Kick Their Ass

Printed on: Thu, Aug 02, 2007

Parents letting us, kids down

By Kelvin Wade

I can't stand to see out of control little kids in public. You've seen them. Four-year-old kids racing around a store on their Heelys like a blind Dennis the Menace, a spoiled girl doing her best Veruca Salt impersonation in a store whining about something she wants, and kids mouthing off without the fear of having been brought into this world, that they can be summarily taken out. What they have in common are indulgent, weak-willed parents who belong on one of those nanny shows on TV.

How do these kids turn out? Well, we end up reading about them in the newspaper.

On Monday night, a 16-year-old teen was shot in the leg shortly before midnight while talking with friends on Pennsylvania Avenue. The assailants, who were wearing hooded sweatshirts drawn around their faces, haven't been apprehended, but I can tell you that these kids were no picnic when they were younger.

And while no one deserves to be robbed, shot or assaulted, no one under 18 needs to be out around midnight. How many positive things happen to teenagers late at night.

Then you have three teens who tried to rob Adalberto's on North Texas Street on Monday night. One waited outside as a lookout, while the other two went in. One was armed with a handgun; the other was holding a bag. But when they couldn't get the cash registers open, the gunmen fled.

Meanwhile, the 16-year-old wannabe thug left holding the bag (literally), leapt over the counter and was greeted by a baseball bat wielding employee who proceeded to use the punk for batting practice.

This kid was so stupid he couldn't seem to grasp the concept that in an armed robbery, it's the armed part that keeps your victims at bay. When his armed cohort left, he was too dense to see that the robbery had ended. Perhaps Fairfield police explained that to him on the way to juvenile hall.

When I see these young out-of-control predators wreaking havoc on Fairfield streets that I grew up and never walked in fear on, it makes me wonder where their parents are.

I know when juveniles are arrested their identities are protected. We do that I suppose to protect the young animals hoping they'll straighten up and lead a productive life without the stigma of a public arrest. Can we at least print the names of the parents of these young troublemakers?

I know there are some parents who are at their wit's end dealing with their troublemaking kids. I know some parents are trying.

But for those who aren't, who are letting their little kids run roughshod over them and are raising the next breed of Fairfield predators, if I see your child misbehaving in public, I'm going to say something. Like the little boy who was recently running up and down the aisles at Hometown Buffet. I told him to stop running around and to go sit down. His mother was offended. I don't care.

I'm just trying to keep your undisciplined child from getting pummeled with a baseball bat in a botched robbery down the road, lady.