Morning Brew: February 27th, 2008

I think Russell Peters said it best..."Folks, sometimes you gotta beat your kids"

I am outraged. I wish I could do something, but he's right, what if they had a weapon? It is ridiculous, I see more and more kids being obnoxious and whatnot all the time. Just this past Saturday, during a very long ride on the Queen Streetcar (there was so much traffic, it took about 45 minutes to make it from Bathurst to Sherbourne) there were young teenage girls (no more than 13 or so) with two younger boys (about 10 or 11). They were shouting, screaming, pushing all over the streetcar. Maybe they were just having fun... but you never know.
This just went overboard, though.

nice surprise for cities? please, its a pitiful amount. The included the bar minimum of city funding, to silence the urban complainers, and so they can call it a "green" budget.

Green budget? STOP OVER USING THE WORD GREEN

Unruly kids in public spaces should be disciplined(how.. that is another topic). If they have a problem with their punishment then maybe they should behave on transit like everyone else.

I'm sure I am not alone in having seen this behaviour on TTC subway cars, streetcars and buses, outside schools, in malls, at shows and on the street.

Kids behave that way when they know there are no consequences.

There are no consequences because their parents have been fooled into believing that punishment is abuse, typically by individuals who have never (successfully) raised children themselves.

someone stand up and smack those kids around, that'll keep them quiet.

I was on the Subway going South to St.George on Saturday and a trio of young teenage girls were SCREAMING, swearing, pushing eachother, running up and down the streetcar. People were getting off at stops and switching subway cars to avoid them. Everyone was too polite to say anything.

Regarding the budget: The headline from the Globe and Mail says "Small Change for Tighter Times".

Actually it should read Small Change from Penny-Ante Flaherty.

I am similarly sceptical about Peterborough's priority - especially since it gives a shot in the arm to paving over Pickering for an airport - but it might open the way for a northern VIA route to Ottawa which would be great for when the Lakeshore line has disruptions.

This is absolutely repulsive and disgusting. The parents of these kids (I know, good luck finding them) should be jailed and these kids put in boot camp.

From the article: "She started yelling at the man. She called him a pedophile and a racist." Well, that answers that. Clearly, this wouldn't have happened if afri-centric schools were in place now, right? Right?

How about we get a little perspective here on what "kids" are? These individuals, regardless of age, assaulted a person and made false accusations of rape. They deserve the consequences prescribed for their actions. But all kids don't do that. Most kids don't do that. 95% of kids don't do that.

When a story is published about one incident, that shouldn't provide license to cranks every to take out the largest paint brush they can find and begin describing all 10-18 year olds. And if you can justify doing that, you just better hope that every time an 18-65 year old does something stupid we don't all get blamed for it.

"The parents of these kids (I know, good luck finding them) should be jailed and these kids put in boot camp." Sounds exactly like an episode of Maury Povitch.

I am skeptical of all this talk of kids needing beatings. I suspect children with parents who beat them are more likely to grow up to be "bad apples".

Either way, calls for violent retribution seem hasty. I'd like to see some statistics about crime rates between children who were physically disciplined and those who weren't.

These kids are just bored. A lot of kids who do stupid things are bored. A lot of them also don't get enough, or any, attention from their parents. They're often alone from the time they get out of school until at least 6 or 7 p.m. five days a week. During those three or four hours they do stuff like this, or sit on MSN talking about how "gay" their teachers are, or watch videos of people beating each other up on YouTube, or things like "Two Girls, One Cup."

An entire generation of kids like this exists in our society, and no one thinks it's a problem nor do they have any idea about how to solve it. Most of them won't commit violent acts, but a lot of them are obnoxious, inappropriate and have no idea how to act in public.

The kid accused a stranger of being a rapist and the kid's friend bloodied the stranger up because the kids were bored? That about as overgeneralized as overgeneralizing can get, isn't it?

If the guy had raised his voice and got in the kids face then they would of folded faster then Superman on laundry day. Being a tough punk kids is an image, call there bluff.

I remember that back in the '50s and '60s, a streetcar or bus driver would demand the students' transit ID card. The driver would stop the vehicle and that would put the weight on the students to surrended their cards. No cards, no vehicle movement.

That person would have to claim it back--along with an explanation--at the principal's office the next day. Meanwhile, the rest of the ride would be under the gaze of passengers' dirty looks.

Just a couple days ago, I rode on a bus which received about 20 students--all less than teenagers. Not one of the boys would stand up to let any lady sit down and no person was helping to keep the conversations quieter. Believe me, I heard some shrill voices on the rest of that ride.

Would someone direct me to the burial grounds of common courtesy? I'd like to try and exhume it.

504 eastbound this morning, at Dufferin. Crowded. Male passenger berates woman with multiple f-words for not moving back, even though the woman is traveling with a small (smiling) child. The male is in his 30s and dressed for Bay Street. It ain't just punk-ass teenagers who have lost sight of how to treat people.