shouldn’t have and were pissing around enough that the place called the police.

I mean normally you’d tell people to leave. So either they did and the boys ignored them or they were possibly acting in such a way the staff member felt uncomfortable approaching them.

I agree with this 100%.
If any damage has to be paid for, obviously this should come from your sons money, not yours.

Seems massively OTT getting the police involved. The police are probably resenting having to deal with it but probably have a duty to the club who reported it. Teenagers (not just boys. Girls will be girls and do this type of shit just as much) are going to get up to stuff like this. It’s a rite of passage. Nothing will come of it, but at least they know not to climb over (or walk through the open gate) of this particular football ground again.