A ten year old boy playing with a water pistol squirted it at a woman passer by. The woman complained to the police. The police tried to give the boy a caution. The boy didn’t want the caution, so the police arrest the kid, charge him with assult and pass the file onto the CPS!
Thankfully, the CPS saw sense and the case was thrown out of court at the first hearing. Not before god knows how many hours of police and court time was wasted, no doubt.
This doesn’t rile me up as much as police prosecuting homeowners if they try to defend themselves against burglars, but it does seem like making Mount Everest out of a mole hill. :rolleyes:
It seems that the problem is with the lady who complained. For fuck sake, what do people want kids to do since there seems to be a problem with kids being kids.
Yeah, but water pistols shouldn’t look like real guns. They should look like toys.
When I was a kid we used to carry 2 squirt guns on us. One filled with water, the other filled with lemon juice. When some bigger kid tried to fuck with us he’d get the lemon juice in the eyes.
One time there was this bitch that REALLY pissed Rod off, so he filled his with bleach and sprayed her clothes that were hanging on her outdoor clothes line. Hours later her shirts and pants had huge white blotches on them. She never figured out what had happened.
(my brother wasn’t to be triffled with! )
I’m all for kids being kids but what was she supposed to do? I mean, kids can’t just squirt strangers randomly, can they? Getting the parents to impose some punishment would be reasonable, as opposed to a caution.
I mean, ask yourself what you’d do if you were walking along and suddenly got squrted. We don’t know if it was just a splash or a soaked-to-the-skin. But I bet most dopers’d pit the kids without a second thought, wouldn’t you?
What would you do? Ignore it? Find their parents? Is that always an option?
I mean, I’m a student, we play with water pistols, but isn’t this assaulting a stranger? Isn’t that unnaceptable?
I mean, I’m not saying the kid deserves being arrested, or even cautioned: it depends on the circumstances, but a few stern words would hopefully get the message home.
To be fair to the cops and to the woman drenched, it wasn’t exactly a water pistol, if I’ve read the linked story correctly. 'Twas one of those high-power water cannons.
Also, one doesn’t know what’s in a stranger’s water cannon, now does one? After all, look at the quaint story of mischievous yout related above.
And what if the woman had panicked and run over someone?
Oh yeah? WHEN?
Me and my brother did this stuff back in the early 60’s…BEFORE cable tv, BEFORE Rambo movies and what have you. You gotta give him points for thinking this shit up all by himself.
Depends upon whether the little brat soaked down an expensive outfit or not. If he just squirted AT me, I’d probably just find his parents.
If he ruined something expensive, you can bet they’d be paying for it, even if that meant charging him with vandalism, or assault or whatever.
That aside, just randomly soaking strangers is pretty disrespectful. With this child worshipping attitude we have going on in society today, I don’t blame the woman for getting mad enough to have him charged.
Way too many kids in this day and age have absolutely no sense of respect, maybe this kid having to “sweat it out” will make him think twice next time, and maybe his friends too.
When I was a kid it was match guns at ten paces (or three). But we never would have shot a kitchen match at an adult. Spanking wasn’t illegal then and we wouldn’t have sat down for a week. Come to think of it, if our parents had caught us with the match guns they’d have beaten our butts anyway. Not so’s it would bruise or anything. My scars are all psychological.
We didn’t have “high powered water rifles” (like the article says) when I was a kid. I think the largest water gun available might have held 6 ounces, IF that.
I couldn’t imagine what my childhood would have been like if I had access to a “super soaker”.
The jail time would have definately affected my outcome:p
It’s not illegal now. Just not enough parents are using it.
My old man spanked us with his eye brows. (he just had to give us that “look”. You know “that look”. That “dad’s pissed” look. That “I was in a war and I killed people” look. )
)
