All good fun hey...
'The driver of a gritting lorry narrowly escaped injury when a snowball containing a brick crashed through the window of his vehicle.
A gang of up to 15 youths targeted the Torfaen council vehicle in freezing temperatures at Pontnewydd at 1030 GMT on Monday night.
After stepping into the road to slow it down, the gang threw snowballs - one of which contained the brick.
Council spokeswoman Christina Harrhy condemned the attack as 'mindless'.
Mrs Harrhy said: "The brick crashed through the passenger side window, covering the driver in glass.'
At least he didn't get out of his vehicle and scare the poor children involved.
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There is a footbridge near me where this happens but not with snow.
Kids think its funny to drop a stone or brick as an HGV passes to smash its windscreen. Of course it can be lethal as well.
But this happens all the year round , not just the two days there are snow.
Do you spend all day trawling the web trying to find negative stories Mr X or are you set up to automatically receive them?
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But this happens all the year round
So that makes it acceptable?...
Please answer me one thing, Bobby, and honestly if you please... if you were in that car in the first photo of that report that MrX posted a link to just how would you be feeling???????
You don't know if those snowballs contain anything other than snow, you are completely surrounded, they have even gone onto the road in front of you to slow you down and one snowball has just smashed (yes, smashed) into the windscreen right in front of you... You haven't got a clue what they intend next... what is you honest reaction... I'm honest enough to say that I'd be scared and want to get away asap... how about you?
Do you really feal that is acceptable behaviour... or bullying/mob rule?
Edited by b308 on 04/02/2009 at 10:21
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You are picking me up wrongly here, I am not saying that it is acceptable. What I am saying is that sometimes there are bad things that happen in life.
Over last couple of days there will have been literally millions of snowballs thrown and many of these at passing vehicles.
Over the year there are stones and bricks thrown at vehicles up and down the country. Its a sad reflection on today's society.
If I was in that car yes I would be upset. But I wasn't. Sames as I would be upset if I was the one that got mugged, knifed, robbed in everyday Britain etc but I am (thankfully) not.
But to start going off on one and trawling the web to try and find every remote instance of bad behaviour related to snow?
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There is no trawling involved. These incidents are easily read on both the web and in ones daily newspapers, both local and national. You don't know the make up of that object being hurled at your moving vehicle. You don't know if it is going to cause damage or cause you to take evasive action, action that could lead to lose of control .
To see people on here actually condoning the throwing of objects at moving vehicles on the basis that they know it is only snow ( how do they know ? ) is cringe worthy.
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I'm sorry that you feel that way but I feel that your posts have trivialised what is clearly unacceptable behaviour, BG, thats why I have picked up what you have said.
At the end of the day what they were doing was not acceptable... yes we've all thrown snowballs at cars/buses, etc, but we didn't gang up on the cars like that... I don't often agree with MrX but in this case he has a valid point, what those kids were doing was criminal, not "kids being kids", but obviously no-one has actually given them guidelines in their short lives to know when they cross that line between acceptable behaviour and unacceptable behaviour, perhaps seeing the arrest of one of their number may make the others realise that there are limits to what they can do.
As for the trawling the web... its car related, and highlights what can happen if unacceptable behaviour gets out of hand... if we took your view there'd be a lot less threads on here for a start... no speeding stories, crashes due to texting, using mobiles, drunk in charge, etc... all are bad behaviour!
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Its a sad reflection on today's society.
It's also a sad reflection on the outlawing of corporal punishment. Spare the rod and spoil the child still holds as true as it did in the past.
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That's what Hitler's father believed. Did little Adolf a power of good.
Nowadays we rightly see it as assault in the same way we would see it as assault if an adult were to be beaten. Why is assault acceptable if the person being assulted is under 16?
The only reason we think children are worse behaved now than in the 40s is that the Daily Mail says so.
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The only reason we think children are worse behaved now than in the 40s is that the Daily Mail says so.
Disagree. Go travel on a bus at school-time, I don't care where, and hear the foul language which they know they can get away with and accept as the norm. When I was their age the driver would have stopped the bus, kicked me off and made me walk if I'd dared do that; and if I'd complained to my parents I'd have got into trouble for doing it. Nowadays the driver would lose his job for making a kid walk, and the parents would sue the bus company.
The reason children are worse-behaved though is because they know full well that they can be, and get away with it.
This is not the same thing as saying that all kids are bad, and I don't think they are.
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Spot on in every respect Harleyman.
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The only reason we think children are worse behaved now than in the 40s is that the Daily Mail says so.
Rubbish. Material from the ONS is indicative. Many know that they can't be touched, and behave accordingly. Bad behaviour is also being translated into misbehaviour on the road.
Nowadays we rightly see it as assault in the same way we would see it as assault if an adult were to be beaten. Why is assault acceptable if the person being assulted is under 16?
"We" don't.
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"We" don't.
You don't see the beating of children as assault. You condone the beating of children. How very, very sad. Tell me why the law should protect adults from being beaten but not children. Why should grown men, physically stronger than children in every respect, be legally allowed to inflict physical pain upon them? What sort of cowards are we?
Show me a person who beats his children and I'll show you a coward. Show me a person who teaches his children right from wrong by example, without recourse to assault and battery, and I'll show you a man.
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You condone the beating of children.
No. Don't be silly. I'd quite like an aploogy, then we can get back on topic.
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Your statement "We don't" implied to me that you disagreed with me and supported the beating of children.
Apologies if I've misread you and evidently I have, could you please explain how?
There are those in this thread who do seem to be supporting it with comments like "spare the rod and spoil the child", that's quite unequivocal and quite offensive. Beat the child and create the next generation of violent idiot is nearer the truth.
I strongly believe that human behaviour changes very little over time, if at all, and every generation, once it reaches a certain age, believes the generation one or two below it are sending the world to hell in a handcart. It's evident in writing since the Middle Ages.
Bringing it back to motoring, I don't agree that the deterioration in youth behaviour which seems to be an accepted fact (not by me who very well remembers the dreadful behaviour and language of flick-knife carrying hooligans in the 70s and 80s, and in the 40s, 50s and 60s so I am reliably informed by my parents' generation) contributes to bad behaviour on the roads. Again, young men (predominantly men rather than women) have been tearing round the roads with scant regard to the safety of others since the dawn of motoring time. I believe there is increasing frustration being displayed by drivers of *ALL* ages nowadays due to the amount of vehicles on the roads, but to imply it's all young people's fault is rather odd. I am cut up a regular basis by drivers of all ages, sexes, sizes, colours, and in all types and model of vehicle.
I'm 39 and have two children, for the record
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Can one ask where the parents were when the offspring pictured were attempting to damage the motor vehicles of innocent members of the public going about their lawfull duty ?
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Mr X - you can but what is the relevance?
They might be at work, at the pub, at hospital etc.
If you mean the parents should have been with them so as to prevent this, well I don't think you will get many parents going out with their kids and their pals do you?
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Did the parents know what they were doing? Guess the answer would be "he's out with his mates".
Bromp junior's school is snowed off today. He went off at 10:00 with four mates and three sledges - didn't see him again until he came back frozen and hungry an hour ago. I'm absolutely sure they went to a site known locally as the clumps sledged, snowballed one anothner, and made tentative advances to the teenage girls doing likewise.
He's a sensible lad and so are his friends. I'm sure even if somebody got bored and proposed snowballing the M1 or the Euston railway he'd turn and come home. Others will be weaker, stupider and have far dafter and less fortunate (in terms of upbringing and a welcoming secure home) friends.
Edited by Bromptonaut on 05/02/2009 at 14:21
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You don't see the beating of children as assault. You condone the beating of children. How very very sad.
Stop being dramatic. I said the solution was a good clip round the ear from a policeman or a parent, not a beating.
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Where does a "good clip" stop and a beating begin? See it as drama if you will, but I like to stand up to bullies, especially adult ones who like to hit children.
Should coppers be allowed to clip adults round the ear 'ole for speeding? Or not wearing a seat bealt?
If no, neither should they be allowed to "clip" children for buzzing a few snowballs about or swearing on a bus (which was quite common even when the hitting of children by policemen and parents was commonplace, so I don't see how reintroducing it would help eradicate it when it has always happened).
No-one has ever been able to explain to me why it's ok to hit children, but not adults. Please rise to the challenge! You might change my mind.
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.......... swearing on a bus (which was quite common even when the hitting of children by policemen and parents was commonplace .........
If you'd lived during that era you'd know that swearing on a bus wasn't common. As Harleyman said, we'd have been turned off the bus if we'd misbehaved.
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I'm really not sure that a motoring forum is the place to be picking a fight(!!) about the rights and wrongs of bullying...back to the topic please...
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Do you think there's any chance at all that that picture was in fact set up by the cameraman? Because that's the way it looks to me.
I'm also not sure I agree with starting a thread saying 'all people throwing snowballs at cars are idiots', and then 'proving' this with a story about someone throwing a brick with snow around it.
That wasn't someone throwing a snowball - that was someone throwing a brick.
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If thats what you think, feel free to contact the Press Complaints Commission.
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If I were to contact someone everytime the Sun exaggerated, mis-stated, or simply made something up, I'd have to hire a team to assist! Most days, just reading the last 2 pages raises enough concerns that I'd have to quit my day job!
I'm afraid in this instance, I simply don't care enough.
Question though - were the photographer not in cahoots with the kids (especially these criminal, only-throwing-snowballs-because-there's-no-nearby-grannies-to-mug, kids) do you think he would be being completely ignored as is the case? Or would a substantial number of snowballs be coming his way too?
I'm quite sure that cars were indeed pelted with snowballs. But I also reckon that to get a good photo, The Sun had to engineer their own example. And having done so, the exact details of the image taken can't really be used to draw many conclusions.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 04/02/2009 at 19:01
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I'm quite sure that cars were indeed pelted with snowballs. But I also reckon that to get a good photo The Sun had to engineer their own example. And having done so the exact details of the image taken can't really be used to draw many conclusions.
More likely it was one of the kids that did the photography, they seem to take delight in boasting about their deeds these days by videoing, camera phones, etc whether it be mugging, rape or just plain vandalism.... They must have had a field day with the reporting this got...
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Now imagine the Saab driver is elderly and quite frail, or maybe 8 months pregnant.
Anybody here who doesn't think that is those circumstances it would be extraordinary intimidating? I'd hazard a guess who called the police, and I suspect it wasn't the van driver...
There's having a laugh and throwing the odd snowball, and straightforward simple intimidating behaviour.
Of course, for the Sun photo, how do we not know that the photographer encouraged all the kids to behave like that (might even be a colleague in the Saab...) to get the photo they wanted...
Two sides to every story, and we haven't even got half here!
EDIT: Snap! BazzaBear: you've obviously had dealings with the press too! ;)
Edited by TheOilBurner on 04/02/2009 at 10:33
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Back in the mid 80`s when I was predominantly working as a Social Worker in Child Care - one of the saddest cases was a ten year old acquiring a criminal record - for throwing a snowball at a car.
The other was being asked to assess and write (another) Social Inquiry Report - on a similarly aged lad who had picked a few roadside daffodils - to take home to his mother. From memory - I think that was `breach of the Wildlife and Countryside Act`
Made sure both lads had a good Solicitor (while remaining impartial in selection of course..;)
Out of hundreds of Court Reports - it`s these two I remember - no previous and from caring families (which contributed to the latter - daffodils for his Mother)
The only two requests for absolute discharges that I remember writing - but its a long time ago.
(Criminalised by conditional discharges - imposed by stone faced Magistrates and a burly Police officer giving `evidence` - in a tone seemingly reminiscent of bringing the Ripper to justice)
You should have seen the look on these poor lads faces throughout this whole process - one had wet himself on being `apprehended`
Just a thought perhaps - before `reporting` a kid for a snowball.
Edited by oilrag on 05/02/2009 at 15:44
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'You should have seen the look on these poor lads faces throughout this whole process - one had wet himself on being `apprehended`
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Glad to hear it. I'm sure a few of our elderly motorists have had similar moments when being startled by something suddenly hitting their windscreen from out of no where. Even more, it could bring on a heart attack.
Criminal damage and theft, lets use the real words for their crimes.
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Glad to hear it.
Let's use the real words for such selective petty-bourgeois hardness of heart.
On second thoughts, let's not. The filters wouldn't like it.
Edited by Lud on 05/02/2009 at 16:55
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Makes you proud to be British , doesn't it ?
'Gritting teams in the Black Country were called away from the main routes to clear road blocks made out of giant snowballs by pranksters.
Walsall Council sent officials to Barry Road, in Park Hall, and Rookery Lane, in Aldridge, on Thursday.
Councillor Adrian Andrew, deputy leader of Walsall Council, said the blockages were caused by "irresponsible yobs".
He said they had put extra pressure on the council's resources and could have blocked ambulances.
A council JCB was being sent to break up the snowballs - some of which were more than 5ft (1.5m) tall - on Thursday afternoon.'
'Pranksters ".... I don't think thats the right word some how.
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Was wondering when your next report of snow trouble was going to come along Mr X.
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to clear road blocks made out of giant snowballs by pranksters.
Nothing new. When my sister was born in the winter of 62 Mum had to be admitted to the maternity unit via a side door. Medical students had blocked the main entrance with a giant snowball and labelled it "the pill".
Edited by Bromptonaut on 05/02/2009 at 17:42
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I saw a gang of about 30 yobs hurl snowballs at the windscreen of a Millers Oils delivery truck today on the urban 30mph A611. It smashed the windscreen which was laminated, but looked like a shotgun had gone off at it and was undrivable. He stopped and got out and they ran off like a bunch of apes laughing. :(
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It is surely time for the law to be looked at in that case. The throwing of any item at a moving vehicle must be treated as attempted murder. Isn't it strange that we put these idiots through the courts if they shine a laser at a plane or put objects on a railway line yet some think that a driver in a vehicle is fair game.
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Just a thought perhaps - before `reporting` a kid for a snowball.
I think that we need to step back a moment on this... looking at that photo, if it was genuine, the behaviour I'm sure most of us would agree was unacceptable, as it looked very like a concerted attack, but throwing the odd snowball like OL has mentioned is a different thing.
I mentioned before that there is a "line" before which it can be regarded as just "harmless fun", but when that line is crossed, as I believe it was in the case reported, then it is not acceptable... Most of you who have admitted to doing it when you were kids (and that includes me) have stated that it was just the odd snowball and no harm was done... that incident looked very different to that.... If parents can't instill a sense of what is right and wrong then perhaps this is the only way... I wonder if our little angel arrested in this case "wet himself"? I somehow think not.
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I've read this thread with increasing hilarity.
It starts to snow and out come all the Victor Meldrews dutifully following the chief troll Mr X.
Attempted murder for throwing a snowball - I laughed so much I nearly choked on my tea!
The photo is staged.
The stories are all exagerated.
99.99% of the population have been out having harmless fun, only those stuck inside on the board haven't been, except of course Mr X who no doubt has been giggling at the ever increasing reaction to his trolling
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I take it I can add you to the list of people happy to have objects thrown at your car on the basis that it's all just good fun ?
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As all the interesting discussion points which can possibly be made have now been made and discussed, probably at least twice, and we're heading back towards name-calling, I've locked this.
I predict the snow will melt, at about the same time as this thread drops off the front page. I'm sure we can find something else to fret over then. :-)
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