Violence on our streets

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Henny Penny

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I was driving out of my local park today when I saw a man throttling a young lad (about 13) he had his hands around his neck and was trying to strangle him. I stopped my car, and leaned on my horn to attract attention ... but this didn't seem to do any good. When I rolled down my window, I asked the man who was attacking the boy what he was doing ... he replied that the kids had been throwing stones at him.
I couldn't believe that he could justify assaulting a child because of this ... obviously we have not come that far a nation, when we still think children are fair game for physical abuse!
I wonder how far would he have gone if I had not made a fuss?
 
Henny Penny said:
I wonder how far would he have gone if I had not made a fuss?
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I guess that would depend upon the character & the situation Henny Penny. Its even sadder to think that you could just as easily been a victim of this as well yourself if he decided to turn on you.... the likes of that have happened.

ninsaga
 
ok. so the adult in question was over reacting. but next month this little s**t will probably be throwing bangers, and preferably at older people in order to get a better reaction. course it would help if zero tolerance was the norm and not the exception.
 
The man in question obviously over reacted but I wonder how you would have felt if the stones had been thrown at your windscreen, a common occurence, with resulting accidents. A couple of years ago youths were throwing stones and dropping things from the bridge on the Stillorgan dual carriageway. How many potential deaths could they have caused? What about the 'children who throw stones at the drivers of the dart, or throw things on the line?

When faced with situations like this, it's very difficult to see the offender as a 'child'!! I don't agree with anyone throttling anyone but.....perhaps the little gurrier will think twice next time!
 
extopia said:
So it's acceptable, then?
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No..but its easy to say that. I mentioned that it depends upon the individual & the situation. What if this was a frequent occurance & he was getting no satisfaction from the authorities? That could be enough to drive him over the edge.

I had a rock thrown at the car a few yrs back passsing through an area & it hit the windscreen. One second of a timing difference there & it could have smashed the side window & hit the child in the back seat. If that had happened...God only knows what I would have done to the little bastards who threw it!

ninsaga
 
The point I am trying to make is that I wonder whether we have come so far from the dark days of industrial schools, clerical abuse etc. ... when adults feel because they are bigger and stronger that they have a right to attack children ... provoked or otherwise. I am under no illusions that the child in question was a little gurrier ... but he is still a child.

Interestingly my husband who was in the car with me at the time, saw nothing wrong with what the man was doing ...
 
I think its terrible that the country has come to this. I also think that if the child is lobbing stones, etc at people now, what will he be doing in a few years time.

On the same type of scenario, we had a situation here in Clondalkin(its still ongoing in the media) that a traveller who was "looking for scrap" in somebodys house was chased out and then beaten by a number of men and died from his injuries.

Public opinion rested on both sides. A young man lost his life for a few belongings. Totally needless. The other side of it, however, was that a few more old people in the area slept safer in their beds. I spoke to an old man in the housing complex where my dad lives and his opinion was, well that's the last house he will break into. I was very surprised at his attitude, but when I thought about it later, I know where he was coming from.
 
cuchulainn said:
OK. so the adult in question was over reacting. but next month this little s**t will probably be throwing bangers,
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Or petrol bombs that may kill 2 little kids as what happened in Limerick last week,by over grown kids who are afraid of nothing, also I seen a man tonight that got stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle at the weekend by a 16 year old,
 
We can all point to one or two incidents like this but it's dangerous to jump to any quick conclusion about violent kids rising up against adults. Historically the violence and abuse has been overwhelmingly in the other direction.
 
A few years ago kids threw small stones at my car while I was teaching a lady to drive. No one was hurt and the damage to the car was minor. I ran after them, caught one and dragged him to his house. Later that evening all of those involved were marched over to my house by their parents to apologise. If it was not close to my house and the kids in question were not afraid of their parents I don't know what I would have done.
If the child in question in the OP’s post had thrown a stone through my car window and badly injured one of my small children I would probably have killed him, and I mean that literally. I would not have been right to do so but I won't pretend that I would behave differently. I try to avoid the moral high ground…
 
Ah, you probably wouldn't have killed him, Purple. You sound like a decent sort. You might have felt like killing him, though, which is something else entirely. I think.
 
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