the reward

  Once again, the illegal dirt bike riders have returned to the streets of Baltimore. Stolen dirt bikes resold on the streets and ridden by groups of people from the ages of 13 to forty according to the police. In some cases, thirty or forty bikes in a pack racing down the streets, weaving in and out of traffic, performing wheel stands and generally creating a hazard to motorists and pedestrians alike. Video has been shown of these street riders circling the police cars and laughing at the police. Another video shows the police just standing there watching, doing absolutely nothing. And the decry is, what can we do?

 And once again, the answer is, these people need services. The city should build them a facility, a place to ride their illegal bikes in a safe manner. They are mostly low-income children and have nowhere else to go. Low-income children that all seem to be able to afford to buy a dirt bike or steal one. They have money for gas, tires and maintenance on those bikes and four wheelers. But the taxpayers should fund a facility for them! Another plan calls for a "training" facility where they can learn to work on those bikes, you know, learn a trade, they could practice on the stolen bikes! Now that's a win-win situation. 

 Last year they had the issue with the squeegee kids on the street corners. Surprise, they are back again this year. Last year the plan was to simply pay them to not stand on the street corners. And the city did just that. A group of those "eligible" the ones that were causing the majority of the problems on specific street corners were paid to not go there. They took that money and moved to another corner. Yeah, a plan that really worked, not. Some took the money and stayed right on the corner they were in the first place. But that's the thinking, if you are doing something illegal, creating a public nuisance, endangering others or creating unsafe conditions, reward you for that. We should provide services. 

 I will say that some progress has been made regarding juvenile justice. New laws have been made requiring some form of punishment for juveniles. The biggest change was not allowing convicted rapists to attend public schools! Oh, that was met with stiff opposition. The cries of how unfair that would be went up, those children would be denied an education, not allowed to be with their peers and face years of stigma just because they had raped other juveniles. But the law passed, the schools are required to provide alternative learning to those students, like online school, like during the pandemic. Additionally, parents can now be held accountable for their children's actions. I thought that was always the case but apparently it was not. Of course, if the parents fail to pay the fine nothing will happen to them. You can't separate parents from children in any way. And the truth is simply this, you can't get blood from a stone.

 And now, like in many cities across America, little gangs of thugs are robbing stores. Groups are going into the 7-11's or whatever, grabbing whatever they want, filling their cups up with fountain drinks, and generally overwhelming the clerks. They take whatever they want and simply walk out. And the answer to that is, these kids need services. We should build them entertainment centers, provide them with counseling and guidance. They would all be model citizens if they had a choice! It's not their fault! It's because of decades of systemic oppression and lack of opportunity. The kids are simply bored. We should be entertaining them.

 And so, what do you do? Well, I wish I had that answer, but I don't. I do know that as long as you keep rewarding them for bad behavior, the bad behavior will continue. When a child throws a tantrum, you can't give in to that. Spare the rod and spoil the child is a biblical adage. You know it doesn't mean hit them with a rod, right? No, that isn't the advice being given there. What the advice really is saying is, there has to be negative consequences to create positive results. Yes, punishment works! Oh, I know there are plenty of those today that like to claim otherwise, saying that punishment doesn't alter behavior, but I strongly disagree with that notion. As quite a few memes on Facebook point out, it is clear to see that the "talk to them generation" clearly isn't as well behaved as the "I got my butt wacked" generation. Dr. Spock, not the one from star trek, was wrong. You can't reason with a five-year-old or a teenager! 

 I think I am starting to see a shift, however. A bit of waking up to the truth. There really does have to be consequences for your actions. Rewarding people for bad behavior doesn't really change that behavior. Imagine that. It's quite a revelation for some, a stark reality. You mean I can't just cry about it and get my way? The pendulum is swinging and hopefully starting its' way back to reason and common sense.   Consequences need to be immediate, certain and predictable. You do this, and this is what happens. Ignorance of the law is no excuse! Another adage comes to mind, one I heard quite often, " you know better" and I did. Whenever I got punished it was because I knew better but decided to do it anyway. I learned my lesson, though I admit frequent reminders were necessary. The important part was in learning the lesson, that was the reward, not getting punished. That's how it worked when I was a kid anyway.