Be honest what's your reaction when you hear of a young person...

[EhatBow]

Killed doing something anti social/criminal?

A school aged teen died here last night. Well after midnight, on a motorbike.

He and his friends are part of a group who've been causing quite a disturbance late at night/early hours in residential streets for several weeks.

I always think there but for the grace.... I haven't always known what my DC are up to and you have to let them spread their wings and trust them at some point, although at that age they wouldn't have been out regularly after midnight.

My heart breaks for parents who made decisions they must now be regretting, but as you can imagine, the reaction locally has been "mixed".

A good friend of mine lost her 20yo only child a few years ago. He crashed his car driving far too fast. The response was venomous, but these are still someone's child 😥

I always feel it's such a waste.

It's difficult. An ex work colleagues son died doing something stupid in a car, killed another 5 people at the same time. I have enormous sympathy for his parents, hard enough to know that your son's reckless driving killed him but even harder to know it killed others too.

A young lad died last year during a police chase, he came around a bend too fast. The road is a 40 road. I was on that road ten minutes after it happened, everyday people doing everyday things use that road, it could have been someone innocent who was killed.

the young people/his family had a shrine for weeks but comments on the local Facebook group showed a lot of people felt as I did, sad that someone died but relieved and angry that someone else could have been killed.

A friend doesn’t support a friend taking drugs. A “drug taking mate” does that, sorry that your too thick to know the difference.

You might identify as their friend, but you were just a pack of users.

Except in my extended friend group, some take drugs and some don't. It's not all "drug-taking mates". So sau there are 10 of us out at a club, maybe 2 might take drugs, hardly all a group of users.

Likewise, these are people I have been friends with since childhood, before any of us every tried any drugs recreationally or alcohol, and have continued to be friends with way into adulthood.

In your mind, what does a true friend do when they know another friend is using drugs? You can't control them. I don't think it's the sign of a true friend to cut someone off you've known since primary school because they use drugs sometimes, better to be there for when they need you.

It's tragic but apart of me thinks if you play with fire your going to get burnt.

I think you have a very black/white barrow view of it. The fact that you think only drug-taking friends would be friends with another drug-taker shows this, usually recreational drug-takers have a range of friends, some who also partake and some who don't.

Sad. I’ve made poor decisions and put myself in harms way. I suppose I haven’t made poor decisions and put others in harms way and there lies a difference. I can judge their behaviour and still feel sad for their death and sad for their families but yes, others seem unable to do so and think they got what they “deserved”. I know as a parent I will always think “that could be my child”. We can raise them
perfectly well but some people are bigger risk takers and it can cost their life

In your mind, what does a true friend do when they know another friend is using drugs? You can't control them. I don't think it's the sign of a true friend to cut someone off you've known since primary school because they use drugs sometimes, better to be there for when they need you.

Agree. I have a few friends who have used drugs recreationally. We were friends before drugs, and will continue to be friends regardless of whether they want to use drugs or not. I don't agree with their choices and they know it, but they also know I care about them so I'm always going to be their friend, through thick and thin. Whether they use drugs or not doesn't impact the friendship we have.

It was a dirt bike. Legally owned, not legally ridden on the road.

It is sad, but these young kids have been causing havoc in their local community at all hours of the night.

There's no way their parents have been raising them perfectly well. I'd judge the parents very harshly indeed.

A mixture of anger and sadness. A young man caused a terrible accident near us about 12 years ago. Literally wrapped his car around a tree with 4 others in it (two were under 16). 3am - speeding etc. Anger at him/them for being so stupid, their parents for not giving a shit as to where their 14 year old daughters were etc. Sadness at the loss of life, at the trauma the one surviving child would suffer for a long time.

Sure there are kids fitting your description. And there are kids fitting mine. Arrogance does not make your view superior to fact. *crime reporter of 22yrs

** Naïve

A true friend doesn’t minimise it, or cheerlead it or justify it.

also a decent person doesn’t get off their face on the back of slaves growing drugs, or fund murders of people. But drug-taking-mates are happy enough to vampire off misery, regardless of whose it is.

It's actually pretty arrogant to dismiss someone else's views as inferior to yours, which are branded as "facts". If someone has been a serving officer for 13 years, I'd imagine they've seen enough hard facts to last a lifetime

There's contradictory feelings for me. I'm otherwise a compassionate person in thought and deed. I'm also a resolute law abider. Subjectively, I realise how tragic and heart breaking it is for the families. Objectively, I don't care

also a decent person doesn’t get off their face on the back of slaves growing drugs, or fund murders of people

This depends on the drug. Magic mushrooms can be picked in fields or grown at home without funding slaves. Things like cocaine, fair point.

My incredibly anti Sufism drug dealing neighbour died quite a while back now of an accidental overdose. Honestly he was such an almighty PITA I was relieved.

*anti social

I'd have sympathy for the family but not much for the person who died.

Yes, lots of us did stupid things when we were kids, but there's a big difference between walking home alone late at night, or cliff jumping, swimming in a river with no lifeguards/adults present, etc, than terrorising the neighbourhood night after night and making other people's lives a misery as well as possibly putting lives at risk.

A week ago, the child who lives across the road was picked up from school by his dad. The school is about 2 minutes walk down the road. A group of 5/6 slightly older kids started shouting stuff, the dad felt something wasn't right so sped up and pushed his son inside when they got to the house. The older kids then started throwing bins, bottles, rocks, anything they could, at the dad and at the windows of the house. They started going into people's front yards to look for more weapons. I called the police whilst putting shoes on to go outside. Luckily loads of people had gathered, filming what was happening and phoning the police. It turned out that one of these kids had a large knife on him. If the boy opposite me had been killed, that would be horrific. If one of the little wanna be gangstas (who were wrapping their t-shirts round their face to stop themselves being identified) got killed, it would be sad that a child lived a life like that, and horrible for the family, but I wouldn't be as sad cause if you're going to act like a thug and threaten people, then that's the risk you take

Johnnysgirl

Thank you . And yep. Seen enough to last a few lifetimes.
I said upthread it would bean off-road bike
Now I'm either a fucking amazing mind reader or .....
I have had a fair bit of experience in trying to police kids like this.

Crime reporter or not- they don't deal with these kids day in and out . They report when it goes tits up.

Or they get to court . They do t see the 20 times they've been sent to the youth offending team , the restorative justice disposals , the cautions, the Conditional cautions that all lead up to that one court appearance.

I like kids . I do . But if they're playing kamikaze with other peoples lives and happen to hurt themselves in the process , well- hard learnt lesson . Very sad .yes . Really sad .
But if it were your child they mowed down in their stolen car or their off-road motor bike that's not fit for the road- I wonder how compassionate you'd feel.