My local train station is currently burning down

[thehardestpartis]

Reportedly due to children being on the station at 5:45 this morning and setting fire to an equipment cabinet.

AIBU to ask where the hell are the parents?! This will cause chaos in the town, reduce holiday maker visits and just generally worsen an already run down town.

The parents should be punished for arson with intent to endanger life, as should the children.

We had a couple of young teenagers set fire to a farmers field, in an adjacent village, a couple of weekends ago. As it was so dry it went up really quickly and got to the fence line of elderly people’s bungalows. Those old people were scared for their lives. The two youths put on Snapchat what they were doing, they’ve been named but the police have done fuck all.

A couple of days later, it was being discussed in our local Facebook group and someone, anonymously, posted “kids will be kids…we’ve all done it…and the farmer can recoup his losses”. It’s attitudes like that which means we end up with kids who think it’s ok to go round setting fire to god knows what. My dad was a fireman, I would have been in so much trouble had I set fire to anything at all. My own kids wouldn’t have dared do it either.

Someone else, in a nearby village put CCTV on of 3 kids, no older than 13, out at 4am trying cars to break into and trying to get into sheds. It’s just horrendous. And we do have youth clubs, football clubs and cricket clubs for them to go to but they don’t want to. They’d rather be wreaking havoc. It’s about time parents were prosecuted and held to account for the actions of their children imo.

11 year olds! Bloody hell

We’ve just had a country park completely burned down. We have youth clubs and a bike track.

Well, partly we realised that locking them up at a young age for minor offences just gets them into more serious crime. So yes, there is a change of approach, but also less offending full stop.

In the mid-60s, some boys set fire to some derelict houses near where I lived.

My friend and I were devastated, as we loved playing in them. It was nearly as much fun as playing on building sites.

How stas are recorded do change with time but I think 40% drop in entering justice system would likely included restorative justice system - though not sure.

I think 50-60 were quite high crime period generally - and 90s joy riding would have been a huge up tick and there have been various drug surges.

It's a well known phenomenon that public perception of crime seems to be much higher than any recorded stats - image that same with youth behavior.

Most kids and teens are less out on the streets - partly due to traffic and lower tolerance and other changes in society - more in childcare or activites at younger ages and screen when older. There's more CTTV and phone camera round now as well to catch things - so a deterant.

There always been a distuctive ciminal element - just don't thinks that's got worst depsite what some poster think.

Yes I 100% agree with the approach! I am just not very well versed on it!

Logically, if the bad behaviour of current children is the fault of their parents, then the behaviour of the parents is down to their parents, their parents, their parents, back to the dawn of time?

Or were all previous generations of parents fantastic, and there was no crime, and something just happened about 15 years ago to cause widespread negligent parenting and the first incidences of crime are happening now?

Why? People still go to Brixham even though the trains don't go that far. People get off trains in Torquay and get taxis or buses to St Mary church. Jumping on a number 12 or 22 in Torquay isn't a big deal.

Yes, I think punishing the Parents isn't a bad idea but it does have to be proper enforced community service or something

There's no point fining people money they don't have

If they're serious crimes that warrant it, they can go to prison - that won't cost them any money themselves. Or at the very least, they should left so terrified that they might go to prison that they would consider changing their ways, even if they don't actually get sent there.

There has been a change in approach to youth crime to use non custodial sentences and try to divert young offenders into something other than a life of crime.

part of this is using youth clubs and youth workers to run courses and drop in sessions at youth clubs so that the young offender has someone keeping an eye on them and they are doing work around expressing emotions, physical safety etc etc.

many of these are children/teens who are either known to SS or in the care system and have been treated pretty badly by parents (not all obviously).

the teens I know who have experienced this approach do tend to get less angry and aggressive over time, particularly if they can see someone is on their side.

if you’ve been abused by your own family and SS are aware but aren’t stopping it because it’s not at mandatory intervention level it’s easy to feel the whole world hates you and you go out and destroy it.

There’s four separate fire incidents down here now apparently! Yes I’m sure the hot weather has contributed but that’s insane. Such shit parenting these days

Nobody is claiming that the USA is some kind of crime-free Arcadia; but the fact is that, if a person who has committed/neglectfully enabled a serious crime is in prison, THEY cannot do so again whilst they're locked up.

In past generations there was a coherent cultural cohesion. There were societal standards which were uniform enforced across all institutions. There was a more coherent view of what was wrong and right. There weren’t the rewards offered by social media likes and wide spread coverage on SM.

society has broken down because everything is about celebrating people being different rather than having a uniform standard to which people are expected to adhere

I used to work in police admin in a big city. Started 40 years ago and worked in stations for 20 years. One fun activity for Inspectors on Sunday afternoon was seeing kids with a parent to get a good telling off about behaviour and a warning that next time it was court. I used to book the appointments, Sunday afternoon was generally a quiet time so was a good time to do it. There were plenty of kids playing up ,40 years ago.

When was this halcyon time of cultural cohesion? You mean before we had black people, don't you?

Why do people keep talking about parenting and the past? What is your evidence that there is more arson all of a sudden, or that it’s parenting related? You’re talking crap

Is it normal for the 'care' system to leave their charges to roam around freely at 4am? If so, there really isn't any point whatsoever in the system existing at all, then.

The 1940s-70s are sometimes described as 'the golden age' for serial killers, and these days the number of serial killers has dropped by 80-90%

Wow parenting back then must have been shocking! Parents are doing so much better now

They run away all the time, yes.

How often does it happen? I've heard of it once when parents supplied their child with a gun. Is it common?

Um, have you read any news reports about the care system in recent years?

😂 think it’s fair to say I’d rather empty buildings were burned down than people murdered

I think that's highly probable.

If you want a police officer where I live, it's highly likely that they'll come from the city 7 miles away, as there's often not a single police officer on duty in my town of 18k population. Because the city has a much higher crime rate, they often can't spare anyone and then they have to send someone from the next big town, 15 miles away.

It's bizarre really, because police HQ is in my town, so there are plenty of officers around, they're just not on operational duties.

The US is a fucking shit show, we should not be looking for examples there as to how to do anything whatsoever.