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]

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...

[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

[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.

[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.

[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!!!

[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?

[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!