I needed to run to the store yesterday and was only gone for a very short amount of time. Fortunately I wasn’t gone very long. When I was coming down the street to my house I saw a vehicle in my driveway. I wasn’t sure who it was, but I assumed they knew me because they were parked very close to my garage. As I was pulling up I saw them starting to take off as if they were in a hurry. This of course made me think something was definitely wrong so I tried to block them in. They just cut across the grass and was able to get around me. As they got past me, I did note the vehicle and license plate. I also noticed that the two in the vehicle looked quite young. The two in the vehicle got away, but someone was still in the house.
I knew that someone was still in the house because the garage door slammed and there was noise inside. My dogs were also going crazy. So, I immediately called 911 to get someone over.
As it turned out, the vehicle was stolen. The owners of this vehicle stopped by my house to talk to me. This was their second vehicle stolen within two weeks and they believe that there is some kind of teenage criminal group in our part of town. After their first vehicle was stolen, the police did manage to catch one person who refused to tell them who else was involved. This by the way wasn’t the first vehicle he stole.
Since this kid went to the same school as my kids I was able to get a little bit of information on this kid. Since he is a minor I can not legally state any names, but I was to find out that he only spent a few days in jail. Remember now that this wasn’t his first offense.
This kid was out by the time the second vehicle was stole and used in the crime of breaking into my house. Based off of what I heard, I believe he is the one that kicked in my back door and was still in my house when the others took off. This kid is only 16 and he is on the road to a lot of prison time. Unfortunately a lot of people will suffer before he gets any real time.
Now we can go round and round debating why kids go bad. I think I have met this kid before. I know that he used to be a good kid up until his parents got divorced. But I’m not saying that the seperation of his parents is what caused it. I grew up in a single parent home and I never reverted to crime.
The problem may have started as to the why’s, and we may never really be able to fix that. However, I do think we can fix the continuing problem by punishing these kids for their crimes the first time. Why on earth is a kid that has been caught stealing cars on more than one occasion out running the streets? Why isn’t he at the very least under full time supervision?
According to Time Magazine, teenage crime is rising 67% every 10 years. What are we doing about it? Not a thing from what I can see. Why wouldn’t a kid continue committing crime if there are no consequences?
When children are still babies you tell them no. You can keep on telling them no but eventually it quits working. Eventually you have to smack there hands. Well we are way past hand smacking when they reach their teenage years. We need to start looking at some serious punishment.
Now I’m ok with probation for a first offense. However probation can not be just saying “don’t do it again” and then just have them come visit you once a month. They need to be seriously monitored. They need to know that society is serious about keeping them on the right track.
If the teenager commits a second offense I think there should be mandatory time spent behind bars. I’m not talking about a weekend playing basketball with a bunch of other delinquents, I’m talking about doing some real time. This time should be spent locked up. Some time for education and counseling should be fit in to the cell time to help correct them as well, but they need to know that if they commit a crime they will have to pay the penalty. By the time that these kids get out of jail there should be no need to worry as much. They should be educated and have a good understanding of what is expected of them.
I also think this should also be a part of their permanent record. If when they get out, possibly as adults, and they commit another crime it should be considered a 3rd strike and they should be put away for good. If they can’t straighten out after there second strike, they aren’t going to straighten out and should be deemed career criminals. We shouldn’t have to wait until they start all over again as adults before we consider them as no good.
I put a lot of my opinions on this blog. Most of them aren’t agreed upon by others, but I do think that for the most part people will agree on the points that I have mentioned here. So, what do we do about it? It’s high time that we start taking an active role in this. The only way that we are going to start correcting the problem with teenage crime is to start letting our political leaders know how we feel about this issue. It’s high time that it becomes a major issue on the ballots.
