359 Degrees

If someone thinks this is dangerous they were seriously deprived as a teenager.  Toilet paper and a plastic bottle bomb ( shrapnel?) is nothing to get your panties in a knot over.  I think the word "tight ass" is a good way of describing someone who does think that this is  dangerous :)

I don't think it's particularly dangerous, but it's annoying and unnecessary. It's happened to me many times and I called the police every time. Twice it was eggs on the side of my home and cost me money to repaint. Do we really need this? Do people, other than the commenter above, really think this is funny? It was never fun or funny to me.

Anyone who thinks a plastic bottle bomb is harmless fun is either stupid, naive or both. Just because they are made using simple household products doesn't make then any less dangerous. Remember, other "things" can be added to a bottle bomb to make them highly dangerous (I'll leave that to your imagination).  It's criminal.  Period.

Mick- just curious, did you do something to deserve getting egged so many times ?

Scott's reply:

Are you sure you want to go there?  The idea that victims "deserve" to be injured, suffer financial loss, etc. while the perpetrators (that means criminals who haven't been caught) are just having fun doesn't seem like a well thought through idea.

I think the egging and bottles are a serious nuisance that should be prosecuted. The traffic through a private yard should be kept to a minimal also(maybe a two pole cedar fence like some have and are allowed as decoration despite no fence laws in Brookfield would decrease traffic, or planting bushes to make an effective fence?).  I dislike the TP-ing as much as most, but the fact is for kids today it means you are Popular if you get TP-ed. It is a prank that I would not be happy to have done to my house or yard, but for the most part it isn't the mean-spirited prank it was in the past. Egging and toxic bottles would fall under mean spirited prank though. Some of my 'popular' high school age relatives from Tosa have been TP-ed often, time one of but never 'Egged' or 'bottled'.

Are these two different events?  I would guess the TP-ing was meant as a harmless type of prank, while the toxic bottle was meant as an attack on the homeowner, maybe for confronting kids who are traveling over their yard?  If so, the later should be treated as a serious incident since it could quickly lead to an escalation of some type.  

Kids walk through my lot sometimes and we never care, except one them was walking through, talking on the phone, and for whatever reason grabbed the largest branch of a small tree we had recently planted and pulled it as far as he could while he walked, thankfully it did not break, but my wife laid into him, she did tell him he can walk through anytime he wants, but at least be careful and courteous. Thankfully we were not bottle bombed the next day!

The relative merits of various explosive devices aside, the danger here would seem to be that you have a number of adolescent kids running around at literally all hours of the night (They're doing their sleeping in school.), and making the kinds of ill-advised choices that kids can sometimes make - including about what kinds of things they ingest.  It's merely a matter of time before someone gets hurt or worse.  Then no doubt there will be great wringing of hands, as people wonder, "Why didn't somebody DO something about this?"

Of course, what to do is problematic as long as enough people have the same attitude as Brookfield 1947.  Until the adults in the community all decide to act like adults, why should the kids?

Nope, just curious

The old timers used to say that a man's home was his castle. Today I think a psychologist might update that thought by suggesting that a man's home is his vagina, and whenever it's violated, so is he.

It should not happen. Yet kids will always be kids when left to their own devices.

Can the city afford the resources to impose a 6 PM curfew for kids eighteen and under? Or do each of us need to sit at an upstairs window all night, long gun in hand chuck full of bird shot?

What's your suggestion, Scott?

Scott's reply:

I wonder if fellow blogger and former municipal judge Dick Steinberg would care to comment?  I'll ask him.

Here is the city ordinance covering curfew.  The section on attending church was added three years ago in response to a court ruling in another city.

9.32.010 Loitering of minors.

Being a kid, or a young adult as some would describe children does not give them the excuse to do stupid, disgraceful, property damaging activities. Some may giggle at the TP thing, I don't ,the mess is there for a long time. For the most part I would have to say 99 % of the people that live in our area have pride in there homes. For the neighbors to have to put up with the TP trees is un called for . The bomb thing does have its rewards how ever.

I know of one brookfield young adult who got his reward for his lack of IQ and lost sight in one of his eye's for doing the mail box thing a few years ago. I felt it was a great lesson that was learned instantly, had to pay for the mail box also of course. Just one of many that have not been repaired or replaced by other vandals. The one eyed mail box villan is now a fireman saving life and property as a living. Lesson well learned wouldn't you say.

Brookfield1947: Just curious. In your mind, what would a Brookfield homeowner need to do to "deserve" having his home vandalized?

Larry, if every one of us had to pay the price of an eye for doing something stupid in life, you'd be the only one among us having two eyes. Then you could really gloat, couldn't you?

Scott's reply:

The other question is what if the (apparently deserving) mailbox owner had opened it and lost his eye in the explosion?  The kid could have kept quiet and perhaps gotten away with it.  The victim would have been permanently maimed and learned .. what?  Would Larry be so smug then?

bottom line is that kids will be kids and no law will stop kids from being kids.  get over it and move on to a relevant topic

B1947,

That 'kids will be kids' is an undeniable truth, but it is as far from the 'bottom line' as your shallow comments are from the majority.

Brookfield1947 comments pretty much sum up the attitude that's provided for our moral decay over the last generation.  Glad to see h/she's in the minority here.

Scott's reply:

Thanks M.R. BrkfldDad.  Last fall I offered to meet you for a cup of coffee to discuss city issues.  Please contact me if you're still interested.