Anti social behavior or boys being boys

[ChocolateSqueezyyogurts]

I received a phone call from the police today but was in work so didnt answer. They left a VM saying they would call me later (obviously I was confused and concerned why) they rang back a couple of hours later to say my 16 year old DS and a group of his friends have been caught on CCTV playing football on a local astro turf pitch and the club has reported them for anti social behaviour.

The club think the boys have climbed over the fence but the boys are saying the gate was left open and they know they shouldn't have been on there but they didnt think anybody would know.

The police officer said they wanted to visit each of the boys at home to explain that they are being let off this time but to issue a warning.

Ive obviously told my son not to do this again but I think young lads this age are probably always pulling stunts like this and to class it as anti social behavior is a bit much.

I have already given my reasoning above. And yes I'm on the committee of a club with it's own facility, but not the one I mentioned in my previous post.

Our one gets locked up when not in use and guess what - it still gets damaged. A few kids standing about kicking a ball at the goals cause far less damage than structured training sessions of fully kitted out teams. I want to turn our facility into an open one and fundraise for the extra maintenance in the community as my local club does.

Well I guess in an ideal world @xILikeJamx sports facilities would be fully funded and maintained by the govt. Fair enough. And I am impressed that your local facility is treated well.

I stand by my point tho that a minority of ppl will act inappropriately (it has certainly happened near me as I said) hence clubs exercising some control over when people can access their facilities.

A few kids standing about kicking a ball at the goals cause far less damage than structured training sessions of fully kitted out teams. this is odd. How can there be more damage caused by a properly overseen session led by a qualified coach than might be caused by access to the facility by anyone at any time?

If we let all-comers on to our athletic track, with handy weapons (shot, discus, javelin, hammer) and potentially dangerous equipment I dread to think what might happen. I have seen serious injury happen sadly even at properly staged events, which ofc in itself raises questions. The idea of letting anyone come and practise their hurdling technique or their pole vaulting with no one supervising is just horrific tbh.

Anyway doesn;t look ast tho @ChocolateSqueezyyogurts is planning on coming back to clarify on some points made. Still an interesting discussion.

"They broke in". Did they? Did anything actually get broken? Or did they walk through an open gate? We don't know.

Also, trespass in the UK is generally regarded as a civil matter and not one the police usually get involved with.

My point was not about the trespass.

Just an update on this

So it turns out the gate had been left open and the boys went on and played football. They weren't asked to leave as there was nobody else there. The club had seen it on the CCTV and sent tge footage to the school for the boys to be identified.

They have been told not to do it again if the gate is open. To be fair they could pay to rent the astro for an hour if they wanted to but thought they would chance it with the gate being open.

Major reaction all round then, especially the club who left the gate open to begin with!

Can’t believe the police are wasting their time on this.

I would be telling my son not to go on the pitch again even if the gate is open, that is all.

A group of kids with a ball saw an open pitch and took advantage of the situation end off. Majority of kids would do the same, I know mine would.

Ok so what was your point abouti8

You have read the thread.

I have read the bloody threíad And this post of yours

Itstimeforachangeagain · Today 10:33

There is nothing to " lighten up" about.

Anti social behaviour causes so many problems for local communities.

The area I live in has a lot of community football clubs that provide a real outlet for young people. And there is never a week goes past with out reports of vandalism that threatens the very existence of these clubs because they dont have the money to repair and replace the damage done. And the sick thing is the worst hit clubs are those in the most deprived areas where the clubs are doing a lot to try to help the local community.

No wonder young people behave badly when people like yourself tolerate and excuse anti social behaviour

Still don't see how so w boys playing football on a pitch ( not vandalism) is anti social

@Thechaseison71 because they know they are not meant to be there and couldn’t give a shit.

But they are not causing any antisocial behaviour just by being there are they?

If they were making big noise, littering or playing loud music then yes they would be

Another parent not wanting their little jimmy to be told off.
Be good for the police to speak to them.

Hopefully it gets a message across and they won't do anything else.

@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)

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.

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

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

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

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?

@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

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.

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

@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

@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.

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.

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.