Someone shot out my back tire, again!

[Farmwithjunk]

Alls well that ends well, so they say. My situation has met a resolution. The "perpetrator" loaded up his bicycle (and golf club) and left for parts unknown. Word is, the reason why his parents moved on was a foreclosure. I guess they had enough troubles without me getting involved with how they raised their son. Case closed. Net results? I have 7 golf balls I didn't have prior to the incident. No real harm done, just the concern over POSSIBLE damage.

At least mine wasn't a bullet, no tires harmed, and I knew all along who I needed to watch.

Had it been flying lead instead of flying Titlest, the situation would have been handled differently.

[Redbug]

That's good FarmWithJunk. Sooner or later those type of people weed themselves out. I have noticed that if there are rentals of any sort nearby, (mobile homes, small houses), the people drift in and out, and you really have to watch your property. I just yelled at a young man 2 days ago trying to dump a load of trash next to my "No Trespassing" sign in front of my house!

I think the bottom line in this whole thread is: We mind our own business, don't infringe on others, and still we are inflicted by the actions of people who "just do not get it". Our proud country is slowly eroding, and moral values are decaying. It will only get worse as the demographics change...

I'm stepping off my soapbox now...

[ccsial]

Originally Posted by Redbug

Sooner or later those type of people weed themselves out.

More likely they tend to practice immoral sex and propagate more of themselves.

[markmc]

Originally Posted by ccsial

More likely they tend to practice immoral sex and propagate more of themselves.

regular sex will do that too

[PaulChristenson]

Originally Posted by ccsial

More likely they tend to practice immoral sex and propagate more of themselves.

Rent Idiocracy...It is right to the point...
Idiocracy (2006)

[2manyrocks]

About 9-10% of the school age kids in my rural county have been involved in juvenile court for one reason or another. In the neighboring rural county, the probation office told they were supposed to be supervising about 500 adults on misdeameanor charges, and they couldn't find half of them to lock them up for not showing up for probation meetings. The county criminal records aren't linked from county to county. So it is possible for an individual offender to commit an offense in one county and do the same thing in the next county without the sentencing judges (each county has its own) knowing they are dealing with a repeat offender. I won't try to go into our local arrest rates, but they show a progressive increase each year since about 1990 and the bulk of it is drug or alcohol related. The overwhelming majority of kids in protective care of the state come from families with drug or alcohol issues. Used to be that an orphanage was full of orphans. Now they are full of kids the state has taken from their parents for abuse or neglect. So getting your tire shot out is a reflection of much, much larger interrelated problems that have spread out even into rural communities.

[CDsdad]

I think 9-10% juvenile troublemakers would be high in the area where I live.

Around here, you're lucky if the law knows where you live, or unlucky depending on who you are. Regardless, we tend to handle our own troubles.

There HAVE been shots fired on my property, and it wasn't target practice, though I guess I need to since I missed. What'd the law say? Should've got him, he was under your carport and that works for us.

The point is kids AND parents around here know that people will shoot first and talk about it later. Tends to make them think before they do. Is it right? I don't know. Does it work? Seems to, and a lot of people are like me. I know I wouldn't snoop around anybody's house, day or night.

[2manyrocks]

I took the juvenile court reports and compared them with the public school enrollment records. It came out to about 9.6%. Mostly age 12 and up. It is a high figure and that's the concern. I think most people would be shocked if they looked into the numbers in their area. Your public officials may not make it convenient for you to find the numbers, either, and don't particularly like people asking too many questions.

Where can you find out how a judge ruled in a particular juvenile case and why? It's protected from disclosure to protect the juvenile's future. So a bad judge can make one bad decision after another unless somebody gets mad enough to go public about the judge's handling of a situation in a particular case. If you don't succeed in getting the judge ousted, then woe is you if you ever find yourself before that judge in another case.

Unless it has been changed by statute in your area, the common law rule is that you can use deadly force only to protect your life or the life of another person. Deadly force cannot be used to protect a mere property interest. The application of the rule largely depends on local prosecutorial discretion. If your shoot and there's a body to account for, you might encounter a different attitude and certainly many more questions.

In the major metro area about 60 miles from here, the prosecutor presents self defense shootings to the grand jury and let's them decide whether it was self defense or not. Someone might have been perfectly justified in shooting, but whether he ends up being criminally prosecuted for it depends on the outcome of the grand jury deciding if there is reason to believe a crime was committed. That's not a comfortable position to be in.

I agree there are places where common sense says a person is taking chances going on another person's property at night uninvited which deters some people from taking those chances. But as soon as somebody's kid gets shot, his family will all say he was a saint, and the shooter needs prosecuting.

But it comes back to this. If these families were raising their kids with appropriate self-discipline, the families, the kids and the rest of us would be far better off.

[Tig]

I've had great luck with talking to the bored delinquents. Not necessarily to confront them or get justice but to get to know them and for them to know me. I've been at their doors at midnight and sometimes I'll stop while driving by them late at night. I listen to their lame lies about what's going on and then if their is a particular issue I'm concerned with I ask the young citizen to report any suspicious behavior to me. Coaching little league and working odd hours in the past has helped me keep a high profile with the kids. There have been incidents, some of which ticked me off. I've always been able to figure out who I need to talk to. Over the years most of the local nonsense has bypassed my property.

[Skyco]

Originally Posted by 2manyrocks

Where can you find out how a judge ruled in a particular juvenile case and why? It's protected from disclosure to protect the juvenile's future.

I may have some details wrong but recently some serious juvenile offenders escaped from prison in NC. Because they were juveniles the state couldn't release the names or descriptions of who they were looking for Kind of makes it hard to be on the lookout for escaped prisoners when you don't know what they look like......