My local train station is currently burning down

My husband used to work in youth justice and works in an adjacent criminal justice mental health field now. Some people really have no idea outside of the MN bubble. I work in adult criminal justice and see the grown up impact of exactly the trauma and lifestyle you saw with the children

Maybe some people get confused because it has 'good' in its name (albeit in Greek) - except that it was originally named by people for whom up was down, day was night and evil was good.

Do you know what recidivism is? It's reoffending following conviction and sentence. The US has higher rates of recidivism than we do, by some margin. So your argument holds no water. If you want to reduce reoffending look at the Norwegian system, much lower rates of recidivism and therefore fewer victims. Their system is very very different from that of the US and the model we should all be looking at as an example. It doesn't involve locking people up and throwing away the key

No, of course they aren't prisoners; but they are children. I'm privileged enough never to have been a looked-after child. I'm not actually blaming the children themselves, but the systems in place are clearly a catastrophic failure if this is possible. It really makes you wonder why the authorities might bother to insist on taking children away from neglectful parents in the first place, if their own plans for the children are to just keep on neglecting them anyway.

NO children should be in a position where they're able to roam free at 4am... I mean, maybe if you live in a peaceful rural setting and you have sensible early-rising teens who like to go for a country walk for a bit of exercise to start the day; but that's hardly the same as going out vandalising and setting fire to things, is it?

@igelkott2026 the steam railway is fine and running as usual today.

I used to work in a juvenile detention centre. I can assure you that most had parents who were anything but gentle. I’m not saying permissive parenting isn’t a broader problem, but most repeat offenders have been on the receiving end of too much physical punishment rather than too many feelings talks!

It's a horribly destructive mindset that many of these people clearly have - and I feel so sorry for the decent people who live amongst them and can't afford to move somewhere better.

I don't think a lot of them are bright enough to realise that they're also (longer term) seriously hurting themselves, along with everybody else in the community. If businesses and amenities abandon your neighbourhood, because there are too few customers and too many thieves, it's hardly going to end up enhancing the area, is it?

I wonder how many scenarios there are up and down the country of teenagers in run-down areas causing trouble 'because there's nothing to do' - when all of the fun things to do that were there previously were determinedly driven out by them and their previous generation counterparts?

I'm not sure arson is normalised teen behaviour but playing around the railways certainly is and you can guarantee far more delays and cancellations to services in the school holidays. And yes, if it's raining, it's far less likely to happen.

Riots always happen in the summer too - when have we had riots in the winter?

People of all ages lose their heads in hot weather. And a fire will take hold much faster in hot weather, too. So I don't think asking for rain is actually a bad shout!

I assume there's actual evidence that it was "children" who caused this and not older teenage or 20 something yobs? My local Facebook group blames everything on kids and then it ends up being adults. Nearly always eg using those disposable BBQs.

But you can't blame parents for everything their kids do - we all have free will and I doubt any MNer did everything their parents wanted them to! Also, when it something no longer down to the parents? 10? 20? 35? 70? That said, it all starts with things like letting kids run around cafes or not wearing headphones to watch Peppa Pig or riding those infernal scooters in supermarkets or running around with trolleys.

Has this also affected the steam railway.

I'm really not seeking to defend the US or their systems at all. All I'm saying is that, if serious criminals are in prison, they can't commit crime in society; and if they are let out and commit more crimes, the answer would seem to be to send them back but for far, far longer.

How is that a worse situation than letting people freely commit serious crimes (including gross neglect of their children, leading to them choosing to commit serious crimes) and just shrugging our shoulders and saying "Well, prison isn't the answer - so I guess we just leave them to it, then"?

Arson is literally criminal

I started teaching in the late 90s and left a couple of years ago - I assure you that the behaviour of young people is far far worse than it ever was. The reasons are complex and multi faceted but to deny it has happened is nonsense.

How old are you?? My eldest is 18 and I took him to SureStart centres!

We had issues with teens earlier in the year. Just messing with footballs in the road (narrow roads) and not moving for cars. Our car got egged last year. Riding up and down the main road on the wrong side on scooters/e-bikes etc in large gang, doing wheelies and the like, throwing water at passers by from a low level cafe roof. Being pains in arse in the local supermarket in big numbers. We live in a nice area with a private school nearby. These kids are local ( you see them meeting up from local streets) . They have decent bikes and designer clothes they just don’t care who sees them. They aren’t balaclava wearing and are only 13/14.

We got the police involved after they were playing the kicking the door game of knock and run. Even tho it’s low level behaviour it was really affecting the streets nearby as it was constant and we worried about the holidays it becoming worse. They did up patrols and take names etc and the local police did say they can involve parents etc as needed.

They’ve moved on for now in this area but i’ve seen them elsewhere still doing it but generally some teen behaviour is a problem. A shopping centre in a local town has banned all teens because of it.

Is it really because they’ve nothing to do? we’ve two youth centres on a reasonable distance. Kids have way more than i ever had in tech like phones/consoles/pcs, l bikes/scooters, holidays and days out, money to spend in takeaways/shops. We have loads of open spaces in the locality of away from housing estates for them to ride and mess about away from people.

Oh no, what a shame. I'm just back from a few days in Brixham and absolutely loved it. Seemed idyllic to me, I honestly thought nothing like this went on there. Absolutely beautiful place.

Some people are so far gone that they don't even realise that they are fascists, it's scary

Controlling fertility for the purposes of selective breeding is eugenics.

Yes, PP suggested that parents need a licence to breed. That is eugenics.

They could prove in court they'd tried.

It doesn't usually need stating that eugenics is bad.

How odd.

When people are suggesting eugenics, questioning whether eugenics is bad, and questioning whether it is fascist to support eugenics....we have bigger problems than gentle parenting

Yes. HTH

Sorry? Yes, eugenics is bad. I didn't realise that needed stating?

Go on... get off the fence!

If it's "eugenics" is that bad... or is it good?