14 DAY TRIAL // What better time for children to get into trouble if not the summer holiday? According to Boston.com, three kids living in... Boston of course, were apprehended by the police after stealing a Nintendo Wii and several other electronics from a South End home, over this weekend. The thieves are two boys, ages 12 and 15 respectively and a 12 year old girl.
And I thought I was jerk when I used to steal candy once a week from the store when I was around 12. What? The old saleswoman was blind as a bat. It was too damned tempting alright?!
"A Chandler Street resident found a 12-year-old girl holding the game console when he got home about 4 p.m. Saturday, police spokeswoman Sharon Dottin said. While the resident was holding the girl, he heard two other intruders running from the kitchen, out a window, and down a rear fire escape, police said. Police say two boys, ages 12 and 15, had fled," reads the piece.
Naturally, the two were caught shortly after. One of them was spotted and detained between Chandler and Lawrence streets while "the second boy was picked up on Tremont Street," as the report reads on. "The significance of their ages is not lost on the officers," Dottin said. "This is unfortunate, but by holding them responsible for their actions, this will be a lesson they learn."
But here's what I thought made the report even more interesting. Sharon Dottin also said that city officials have come up with these "youth programs," in an effort to keep them off the streets and into more educational activities. Say wha...?! And are the kids supposed to just go with this alternative, when there's Internet and video games to be had?
Not that I support playing video games 24/7, but when you're a kid and your friends laugh at you because you're going to camp in order to learn how to start a fire rubbing two pieces of wood together, while they're at home shooting each other online... Well, you got the point.
And here's what Boston's kids should be doing, according to Sharon Dottin: day camps, sports lessons, reading programs and acting classes. These are activities to "keep them occupied" says the report. Well, parents might go with this, but the kids sure as hell won't.
Anyway, according to the same piece, the three face punishments ranging from "community service to detention in a juvenile facility until they turn 18." Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office stated that "the punishment varies based on a child's family situation, school attendance, and criminal record."