party crashers

[Minimor]

Used to be it was the teen parties, held when parents were out of town, that were most likely to be a problem--uninvited kids would show up and cause a problem. Now....it's just plain scarey!

In less than a month in this area:

- local man answers door during a party he is hosting for his teen child....refuses admittance to the older youths who rang the doorbell & demanded that they be allowed into the party. One of the youths used a baseball bat to beat the man over the head. Man was rushed to Winnipeg hospital with life threatening injuries.

- In Winnipeg man hosting a party for his daughter asks a male guest to leave after that guest was bothering the daughter. Instead of leaving the guy hit the man in the head with a beer bottle. Man died a short time later

Now, in the early hours of Saturday morning, there was a homicide in Neepawa, the town just north of here where I grew up. Neepawa has always been a quiet town, I can't think of a single murder there since 1975 when we moved there. The Mayor was on TV tonight & said the same thing--if there's been a murder there in about that same time frame, he can't recall it. Anyway, according to tonight's TV news report, this too was a partycrasher that did this. Fellow, 23 years old, was at a town bar, then walked to the home of his fiancee, just blocks away. According to friends, someone (plural) followed him. When they knocked at the door and asked to come in, he denied them admittance, and they shot him in the head. His girlfriend was struck in the face with the gun. The shooter is still out there--the police have made no arrests so far. Needless to say, town residents are extremely upset by this event.

What is wrong with people? How can there be so many people who have so little respect for others that they believe your party is their party, and no matter what they should be allowed to join in? Is this kind of thing becoming common everywhere, or do we have a particularly disrespectful bunch of people here?

I'm thinking that our laws should be changed to allow homeowners to have a gun in their hand when they answer the door, particularly if it is night time, and even more so if there's a party going on! Maybe if the punks knew they were likely to get blown away they'd think twice about doing some of these things?

Awhile back when there was a rash of car thefts and car jackings in this province, I commented that we should be able to pack a piece....someone tries to get into my truck they could be greeted by the business end of a gun. A guy I work with asked if I would die over my vehicle--he'd let them have his if they wanted it. I said no, it's not my intention that I would be the one to die over my vehicle. Sadly, our laws do not provide for this--it's pretty much impossible to get a license to carry a concealed weapon--so hopefully I won't be meeting up with any carjackers!!

But, I have to ask this same fellow tomorrow where does it end. It's one thing to get out of your car & let someone drive it away, but when someone comes to the door & demands to come in, do you let them in to avoid having them assault or kill you? Do you let them trash your house, take your belongings, drink all your liquor and do whatever else they might want to do, all to avoid personal danger? There is something wrong with this system IMO.

It's also very scary...

 

[crponies]

Wow, that is a scary trend! I haven't heard of anything similar around here but I could just be out of the loop.

 

[Sonya]

Wow....how terrible. Some people have no respect for life these days.

Your stories are one of the reason why the current administration here scares me, I would like to keep my right to bear arms.

 

[krissy3]

Yes , this is a huge problem everywhere. Kids are desensitized and are no longer capable of empathizing, or have the abilits to sympathize, rationalize, or accept responsibility for their actions. Kids drink a lot more alcohol these days then they use to, and their crimes are a lot more violent. I often ask myself how did our youth get this way? I think its the videos,and the access to violence , hard porn, on the computers. Pornography has gotten very violent , and is available to children, this is something my generation could not see or get. This teached our children that it is acceptable to rape , and treat women as objects without connecting with feeling. Often kids come from families that do not enforce disapline, consequences or show their kids how to be loving towards other family members, maybe because of divorce, stress , and lazyness. I live in a small village where children are not supervised , they have no curfew, and neighbors are not getting involved in disaplining the kids when they are out of line , and their parents are not around. It use to be that the entire neighborhood would raise the kids on the block, if the woman next door caught you doing something wrong , she had the right to scold you and tell your parents. Kids use to be afraid of their parents, because their parents showed them what a consequence was at a young age, by saying NO and sticking to it, by watching how they played with the other kids , and making them apploigise when they hurt a friends feelings. How many of you had to knock on the neighbors door and apologise for stealing an apple , or for calling their kid stupid? I sure did. That doesnt happen anymore.Who are the parents of that kid that beat the man at the party? How did they let that kid get away with not knowing the difference between right and wrong? I blame the parent as much as the kid. I have a friend who spanked her grandson because he was being a royal brat at the gas station. A police officer came up to her and thanked her for doing that. he said " thank you for doing that now , so I dont have to do that later " Kids are horrid these days, they take no responsibility for their actions, I deal with it all the time at work.

 

[Shortpig]

It is so much easier these days for parents to come home from work and not have to deal with their bratty children that they created. Discipline starts when they are young. You can't decide one day when they are 13yo that its time for them to straighten out. I was sitting in my own home one morning after Halloween when I heard a commotion on my front porch. I looked out the window to see a young man beating my pumpkins. I don't mean the normal smashing I mean punching them with everything he had. When I tapped on the window and told him to get off my property instead he starting beating on my window and door, screaming at me that he was going to come in and kill me. I live alone I was so terrified I couldn't even dial 911 correctly. However, I calmed a little as soon as I felt the handle of my 38 and then called 911. There were no police on duty so they had to call one in. Are you kidding me this guy isn't going away. Finally the police showed up, found a witness on the corner who had been with him but scooted because he thought the guy had gone totally wacko. By then the kid had left. The police found him at a party house down the street but couldn't arrest him because the witness backed out. Come to find out he was 17yo and had suffered a severe head injury. Yes he was and is wacko. Since then he has been constantly in and out of jail. For at least two weeks following his friends and sister would drive by my house pointing at it and harrassing me. I mortgaged my house, fenced in my whole property and got to large dogs. I have to be honest if he had broken in my front door and stepped into my house he wouldn't had left here alive. I wish it wasn't this way but these kids have no respect for human life or for older people. No one has taught them any different. Not all kids are this way but there are so many of them now that just party and do drugs and hang out.

I remember when I was young if a young 18yo went in front of a judge they were given the choice of jail time and a record or serve your country in Vietnam. Most of the ones I knew ended up in Vietnam. I think even the military is afraid of these little punks. They could end of shooting their own. How sad is this world we now live in?

 

[Mominis]

I strongly agree that it is videos that are largely to blame for this. Particularly video games. My husband loves to play video games and as a 40 year old man, has the maturity to be able to understand that they are just games. However, there is one game that comes to mind that he plays that gives the player 'missions' to break into homes, steal cars, beat people up, shoot people, and that sort of thing. I can't imagine that game in the hands of a child. Especially one with no solid moral grounding or no strong parental figure in their life. While that game is rated "M" for mature, I wonder how many parents actually follow the ESRB's ratings on such things. Probably not more than they do movie ratings, and I know that many parents allow their children to see "R" rated movies before they are old enough.

It's things like this that make me glad we don't have children. Limiting exposure to this sort of thing would be so hard, even for a responsible parent, in today's society.

 

[Charley]

I haven't heard of anything that terrible here in our area.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

I live in Southern California and while we have terrible crimes on a daily basis, I haven't heard of any involving crashing parties....yet. I think Krissy said it best. I'm 29 years old and work for the school district. I can't begin to describe the disrespect I see on a daily basis by kids now days, it's such a difference from when I was in school just 11 years ago. Granted, I had friends who cussed but they would NEVER do it in front of an adult. If someone mouthed off to a teacher, you could hear gasps of shock. Now days, kids laugh because it's such a common thing. These kids get by with this stuff at their homes, so of course they aren't going to think twice about doing it at school. Parents don't enforce discipline or encourage good behavior/grades. Most of the parents don't care enough about their kids to take the iniciative. It's sad really because it's the kids and society that suffer for it.

I don't think it is video games and movies, I think it's parenting. I watched R rated movies growing up, and my brother has been playing "mature" video games since he was in his early teens. We were taught the difference between "pretend" and "real" and what was allowed in real life and what wasn't. If we mouthed off to our mom, we got back handed. If we didn't listen, we got spanked when we were younger or priviledges taken away when we were older.

Until parents step up and start teaching their children what is appropriate behavior, things are only going to get worse. With looking at how things have changed in the past 10 years, can you imagine another 10 or 20? Looks pretty bleak to me...soon no person in their right mind will want to be a teacher. It used to be alcoholics, drug adicts and bad apples that did crimes. Now days, it's kids/people who are bored, mad or just wanting to have some fun.

 

[minimule]

I agree it goes back to parenting. My mother was a housewife. She was home when I got home from school. If I did something wrong, I was punished. Not a "time out", I got the belt across the fanny.

Today's society doesn't allow parents to discipline their children the way they should be. A timeout doesn't do squat! OK so I had to spend an hour in my room alone........AND??!?!?!?!?!

The video games have desensitized kids. They think if they "bust a cap" in someone it's OK. The games have become more and more realistic to the point there is no differentiating life from fantasy. Kids today don't have that "human" connection that used to be there when we had loving, nurturing families.

TV shows also play a big part in it. The criminals feel no remorse for what they do so why should the people that imitate them? Society is in a downward spiral and it's all because of the laws and they way that our "leaders" (and I use the term very loosely) lead us.

As for the Right to Bear Arms...staunch believer here! I personally think one of the problems in Canada is that they did take away that right. The criminals have no fear of breaking into a house and being shot because the house owner isn't allowed to protect themselves in a way that would stop the perpatrator from doing it again. Here we do have Concealed carry and if you look at the trends of other states that have it, the crime rates have dropped a lot. A criminal no longer has the luxury of knowing the victim isn't armed. Now they could be and they will fight back. Our Founding Fathers were very wise men. Too bad the future generations seemed to have bred that out.

There is a movie out there that I highly recommend to everyone to watch. It's called "Idiocricy". It's supposed to be a comedy but it's scary how close to life it really is. Won't say a word about it, you have to watch for yourself.

 

[Jetiki]

here in South Carolina, if you are on your on your own property you can carry openly. You can't just willy nilly point it at people, but having it on you is not a problem, unless you are under the influence of a substance.

Karen

 

[Minimor]

The really sad thing is that now some of these punks (am I dating myself with that word?

) that have grown up having no respect for anyone or anything are now having kids of their own, & I suspect those kids are not going to be well brought up, respectful children! I do have to agree about how kids are disciplined (or not) now. We even have anti-spanking laws here now, so old fashioned punishment is pretty much against the law. Parents tend to say "my child wouldn't have done that" so instead of being made to own up to their misdeeds kids learn they can do whatever & their parents will back them up--not all, certainly, but many.

I have a friend who has two kids--she will defend those kids viciously if they are wronged, but I can assure you that she first questions her kids carefully to determine the truth--and if she learns that it was her kids that were in the wrong, she does not defend them--they have to own up to what they did, apologize for the behavior, and take whatever the punishment is. If more parents were that way, there would be more good kids in the world. Those two kids are polite, respectful, honest & just generally nice kids.

Winnipeg, 100 miles from here, has been called the car theft capital of Canada. Car theft is HUGE in that city, and the majority of the thefts are by minors. The police have a list of regular offenders that they categorize by levels--level 4 being the worst offenders. Some of these kids are stealing cars over & over again. They get caught, go to court, get reprimanded and put on probation & then they just go out & re-offend. One went to court & was found guilty of the charges against him (I don't remember those exact charges, but he was driving a stolen vehicle that collided with a taxi & killed the cab driver. That was only a couple years ago, if that--and then that same kid was the main suspect in another theft and another fatal crash, this time with a man that was on his way home from work when his car was struck--he was killed just two blocks away from his home. Some of the worst offenders wear ankle bracelets with tracking devices on them. In a more recent incident a youth stole another vehicle, even while wearing his ankle bracelet--the only good thing about that was the police were soon aware that he was in a stolen vehicle and were able to find him quickly. There are no repercussions for breaking the law over and over again.

I just don't see things getting any better unless our laws get more teeth--I think young offenders should have their names published when they are convicted of a crime, and I think their record should stick with them for awhile even after they turn 18. I think they should have to do some sort of hard time--put them to work breaking rocks in a quarry if nothing else, at least it's honest work!!