Infuriating!!

I am infuriated! Can I tell you how screwed up our legal system is?! (I'll get to that later in the post.)

Here's the deal...
tonight Josh and I were watching TV and we hear a noise in the park...the sound of spray paint cans being shaken.

Yeah, you see where this is going...Hispanic (sorry Dru & Ben, it's the truth) punks spray painting the park! (Now, here's my disclaimer before everyone yells at me...I know that the majority of all Hispanic youth are NOT out tagging, but these troublemakers were.)

So Josh goes to the park and finds two kids sitting on a bench while 4-5 others are taking off down the path.

After a few minutes, Josh notices the graffiti on the sidewalk. He tells the 2 punks to stay where they are and yells to me to call the cops and get out there.

I head to the park and see the little pieces of @#$% sitting on the park bench (remember, I never even elude to swearing - I'm mad!). I call 911 (which didn't even notify the cops for about 10 minutes - don't even get me started on that topic!) The dispatcher could not hear me well and so I headed back to the house to see if the reception was better. So, while I am trying to get the dispatcher to stop asking the same questions over and over and over...and for her to NOT call the cops (remember, it took a while)...the kids are sitting with Josh at the park.

He kept them there for about 7-10 minutes and finally they decide they're gonna run for it. I hear Josh yelling at them "Stop!" "Get down on the ground" (he wanted them to think he had a weapon of course...which he does in the house, but can't use because the punks have "rights").

I ran out to the park to see them running down the pathway. I of course yelled at them also, but added "Josh, chase them! Don't let them get away!" Me being from safe small townville saw no problem in telling my husband to run after two young punks (who also had 4-5 more down the path somewhere) on a wooded path with absolutely no lighting. Sounds safe enough, right? Well, good thing Josh is smarter than me. He chased them a little ways and decided that more could be around the next turn.

While my maglight wielding husband is chasing the punks (that's the most polite word I can use to describe them on my blog. It's a family blog!) I run to the car to chase them. Okay, stop laughing. I know, what was I going to do. But, just go with me here. Back to me in the car chasing them...well, back up a little. As I was running through the house (on my house phone) I told the dispatcher that it was ridiculous that the cops had not gotten there yet. I told her I would call her back on my cell and I jumped in the car.

I saw a girl walking (not a trouble maker...believe me, I could tell) and asked her if she saw them. They had jumped into a truck and taken off. So, I proceeded to pursue them...yeah, again, I had no idea what I would do. I thought if I could just see the truck I could follow it and tell the dispatcher where they were going. So, I drove down a few streets but couldn't even find tail lights. I came back toward our house to FINALLY see the cops making an entrance.

Of course, me being the nice polite person I am said, "Sorry if I offend you, but why in the heck did it take you guys so long to get here?!" That's when we found out that the dispatcher didn't even notify the police until I had been on my cell with her for 3 minutes...remember, I changed to my cell when I began the vehicle pursuit (I'm trying to use technical jargon...it's not working for me). So, the whole time that we had them busted in the park the dispatcher hadn't even notified the cops! Can we say remedial training...or forced retirement? How ridiculous is that?! From the time she dispatched them to the time they actually arrived was 3 minutes. Yes, 3 minutes! They would have busted the punks if she would have only notified the cops. I am fuming at miss 911 dispatcher who thinks that she shouldn't dispatch the officers until 15 minutes after I call.

So, we came back to the house and had to give descriptions, write reports, go over the park scenario, etc. Josh was able to give AWESOME descriptions and even identified one of the idiots from a photo on the cops laptop. While we were writing our reports, the cop went to look around for more graffiti and boy did he hit the jackpot.

They had graffitied...
on the pavilion wall,
on the ceiling of the pavilion,
on the slide at the playground,
2 places on the neighbors fence,
and a few more sidewalk areas.

Here's where the frustration in the legal system lies. Guess what happens if you catch someone doing graffiti? If convicted, they get about 5-10 community hours. What kind of a joke is that? That's like my mom telling me that when I punch my brother in the face I have to be in time out for 10 seconds. I think getting to punch my brother in the face would be worth the punishment.

Here's where the frustration in the parents lie...they know it's happening. According to the police, this group of "gang" members are constantly in trouble with the police. The police are on their doorstep every other day. The parents are told multiple times that their kids are breaking the law and ruining OTHER people's property! These parents are not working 3 jobs, they just don't care or don't believe their kid is a punk. Let me tell you if my kid was caught ruining someone else's property my kid would wish the cops would have taken them into custody for protections. I would be furious!

So, now that it's almost 1 am and I'm still wired...I even swore when I was talking about them to the cop. I never swear! They made me swear tonight...now I'm even more mad! I need to calm down. That's why this is such a long post...I needed to vent.

Oh, and did I tell you that the cop told us these kids are known to carry knives, bats, crowbars, etc. So, I'm so smart to send my husband off chasing them. One of the kids that we could ID was being charged with hitting someone in the head with a crowbar. Nice!

Well, now that I've vented I feel much better. I'm just thankful that we are all safe and that hopefully we scared them away from our park. We will not watch our park taken over by spray paint wielding punks!

Sorry if I offended you, but there is nothing that makes me more mad right now that kids who have no regard for other people's property. They think they have the right to spray paint whatever they want. I hate it!

I think I will be at City Hall in the morning to see how punishment is changed, how we get lights in our park, and what else we can do.

Wish me luck!