When I saw the thread title, my initial response was to yell at the damn punks, let their parents yell at them, then leave it be. Then I read the OP, and my answer is press charges against those little shits! And then I read by “kids” you actually meant kids, and not 17 or 18 year olds, softened just a little, but not enough. Press charges against the little shits.
I know the lightrail line and the school you’re talking about.
Unfortunately, I fear that while it’s possible that pressing charges will “teach them a lesson,” based on what I know about that school and the attendees, it won’t be the first time and certainly won’t be the last time. And I fear that Drain Bead is correct as well, although I have a feeling that some of the parental disinterest is from poverty rather than disinterest.
However, press charges, because you never know - the probation officer or case manager they get might be the person that turns them around, this charge might be the straw on the camel’s back for that particular suspect or his parents, and it says that actions have consequences.
You killin’ me.
“Well officer, you can take them and charge them, or you can leave them here and come back later to charge ME.”
Is anyone else having trouble reading the OP’s story? I feel like I’m just missing parts of the story, or not really comprehending it fully… but I’m not really clear if the OP is still considering whether or not to press charges.
But there is no way in hell I would consider doing anything but pressing charges.
They’re street rats. Lock 'em up. I don’t care if they regret it or not.
If I had given them a stern talking to, I’da said something like “You’re lucky the cops caught you instead of me. If I had caught you, you’d have a broken neck. If I had my gun, you’d be dead right now. You’re worthless piece of shits that I would love to have the honor of removing you from this world. But since I can’t kill you, I’ll just send you to prison for as long as I can.”
You can’t teach honor and integrity to scum like this. The only way to get them to stop is to threaten them harshly. They’re already going to jail, so death/injury is pretty much the only step up from there. Hopefully, THAT will scare them straight.
Press charges. They’re not going to stop doing this of their own accord. Next time they might hurt someone.
Surly, who’s a flaming liberal and notorious softy but still thinks they need to be punished.
They’re thieves. Press charges. I really don’t get the “kids will be kids so just let them go” mindset. I see you decided to, but I don’t really understand why there would even be a question about it.
This is a no-brainer. This is theft, not just stupid kids doing stupid things. Charge their asses and raise hell if the DA or CA tries to plea bargain them with just a slap on the wrist.
Back last May, I had stuff stolen out of my car. I didn’t know about it until cops start banging on my door at 4 in the morning. Barely awake, I’m trying to give answers to questions like “did you see anything?” “can you tell me what’s missing from your car?”
Eventually they gave up that line of questioning when I couldn’t answer anything and drove me around the block where they picked up two people who had my stuff and asked me to identify if it was mine.
It was. I got it all back.
So here we have a situation where there was no damage to my property, no damage to my car, and I got everything back almost before I knew it was even missing in the first place. The only thing I was out was about half an hour’s worth of sleep.
I’m a pretty laid back guy. Stoic some might say. Not a lot affects me emotionally one way or the other and I tend to let a lot of things slide off my back.
The police asked if I wanted to press charges.
Fuck yes I pressed charges and i was present in the court room every damn time it came up. And when one of the defendants didn’t show up, I made sure to go down to the prosecutor’s office and ensure the judge’s bench warrant went into the defendant’s file.
Fuck 'em for messing with my stuff.
I’ve got a call in with the district it occurred in to have the attending officer call me back. At this time it doesn’t look like there’s any recourse, but I want to beat the horse one last time. It sounds like if you say you’re not pressing charges at the time of the incident, you can’t go back. Which sucks. 30 minutes into the event with 30 seconds to evaluate and make a decision doesn’t give a guy a whole lotta time to weigh the options.
It occurs to me that when I talked to the perp, he had a bloody nose. The consensus around the office is that he probably got a good cop tackle out of it.
At this point, I can hope to aid in the correction of a kid…or be happy I’ve retained my anonymity. I suspect the latter is what’s going to happen. c’est la vie.
And I hope there isn’t a next time…but next time, I will press charges.
“Kids will be kids” is for kid-sized crimes. These kids committed a felony.
I voted something else. Absolutely press charges if at all possible, but also take precautions. Develop habits to protect yourself and prevent future muggings and make a donation to an organization designed to help troubled youth. Do what you can to turn this into as positive a situation as possible from your end.
As nearly everyone else sad, press charges. It is extremely unlikely that whether or not you press charges will have any effect on these punks. But that is the system we have, and I think it behooves law-abiding folk to allow it to function as it is intended to.
I guarantee that a stern talking to will have NO effect on them, unless you think it will make YOU feel better for whatever reason.
I’ve taught personal protection for more than 20 years as a side gig and this is the part of the course that always always always draws complaints and protests until people stop to think about it: If you don’t try to stop your attacker and if you don’t press charges if they’re caught, you’re just as responsible as they are the next time when they do it to someone else.
Think about it. How many times have these little shits already probably jacked someone else who then felt sorry for them or didn’t even bother to report it because they figured nothing would be done anyway.
You were robbed and as a indirect result of that robbery you were injured. They need to go away for awhile because the next time, they’re just as likely to directly injure someone, given that criminal behavior usually has a discernable pattern of escalation. If they’re not stopped it might just as well be you putting the knife in someone’s kidney for their iPod.
I agree, and it if the opportunity presents itself, I’ll choose differently, but the more I think about it, the more I think it was a scam.
I’m going to say there were four perps. Just for the sake of argument. All dressed identically (jeans, black jackets), one each on either side of the stairs.
When apprehended, one kid fessed up, then the other kid fessed up.
Changing stories, an inability to pick out the one who did it (hey, one kid grabs the phone, hands it off. Hey man, I don’t have a phone!)
I’m following up with RTD security, I’ll just bet it’s not the first (or wasn’t the last) time.
It’s about two things. First, kids will, in fact, be kids: most delinquents stop being delinquents as they grow up whether or not they get wrung through the justice system. Second, it’s not a slam dunk that using the juvenile justice system will yield a better result (for the kids and for everybody else) than just doing nothing. It’s not a matter of the system either helping or not helping; it’s that the system will either help, or not help, or make things worse.
How confident are you in the juvenile justice system’s ability to avoid bad outcomes? If one’s answer is “not very,” then letting them go is entirely reasonable (though clearly not obligatory).
Can you support this claim with any evidence?
I’ve had run-ins with neighborhood kids that I dealt with by talking to their parents or the kids themselves depending on the situation.
This was a mugging by 3 teenagers and it may be too late to get them on the right track but the best thing for them is to get busted early and often. If it’s too late then they need a track record so the courts have something to work with down the line.
Press charges. Look at it like this:
You say the cops (or transit security?) said that these kids are probably from a “last chance” school. Maybe this is the first time they did this, maybe it’s a routine thing for them. Either way, they may be working up to smashing someone upside the head with a pipe before taking their stuff.
Or maybe targeting senior citizens, or smaller, weaker people in general.
Either this brush with the law will straighten them out, or at least be on their record, for a while at least (being juveniles, it probably won’t carry over once they turn 18) should they escalate their criminal activities.
It’s something the DA, judge, and jury can use against them should they escalate to more violent means of taking stuff away from other people.