It runs in the extended family...

 

What chance do any of the kids and teenagers in this family have, when their not-so-much-older "elders" are setting examples like this?  Why are we surprised when entire families turn out to be antisocial criminal discards?

The Charles County Police Department said officers patrolling in Waldorf, Maryland, at about 1 p.m. on May 16 saw two Hyundai vehicles in front of a business. A computer check revealed they were reported stolen.

When the officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop, the drivers of the two vehicles sped off.

At the same time, a dispatcher took a 911 call about a group of suspects that entered a business and stole merchandise before fleeing in two vehicles that matched the cars the officers were attempting to stop.

The suspects got out of the vehicles at a Park and Ride lot and attempted to hide, though the officers were ultimately able to apprehend them without any further incident.

From the two vehicles, police arrested 18-year-old Deshaun Deamonte Whitaker and 21-year-old Vincent Lee Alston, both of Washington, D.C., who were both charged with theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and rogue and vagabond.

Whitaker was released on $2,000 bond and Alston was held without bond in the Charles County Detention Center.

Four juveniles were also arrested and charged with theft and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Police said a female guardian was set to pick up the four juveniles, but the guardian and two other females arrived in what appeared to be another stolen vehicle, which left after the three women were dropped off at the police station.

Officers located the vehicle on a nearby street, which reportedly had a broken back window and steering column damage. When the officer ordered everyone out of the vehicle, the driver fled, nearly hitting one of the officers.

All the occupants got out of the vehicle after the driver drove a short distance, and it was determined the vehicle was stolen from another jurisdiction.

Anthony Matthew Stewart, 19, of Washington, D.C., was driving the vehicle and arrested after a brief chase on foot. He was charged with first- and second-degree assault, unauthorized use of a vehicle and providing a false name to police. Stewart also reportedly had active warrants for his arrest.

Also in the vehicle were three juveniles who were apprehended. One of the juveniles, a 16-year-old boy, had active arrest warrants, and a 13-year-old girl was reported missing from another county. All three juveniles were charged with theft and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

The three women who picked up the four juveniles earlier that day – Carlisa Monnae Blackeney, 18, of Washington, D.C., and Mahkiyh McQuinn-Woodly, 18, of Hagerstown, Maryland – were charged with theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, providing a false name, and rogue and vagabond.

There's more at the link.

If I'd begun to behave like that - heck, if I'd even begun to think about behaving like that - my parents would have straightened me up good and proper.  There'd have been no nonsense about it, including a thorough beating and even handing me over to the police if necessary.

Here's an example.  Shortly after I began to notice that girls were different from boys, my father called me into his study and told me, "Son, I notice you're making eyes at the girls these days.  I just want you to know that if you ever make any of them pregnant, I'll pay their medical bills."

I was startled, and said something inane like, "Gee, Dad, that's nice of you - but why?"

His answer shook me back on my heels.  "Well, you won't be able to take responsibility for them, because by then I will have killed you."

He wasn't joking.  That man had come through years of combat in World War II, and hadn't forgotten a thing he'd learned.  Neither had his fellow veterans, whom I knew would be more than willing to help him carry out his threat if necessary.  Talk about a "straighten up and fly right" warning!  (I did.)

I daresay the kids in the above report never had that.  It's almost certainly too late to save them from a life of crime and increasing desperation - barring divine intervention, that is.  They were probably never raised right (almost certainly didn't have a strong nuclear family at all to teach them right from wrong), and it's too late to reverse that process now.  They've gone feral.  I wonder how many previous encounters with law enforcement each of them had?  I daresay the list would be quite long, if it weren't politically incorrect to draw it up in the first place.

These are the critters inhabiting our cities these days.  You don't want to live among them, unless you really want to experience Heinlein's "crazy years".  (I don't, but I suspect we won't have much choice, because our society has let this sort of trash go on too long.  Absent some very serious, wholesale, ruthlessly enforced house- and neighborhood-cleaning, it's probably too late to stop the rot by now.)  If you haven't already left big cities, it's high time you began the process.

Peter