Shocked by this

[saadia]

{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4220716.stm} what does "previous good character" have to do with it???

[Chandra]

The children are well aware about how to ruin police work. In the first incident I mentioned, one of the kids didn't run away with the other kids, returned because we kept his bike (it was on the floor). The poilce took more than half an hour to arrive, the kid returned with his mother (all weepy and all that) to claim the bike, the police spent more than 20 minutes trying to get the names of the other kids involved from him, he said he won't betray his friends and stood his ground, it was incredible to see a child so though being not olver than 9 yrs old.

A few months later DH bike was stolen from campus, he saw the children who toke it (same gang) but again, the police was handtied and never to be seen (well, they came to knowck at our door about 5 hrs afterwards). When DH sent an e-mail around his department about the incident, a colleague asked him to leave it alone, as he had complained about something and the teenagers took him out of his car, beaten him and took good care to smash his glasses, charges had to be dropped because the court said he won't be able to identify the attackers as he was not wearing his glasses!

[robinia]

Agree that more should be done to find the rest of the gang - surely it can't be that difficult - or is it the case that they know who they are but nobody will provide the evidence to implicate them because they're scared of the consequences?

[Angeliz]

To me it's also sending the message that if you're in a gang you're protected as if they can't get you all, you're home free!

Bloody disgusting!!!

[Caligula]

The message sent out loud and clear here, is that as long as you disguise yourself sufficiently, the CPS won't be arsed to prosecute you.

Sorry, but the police's job is to find the criminals. That's what we pay them for. It's not good enough to say they wouldn't admit it. Fine, they wouldn't admit it - but the eye witness testimony of the boys who did admit it (those of previous good character), might be enough to convict the little sods. Lots of people get sent to prison without admitting it - some of them are even telling the truth, and are innocent!

And even if they got off because the jury was reluctant to convict and found that there were reasonable grounds for doubting their guilt, at least being prosecuted for the crime sends a very clear message that we don't think setting someone on fire is not that big a deal, and that putting a mask over you and stubbornly refusing to own up, isn't necessarily going to get you off scot-free.

[saadia]

Chandra that is terrible and scary. The other thing about this story that was so depressing was that they took pictures on their mobiles, as though planning to brag about it later.

[Lizzylou]

Chandra that is awful!
I always avoid gangs of teens as well, but have not had as horrifying experiences as you and your DS xxx

[Chandra]

Lizzylou, I can tell you from first hand experience, as we have had two incidents, though not as serious as this one (stones throw to us while with DS -then 4-5m old) and DS was also used as air gun target practice in a park when he was 14m old. I feel angry, resentful, blame the mothers of the children who don't pay attention to them or care to introduce any kind of respect or moral values. I know the police is useless when children are involved and not worth a call if you have a problem. I have not the slightest sympathy for children who have been dealt with by the police, if the police managed to get involved it's because they were "guiltier" than guilt.

I'm more afraid of finding myself infront of a group of teenagers when no other adult is present in full day light and nice area, than walking through a dark alley on my own late at night...

[robinia]

I am with you to a certain extent but worry that those who admit it get punished and those who don't get away scot free - where's the justice in that? And we also don't know to what extent the ones that admitted it were involved.

[Chandra]

I believe if you happily cheer a person who is about to comit a crime without stopping him or at least atempting to, makes you an accomplice and therefore also guilty to a some extent. And agree, police has their hands tied with regards to children but I believe that was not a choice of their own...



I think that there has to be something very wrong in how we educate our children, there'ws a deep degree of cruelty in this act (and unfortunately, acts like this are becoming increasingly common), it's not as if they just wanted to harm the child, it seems as if they were willing and prepared to enjoy the suffering of a young person.
And I'm sure that most of these children's mothers are at home trying to convinve themselves that their children were not doing anything wrong, that they just were passing by when the incident was discovered... yeah right!!

[Lizzylou]

I'm with you, Hulababy, on this. Where is the justice? How would you feel as that poor lads parent that those youths were walking around unpunished? What on earth will stop them doing it again?

[Hulababy]

But Twiglett - they admitted they committed a crime, therefore they should get SOME punishment surely?

3 others admisitted something...keep asking them. Punish them for what they did admit to, and make sure they know the full consequences if they do anything like it again or they ever hear they did do it.


By being so light on these kids - it sends out a much worse message to others I think.

[Hulababy]

No punishment = no consequences. Nothing to stop they doing it again now then?!

It's appalling. They may not have been the ringleaders, but they WERE involved. they should have had some real and meaningful punishment, even if it was to just scare them into never doing anything like this again.

Of course the lad couln't identify them. They had put a mask on him so his vision was limited, he was scared senseless no doubt. In such circumstamces I doubt I'd have been able to either.

Poor lad I really hope he can get over this.

[Twiglett]

hang on

don't 'mobs' have ringleaders who would be most to blame?

yes they are all guilty and should be punished but to me it almost makes sense that those who were previously of good character and might just have been going along with the flow, heinous though it might be, have learnt a huge lesson and had the character to admit their involvement

I think something needs to be done, but I'm with the police that they cannot charge those who admitted it in isolation because what lesson does that send?

[Angeliz]

Unbeleivable!
It makes me worry too Aero, having children makes you so vulnerable!

[expatinscotland]

WTF? What next? So if you kill someone and say, 'Yeah, I admit I did it' you get off?!

[Lillypond]

Thats just awful. Must have been terrifying for him.

[Wordsmith]

Eh? What planet are those police on?

[Tessiebear]

[Lizzylou]

Absolutely disgusting!
I worry so much about things like these for when my DS gets older...I just want to go and live on a remote island somewhere......

[NomDePlume]

OMG ! I used to live in Tonge Fold, just around the corner

[SleepySuzy]

OMG!!

[Carmenere]

One of the main things wrong with out of control teens is that there are very few consequences for them. How do young adults learn what is acceptable behaviour when they get away with doing whatever they want?

[robinia]

I think the point may be that the three boys that admitted involvement were not actually the most guilty parties (although were present) and that other boys were far more culpable but wouldn't admit to it. Which would explain why the victim was unable to identify the three. Not saying that the three should have got away with no punishment though.

[Aero]

Truly shocking! Makes me worry for what lies ahead as my children grow older!

[myturn]

Absolutely awful