A friend of mine sent me the e-mail [edited] below. He lives in a blue collar suburb of a major city. He was ranting about this problem that has been on going for several years. His blame of the police is not unfounded. I was visiting just after the police jumped the paintball kids. One of them was his son. THe nieghbor lady was still complaining about the cop cursing her.
My question is what can he do leagally to clean up this problem? Any body have any thoughts? And no he can't move, at least until he gets his boys through college.
The E-mail;
We have several "kids" (17-21 year olds) running the area that aren't in school, have no jobs and have been connected to break in robberies in the area. They have also been seen and been caught with guns, including threatening another younger kid (17) whose bike they stole.
They still live either with their mom or in the case of 2 of them, in the house where their mom (for one) and the dad (for the other one) used to live, but the parents left to live with their girlfriend, find themselves, etc and left the house to the kid. Somebody must still be paying the bills, and I wonder if its the government (my taxes) in one way or other.
Naturally these houses are perfect gathering places for these budding future addition to the prison population (and future Democratic supporters). Everyone in the neighborhood knows who they are, what they're doing, etc. They have been seen transporting drugs and waving guns around in a car, threatening another kid with a gun etc. The police has been called every time and they have been caught with the guns, drugs and stolen goods on them.
They're still running loose. One time the mother of one of the hoods was screaming "Don't worry baby, Mom will get you out, you just hang tight" as they were taking him away in cuffs. He was back running around the area the next day, still is.
The lady across the street had a conversation with the cops the last time she called them, and she claims the cops told her that they were doing what they could, but the judges always let them go with probation.
I do notice that the cops behave totally different with them than they do with regular people. We have gone to the Sheriffs office in the past and filed a formal complaint (which they were VERY reluctant to take) because there were kids (real kids, 10-12 year olds) playing paintball in the woods, and when they were coming out the Sheriff saw them, stopped, and pointed his gun at them while they were wearing their paintball gear, carrying their very-obviously-not guns-by-any-stretch-of-the-imagination paintball guns.
Rita and another lady came out and told the deputy the kids playing paintball and not bothering anyone, to which the deputy responded by telling them to "Mind their own business and getting the freak back into their houses"
The neighbors are all comparing that one, and similar incidents, with the lackadaisical and extremely polite way they treat real troublemakers that might actually shoot them. It appears that its easy to play "Johnny Law" when all you're doing is dealing with normal people, but lets not get the possible criminal element mad just in case.
It's safer for them to arrest the law abiding person that will eventually have to kill one of the real criminals, because the police didn't take care of the problem when told weeks or months before, and it ended in one of the criminals getting themselves dead for pushing the wrong person's button.
My question is what can he do leagally to clean up this problem? Any body have any thoughts? And no he can't move, at least until he gets his boys through college.
The E-mail;
We have several "kids" (17-21 year olds) running the area that aren't in school, have no jobs and have been connected to break in robberies in the area. They have also been seen and been caught with guns, including threatening another younger kid (17) whose bike they stole.
They still live either with their mom or in the case of 2 of them, in the house where their mom (for one) and the dad (for the other one) used to live, but the parents left to live with their girlfriend, find themselves, etc and left the house to the kid. Somebody must still be paying the bills, and I wonder if its the government (my taxes) in one way or other.
Naturally these houses are perfect gathering places for these budding future addition to the prison population (and future Democratic supporters). Everyone in the neighborhood knows who they are, what they're doing, etc. They have been seen transporting drugs and waving guns around in a car, threatening another kid with a gun etc. The police has been called every time and they have been caught with the guns, drugs and stolen goods on them.
They're still running loose. One time the mother of one of the hoods was screaming "Don't worry baby, Mom will get you out, you just hang tight" as they were taking him away in cuffs. He was back running around the area the next day, still is.
The lady across the street had a conversation with the cops the last time she called them, and she claims the cops told her that they were doing what they could, but the judges always let them go with probation.
I do notice that the cops behave totally different with them than they do with regular people. We have gone to the Sheriffs office in the past and filed a formal complaint (which they were VERY reluctant to take) because there were kids (real kids, 10-12 year olds) playing paintball in the woods, and when they were coming out the Sheriff saw them, stopped, and pointed his gun at them while they were wearing their paintball gear, carrying their very-obviously-not guns-by-any-stretch-of-the-imagination paintball guns.
Rita and another lady came out and told the deputy the kids playing paintball and not bothering anyone, to which the deputy responded by telling them to "Mind their own business and getting the freak back into their houses"
The neighbors are all comparing that one, and similar incidents, with the lackadaisical and extremely polite way they treat real troublemakers that might actually shoot them. It appears that its easy to play "Johnny Law" when all you're doing is dealing with normal people, but lets not get the possible criminal element mad just in case.
It's safer for them to arrest the law abiding person that will eventually have to kill one of the real criminals, because the police didn't take care of the problem when told weeks or months before, and it ended in one of the criminals getting themselves dead for pushing the wrong person's button.
