[Osx-nutters] A Police state

[Christian Brunschen]

On Aug 2, 2006, at 2:24 AM, Matt Johnston wrote:

> To be honest, when I started reading this I thought it was about  
> some insane dry county in Alabama.
>
> But no...it's the West Midlands in the UK.
>
> Story is about 3 12-year-olds who were arrested, DNA tested and  
> searched.

To be fair, these children were in the process of breaking branches  
off a tree in a public area; i.e., engaging in a form of vandalis:

<quote>

Officers told the children they had been seen damaging the tree which  
is in a wooded area of public land near their homes.

Questioned by police, the scared friends admitted they had broken  
some loose branches because they had wanted to build a tree house,  
but said they did not realise what they had done was wrong.

  </quote>

I find the fact that these children didn't realise that what they  
were doing (breaking branches off trees, i.e., damaging public  
property) was wrong to be somewhat chilling, and suggests that the  
parents (who are all upset that the police 'overreacted') perhaps  
didn't sufficiently teach their children to be respectful of other  
people's property.

> <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html? 
> in_article_id=397240&in_page_id=1766&in_page_id=1766&expand=true>

// Christian Brunschen