Same three boys keep wrecking neighbourhood.

[recumbent]

I keep seeing the same three (12 year old) boys wrecking stuff in my end of town. I'm not sure how to convince them to stop defacing property and breaking glass. I realize these are juvenile delinquents without proper parenting or home life.

First I caught them breaking 4 ft flouresent glass tubes in the middle of the roadway. This was easy for me to convince them to clean up the pieces or i'll call the cops, while pulling out my cell phone. They instantly started cleaning the glass while i reached thier logic center about us bikers getting flats, "would you want that to happen to you?" type of speach.

Today i caught them spray painting a sign and other petty stuff, but they now recognise me (my bike) and getting mouthy, so i got out my phone and took pictutres.

Never did i yell at them, only try to educate them politely while using my phone to record thier behavior.

How can i convince them to stop this nasty behavior.
What words, or action can i use to reach them effectively.

 

[nicobie]

U're doing the best that can be done.

 

[csmarr]

Engage them. Don't be their enemy. They are kids. Show then your kool bike. Help one or two of them fix their bike. They are ignorant, have no proper parental supervision, and have tons of pre-teen energy. They are bored to insanity. Help them learn to be better people.

I have a great-nephew who is my test pilot. If he can't break it I must have put it together right. I am teaching him how to take care of his bikes, a BMX and a Mongoose electric. I show him and his buddies how to fix and maintain their bikes. It takes about twice as much time as it would take to fix it myself. It is kind of sad that kids don't know what a wrench is.

If you are able help them, teach them. They are the future.

 

[mud2005]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JSGczqVLLg

 

[mrgarci1]

Engage them. Don't be their enemy. They are kids. Show then your kool bike. Help one or two of them fix their bike. They are ignorant, have no proper parental supervision, and have tons of pre-teen energy. They are bored to insanity. Help them learn to be better people.

This is good advice, especially if you don't want them coming after you out of spite (which kids will do). The last thing you want to do is make an enemy of a group of bored kids who know where you ride your bike and presumably where you live - you'll end up having to dodge booby-traps set by 12-year-olds (who can be surprisingly clever when they're being destructive).

 

[frodus]

have someone else call the cops...

that crap should not be tolerated, i don't care what their family situation is.

 

[Link]

I'd kick their collective ass.
>_>
<_<

 

[Lessss]

video tape them doing bad, upload it to youtube, send the link to your local news, police, school distict hq, and school principles where they are likely to attend as well as any youth organisations. Contact the people wronged and collectively file a lawsuit against their parents. Make it clear to the parents you know you likely won't win but would be happy keeping them in litigation for a decade paying lawyers

 

[Reid Welch]

Engage them as you are doing. Be their mentor, their non-judgmental "friend". Explain too that fluorescent lamps contain a considerable amount of mercury,
which is a permanent neurotoxin. They now have some mercury in their bodies. This can cause brain damage.

Empathy. Children lack empathy; so do many adults. Perhaps try to get across to them how bad it feels to find grafitti on one's property.
Give them a set of giant chalk crayons and show them about the art of sidewalk decoration. They'll think you are pretty cool.

12 years old is the age to save kids from permanent loss of manhood. Tell them, they are normal, growing up, and nothing is better than to be
a full grown man, not a punk on his way to jail, rape, loss of freedom. Take them to lunch at Denny's (with parents' permission, unlikely).

Just ideas... I think you know how to be a true public hero. To save even one of them from that terrible lack of empathy, so common in young humans in particular...


hth,
r.

 

[Anonymous]

.

 

[Reid Welch]

A bit of fear actually made me stop.

Jailhouse rape is an effective deterrent,
but not to be explained to children.
Adults already know.

As a first-timer, I had to go with the flow, or die.

 

[Anonymous]

.

 

[Reid Welch]

When we were doing these idiot things, if someone would have coddled me, it would have had zero effect, I probably would have laughed at them. But maybe that's just me, and this is just one opinion. Here's another idea: grab one or more of those kids and tell them they're going to the cops. Make them sweat for a while then let them go. They're not criminals of course, but they need to learn respect, they are doing acts of total disrepect.

I agree now. Different strokes, fear of the otherwise-inevitable. Tell them that it hurts terribly,
to be robbed of your masculinity "You my bitch now!"