Impetus: teen vandals jump all over business owner’s car and effectively cause expensive damages, run away, are not caught, and of course are completely unaccountable for their actions
I come across stories like this one, and really the only thing that springs to mind are justice fantasies that typically involve perpetrators getting shot. I’m not saying I want people killed for petty vandalism, but I’m not going to shed a tear if some teenage punks get shot in the legs, and incur some pain and suffering, for the obvious suffering they feel the need to incur onto others with their own stupid decisions to vandalize. Seriously, I can’t say I would be the least bit scared at all if a vigilante with a rifle were on top of the roof of the business and shot the leg of the alpha vandal, incapacitated him until the police arrived, but instead trumpeting the ironic victory of a worthless little shit getting his just desserts instantaneously.
Back to reality however, it’s stories like this that sometimes makes me feel disenchanted with modern society, where people are so bored and have so little respect and lack of regard for other people, that out of boredom, they resort to petty vandalism like this. I don’t really care much for firearms, but I can’t say that I would really be upset if the owner of the business and the vehicle came outside to see teenage punks ruining his shit, and so he pulled out a gun and shot one or more of them. The drawback to this is that in today’s society, somehow the shopkeeper would be persecuted and/or frowned upon for using a perceived excess of force, merely for defending his property.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this train of thought, or if I want to put into writing things that might be used against me in future conversations or interactions, but I thought back to while I was in Mexico on vacation a few years ago, and during the long ride from Cancun to Riviera Maya there were several checkpoints for varying reasons. At every single one of these checkpoints, were numerous military and/or police men, and every single one of them was packing serious heat. As in tactical shotguns, submachine guns, and at least two assault rifle. This was in broad daylight, with palm trees and within the visual confines of beach paradise all around.
I guess what I’m getting to is that maybe if there were more armed officers just scattered around the place, like shopping centers like the one where this poor shopkeeper had his car literally trampled on, maybe there wouldn’t be so many crooked little thug vandals running around actually doing crooked little thug vandal things. Sure, this opens up a completely different can of worms with stuff like there being lethal firearms all over the place, the questionable reliability of said officers carrying said lethal firearms, and society perhaps turning into a military police state or something along those lines, but as far as this story is concerned, it would certainly be nice if there were more effective ways of deterring asshole teenagers from pulling shit like this, and getting away with it scot free on top of it all.
Because sometimes it feels that societal rules have gotten to a point where punishment is so delayed and lacking, that it nurtures a culture where there are people who are completely unafraid to commit acts of crime like petty vandalism, and subsequently are successful at getting away with it and are held unaccountable for their actions. I’m not saying we need to go back to the dark ages and start killing people for stealing loafs of bread, but I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t be nice if there were some people that were made examples that crime doesn’t pay.
