Folk Hero or Aggressor?

"A lawyer retained by the parents"

Their might be a class/money/privilege spoiled rotten subtext.

Ideal world: Homeowner catches kid, calls kid's parents, waits for parents to show up, parents discipline kid, kid's dad offers to buy Homeowner a beer sometime.

Disgusting, pathetic, letigous, sad real world: If you touch a berkeleying kid, no matter what they're doing, you are more than likely going to jail, and your life will be berkeleyed up.

For example, if your mail has been dissappearing, and you've complained several times to the post office, but the mail continues to dissappear, then one day you catch a little 15 year old punk red-handed, chase him down, grab him by his shirt, and say "We're going to my house to call the cops," you'll be charged with a laundry list of stuff, and the kid will walk off scott-berkeleying-free.

In reply to poopshovel:

That doesn't sound so hypothetical...

poopshovel wrote: Ideal world: Homeowner catches kid, calls kid's parents, waits for parents to show up, parents discipline kid, kid's dad offers to buy Homeowner a beer sometime. Disgusting, pathetic, letigous, sad real world: If you touch a berkeleying kid, no matter what they're doing, you are more than likely going to jail, and your life will be berkeleyed up. For example, if your mail has been dissappearing, and you've complained several times to the post office, but the mail continues to dissappear, then one day you catch a little 15 year old punk red-handed, chase him down, grab him by his shirt, and say "We're going to my house to call the cops," you'll be charged with a laundry list of stuff, and the kid will walk off scott-berkeleying-free.

Never, ever call the cops unless you want something in writing. In the case of a kid... or a dead hooker... you gotta dig a grave.

THIS /thread

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: See, calling the cops was the mistake. If you send a kid home scared and sporting only deep body bruises he will hide them rather than explain how he came to receive them. I learned this first-hand in a similarly aggravating past time of a mis-spent youth: snowballing cars. I was not about to explain to my car loving father how I got knocked silly by some random guy for wailing on his pride and joy from behind a bush on main street. All that would get me is another whoopin. I am more of a sympathetic sort who isn't up for slapping a bunch of kids around... but I would find it particularly hilarious to ruin their clothes giving out paintball welts while they learn who is and isn't going to be a fun target for pranks. Its practically my civic duty to hide in the dark recesses of my deck this Halloween and see who has the audacity to throw the first egg.

isn't messin' with the mail a pretty serious offense?

Ringing a doorbell is pretty tame. Even if a fire breathing felon is on the other side of the door...he's not in your house. You're safe. No reason to go beating on someone. Granted, it's freaking rude and should stop. Time to call the cops and report it.

Now, with this guy going after a kid? I could see if it all that happened is the kid has bruises on his arm from trying to get away. Cool. It happens. No big deal. But now the kid has bruises all over him and two loose teeth? That sounds extreme to me. Also, taking him back to your house?

It sounds to me like mistakes were made on all sides. Silliness could've been avoided if the kid was smarter, or faster. Also, the guy shouldn't go all WWF, or WWE if you're young, on the kid. Come on?! What adult goes whomping some kid over a doorbell ring to the tune of all over body bruises and potentially dead teeth? I'll bet the guy wouldn't have chased a "kid" who was closer to his own size or larger.

Again, mistakes on both sides.

nutherjrfan wrote: isn't messin' with the mail a pretty serious offense?

I thought so too. But if you're an adult and the "kid" (I didn't really consider myself a 'kid' when I was 15) is the offender...one who's run home and apparently ditched all the mail he's stolen, lotsa luck.

And yeah, the story is not so hypothetical. Family member - who is pretty much the most 'stand-up' of our family (doesn't drink, smoke, curse, etc.,) was the 'bad guy.' He had the kid by the neck of the shirt and was leading him back to the house when the kid got all cock-sure and started in with "I'll tell the cops you hit me and you'll go to jail" yadayada, at which point said family member let him go, ran back home and called the cops himself. Like snurplewhorker said: Bad idea. Probably should've just given the kid a speed-knot and sent him on his way.

Again, mistakes on both sides.

troof.

Xceler8x wrote: Ringing a doorbell is pretty tame. Even if a fire breathing felon is on the other side of the door...he's not in your house. You're safe. No reason to go beating on someone. Granted, it's freaking rude and should stop. Time to call the cops and report it. Now, with this guy going after a kid? I could see if it all that happened is the kid has bruises on his arm from trying to get away. Cool. It happens. No big deal. But now the kid has bruises all over him and two loose teeth? That sounds extreme to me. Also, taking him back to your house? It sounds to me like mistakes were made on all sides. Silliness could've been avoided if the kid was smarter, or faster. Also, the guy shouldn't go all WWF, or WWE if you're young, on the kid. Come on?! What adult goes whomping some kid over a doorbell ring to the tune of all over body bruises and potentially dead teeth? I'll bet the guy wouldn't have chased a "kid" who was closer to his own size or larger. Again, mistakes on both sides.

Devil's advocate here:

The "silliness" would have been mitigated if the parents established a rule-set that if you (the kid) do that kind of stuff, you will pay a penalty. Said penalty will come from the law, the homeowner, or (God Forbid) from us - if you're lucky, the justice will only come from the law.......

In the dark, how well prepared is any person (who gets simultaneous "knocks" at the front and rear doors) to immediately decide if it's a prank or prelude to a home invasion? How did you react last time this happened to you?

Just askin.

In the dark, how well prepared is any person (who gets simultaneous "knocks" at the front and rear doors) to immediately decide if it's a prank or prelude to a home invasion? How did you react last time this happened to you? Just askin.

Good point. Obviously cooler heads prevail. My head would not be very "cool" in this scenario, and I would, without a doubt, be 'answering' the door armed, with mrs. poo on the phone with the police.

oldsaw wrote: Devil's advocate here: The "silliness" would have been mitigated if the parents established a rule-set that if you (the kid) do that kind of stuff, you will pay a penalty. Said penalty will come from the law, the homeowner, or (God Forbid) from us - if you're lucky, the justice will only come from the law....... In the dark, how well prepared is any person (who gets simultaneous "knocks" at the front and rear doors) to immediately decide if it's a prank or prelude to a home invasion? How did you react last time this happened to you? Just askin.

This. And that is why I advocated the guy lawyering up. Parents need to learn to control their kids, not rely on the law to get the kids out of a jam. Sure, it was excessive that the kid got pummeled by the guy, and he probably didn't need to lose some teeth. MAYBE this can be an example of what happens when you let TV babysit. Too many people hide behind the law these days, and too many others are too afraid of it to do anything. Sure the guy didn't need to smashify the youth, but at least he had the balls to stand up for himself.

Some people are missing something. He saw someone creeping around outside his house, the doorbell rings and someone starts bamming on the back door at the same time. If it had been me, I might have done some shooting, because I would have been thinking home invasion. The kid should consider himself lucky. Thing is though, no way I'm chasing someone down the road.

I agree with Per, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I used to do the same kind of stuff at the same age, 'camping out' with my friends was shorthand for 'roam the 'hood till dawn doing idiotic kid stuff'. We did it for the thrill of almost getting caught, had we gotten caught chances are the victim would have called my dad at whatever time it happened (which would not have been a good thing), my dad would have whipped my ass and with good reason.

But to punch out a 14 year old kid for ringing a doorbell at 10:30 PM? Seems a bit extreme.

EDIT: Now that I think about it a bit, maybe not. Several years ago a coworker's son decided that he wanted to be a 'hard cold playa thug', complete with the big gold jewelry, goofy hat, you name it. Co worker's car gets stolen, turns out the son and some of his thuggy buddies did it. Co worker confronts son, son (and mother! ) holler 'Touch him and we call DSS' (SC version of child protective services), co worker says 'go ahead, it will take them at least 20 minutes to get here'. The call was never made and co worker got his car back. If the kid made that sort of threat to the homeowner, then good on the guy for punching his lights out. Play a grownup's game, expect a grownup's punishment.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: snip I am more of a sympathetic sort who isn't up for slapping a bunch of kids around... but I would find it particularly hilarious to ruin their clothes giving out paintball welts while they learn who is and isn't going to be a fun target for pranks. Its practically my civic duty to hide in the dark recesses of my deck this Halloween and see who has the audacity to throw the first egg.

I like how you think!

I never had any real fear of my parents, never had a whuppin' or anything, and never got into trouble either.

That having been said, I'd probably start blasting away at waist level with ol mr mossberg.

Joey

Update:

No charges will be filed against the homeowner. Now the kid's parents appear to be doinked up enough to file some kind of civil action, I'll keep you posted.

J-Man, he never punched out the kid, only tackled him.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=953767

I'd say, "Play with fire, and eventually you get burned."

Just a prank, but it is a prank. And when you pull a prank on strangers, there is that risk. Kid will learn his lesson if the politics don't screw this up. Run faster, or stop being a jerk, because you failed at being a punk this time.

My question is where were the child's parents during this prank and did they know where their child was at the time?

914Driver wrote:

GI_Drewsifer wrote: However, there's information missing. Was it only once or did they ring his door ever 30 minutes like PIlotbraden said?

One was ringing the bell up front while another was banging on the back door.

If that happened to me, I'd assume that it was an attempted home invasion. The doorbell's a feint while someone else tried to break down the back door.

Kid's lucky that he only got tackled.

odds are they didn't / don't care... at least not in the way most of us do (or would if we had ever had any kids) we'll have to wait and see but it sounds as if the parents are of the something for nothing modern day crowd... if they don't bite the bullet / punish / the kid / pay for his dental work themselves, but instead sue the homeowner then they'll prove that they're more to the worthless side of the human scale than the role model side

Well, I know where my parents would have been on this scale. First, my ass would have never been out roaming without adult supervision and second, if I had gotten caught doing anything that embarrassed my parents the punishment at home would have been 2x the amount I received in public. No doubt about it.

Now, I can tell you from personal experience that when I made a police call about a prowler, the police car pulled into my driveway and actived his lights scaring off the prowler who was lurking in the other side of the yard. Yes, I was watching him through the windows and holding back the urge to confront him. I swore then that the next time it happened I would confront first and then call the cops. It just hasnt happened yet....

914Driver wrote: Update: No charges will be filed against the homeowner. Now the kid's parents appear to be doinked up enough to file some kind of civil action, I'll keep you posted. J-Man, he never punched out the kid, only tackled him. http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=953767

Sure, that's all he did.

oldsaw wrote: Devil's advocate here: The "silliness" would have been mitigated if the parents established a rule-set that if you (the kid) do that kind of stuff, you will pay a penalty. Said penalty will come from the law, the homeowner, or (God Forbid) from us - if you're lucky, the justice will only come from the law....... In the dark, how well prepared is any person (who gets simultaneous "knocks" at the front and rear doors) to immediately decide if it's a prank or prelude to a home invasion? How did you react last time this happened to you? Just askin.

These are all good points.

Kids need supervision. I know that 100% supervision isn't always possible. At the times that kids do something wrong they do need to know there will be repercussions.

Now, how would I react? I'd hole up in the house with a phone call to 911 and some means of protection. Going out in the street to face an unknown number of criminals isn't smart. It's also not something you do when you're truly panic'ed.

joey48442 wrote: That having been said, I'd probably start blasting away at waist level with ol mr mossberg.

I know this is the internet and all...but that's not smart for various reasons.

wbjones wrote: if they don't bite the bullet / punish / the kid / pay for his dental work themselves, but instead sue the homeowner then they'll prove that they're more to the worthless side of the human scale than the role model side

I'd say a more equitable way to settle this is the kid doesn't bother this guy anymore. No visits to his yard, no "Hi Mr. so and so." Nothing.

The homeowner pays for the dental work.

Everyone wins and attempts to fix problems they caused.

I applaud the homeowner for bringing a sense of danger back to pranks. Todays kids don't realize how much more fun things are when risk is involved. When i was young part of doing pranks like that was knowing if I was caught either by the neighbor or the police, I'd be coming home to some rather "harsh" disicpline. Knowing that most of today's parents don't give out any discipline, especially physical, this man decided to gie it out himself. Imagine how much more fun ring and run will be in the future knowing that the slowest runner in the group faces a good pummeling.