In the street last night
My wife told me that a gang of youths were making their way down our street last night (before 3.00 in the morning), kicking wing mirrors off all the cars one side of the road and vandalising bins as they went. A student from a flat across the road was so outraged that he burst out of the house wearing only his pyjama bottoms and hared down the road after the gang. He seized one of the boys and dragged him back to his garden, followed by two girls from the gang who were trying to persuade him to let the boy go. My wife reckons the boy from the gang was about 20, and she saw him burst into tears and say that he hadn't done any of the vandalising and now he'd get all the blame. The student had his parents with him, and they called the police.
My wife told me the boy and the two girls from the gang seemed quite ordinary - not drugged up, high, or drunk. The girls were quite articulate: unfortunately my wife is suffering from some throat infection so I haven't got the full details of what they said to the student, but it seems they believed that the vandalism harmed no one since it could all be claimed on insurance. Of course they had no idea that those claiming their insurance would have their car insurance hiked up as a result. The student further told them that even if their friend was innocent he was a witness and could identify who had done the vandalism all along the street.
We have quite a few students living on our street. I remember from my time at university how much hatred there was for students from people who lived on the estate nearby. There was an incident when I was in the university library one afternoon: about three boys came up and started shoving piles of books off the shelves. I was so angry I got up and told them to leave. They half-heartedly challenged me, but I simply told them: 'I'm waiting for you to leave.' My voice was reasonably level but they would have heard my anger in it. They left, one boy defiantly shoving a pile of books off the shelf as he walked away.
Back to last night: my tentative theory is that those vandals were just taking their childish hatred of the 'haves' on our street. Of course their essential cowardice is shown up by the boy being abandoned by the rest of the gang except for the two girls who attempted to stick up for him.
My wife told me the boy and the two girls from the gang seemed quite ordinary - not drugged up, high, or drunk. The girls were quite articulate: unfortunately my wife is suffering from some throat infection so I haven't got the full details of what they said to the student, but it seems they believed that the vandalism harmed no one since it could all be claimed on insurance. Of course they had no idea that those claiming their insurance would have their car insurance hiked up as a result. The student further told them that even if their friend was innocent he was a witness and could identify who had done the vandalism all along the street.
We have quite a few students living on our street. I remember from my time at university how much hatred there was for students from people who lived on the estate nearby. There was an incident when I was in the university library one afternoon: about three boys came up and started shoving piles of books off the shelves. I was so angry I got up and told them to leave. They half-heartedly challenged me, but I simply told them: 'I'm waiting for you to leave.' My voice was reasonably level but they would have heard my anger in it. They left, one boy defiantly shoving a pile of books off the shelf as he walked away.
Back to last night: my tentative theory is that those vandals were just taking their childish hatred of the 'haves' on our street. Of course their essential cowardice is shown up by the boy being abandoned by the rest of the gang except for the two girls who attempted to stick up for him.
posted by Pierre at 7:54 AM
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