Yoof

“There’s nothing to do; I’m bored”. Such has been the mantra of the teenager since God was in short trousers, and as likely as not the response would be: “Well get out from under my feet and find something to do.” No longer it seems. We are now expected not only to find things for other people’s offspring to do, but to pay for it into the bargain.
The night club in our town was turned over to teenagers in the early part of last evening (nothing new there, the latter part of the evening is always turned over to teenagers) though they were prevented from drinking alcohol on the premises. I imagine it was a scheme to give their livers a rest since weekend evenings usually end for many of them either in the back of a police van having given their best mate’s head a kicking for looking at their girlfriend, or semi-conscious in a pool of vomit and urine in a shop doorway.
Anyway, the first I knew of this event was when we went into town for an early evening drink and found the place teeming with police; there was even a mobile incident unit in the market square! What the hell sort of a message are we sending to these kids – you’re all so big and dangerous we need the riot squad to control you? They are still children; if they misbehave then give them a talking to, call their parents to come and get them, ban them from future events but do NOT aggrandise their silly behaviour by laying on a madly disproportionate police presence.The police tell us that they will not monitor community events such as local parades, sporting events etc. for lack of funding, and yet they will squader vast amounts of tax payers money policing a children’s party!