Stoning; Boys Found Guilty

So, the five boys who were accused of killing a father of two as he played cricket have been found guilty. Ernest Norton (67) and his 17 year old son James had set up stumps when they were confrunted by 20 youths, who, for 'a bit of fun' began shouting abuse at the pair. They then subsequently started spitting at them and throwing stoens - two of which hit Mr Norton on the head. Mr Norton collapsed with a heart attack, and an off-duty police officer was unable to resuscitate him. The teenages aged between 12 and 14 are due to be sentanced on the 19th October.

It is a sad state of affairs that teenagers today go around abusing people for fun. Gone are the days when they would sit and read a book, it seems as if we have now even surpassed the video gaming era. Instead of setting up their own game of cricket, they took it upon themselves to harass those innocently minding their own business. Whilst reading further into this case I was astonished to hear of the boys further misbehaviour in the court! Judge Warwick McKinnon was forced to apply new bail conditions in the middle of the trial after concerns from staff. Two of the boys had been seen hanging out of windows, he said, and ordered they be accompanied at all times. This is despite their parents already being with them.

I believe this shows where the main root of the problem lies. And that is firmly at the feet of the kids parents. Be they from a broken family or not they need firm boundaries. Instead it seems that they are allowed to do whatever they want, whenever they want to do it, and this is frankly unacceptable. No-one is allowed to do anything to stop them (as a recent example on Boris Johnson's Blog displays). By standers are afraid the police will tell them off for intervening, the boys themselves are less afraid of the police than the police are of them.

What I feel is necessary to curb such attacks as these is to allow for more punishment from an earlier age. For one, re-introduce smacking, and secondly make sure that the children are losing out on something they really like - like social status. In many places at the moment it is a good thing to be arrested - it is a macho, gang feeling that you are worthy of other members trust, when it should be the complete reverse. As to how to remove their status is a very tricky questions, and I'm sure it is why nothing has been done about it so far. Community service is the most probable method, but it needs to be something that won't be viewed as being fun, and the sentencing needs to be for far longer than it currently is at the moment.

The one thing that is certain is that moral standards and behaviour has decreased since retribution and punishment has been lightened under the labour government.