Wild and Crazy Kids (W. MA. version)

"Wild and Crazy Kids" was a show on Nickelodeon in the mid 1990's but the title to this piece is referring to kids in Ludlow, Palmer and Ware.

Lets first go to Ludlow. Patrick Taylor, who is 17 and from Ludlow, was charged "with assault on a police officer, assault and battery with dangerous weapon, rocks and malicious damage to a police car..."(Suzanne McLaughlin, The Republican via Masslive.com). He was arrested after police arrived at Highland Avenue, where they observed 15 teens in the street arguing about "betting". A juvenile teen was also arrested for throwing rocks at a police car. If in fact all the teens were "betting", then everyone should have been arrested for gambling; it is illegal in Massachusetts and none of these kids were over 21. However, the "betting" story doesn't seem to be plausible. Whatever started the incident is minor when compared to what happened. When the police showed up, at least 2 kids decided it would be a good idea to throw rocks at the police cars. So, to complement the "betting" or whatever other illegal activities were going on before the police came to the scene, these kids allegedly throw rocks at an officer and vandalize the cruiser. The only thing I can think of is a scene in the Middle East, where Palestinians are throwing rocks or whatever they can grab at Israeli tanks rolling through their villages. There is a major difference though between these two situations. White kids assaulting police officers, allegedly, is much different than a religious, philosophical, territorial strife between two ethnicities. The difference is these kids in Ludlow are idiots. The "riot" on Sherman St. in Springfield didn't have people throwing rocks at the police.

A neighboring town to Ludlow, Palmer is also a place where the kids have gone crazy. One of the top stories of yesterday's news was of the 16 year old boy who started 2 fires that left two house severely damaged. He admitted to committing the crime and for his honesty, so it seems, he wasn't put in 'cuffs and stuffed in a cell somewhere. How does a teen commit two counts of arson and get out of jail the same day? I don't know whether this boy was even arrested or not. If he was arrested he should have been in jail until at least this morning. The police probably shouldn't let criminals go immediately after they have just committed a serious crime or it could send a mixed message. Also, 16 year old kids shouldn't be trying to go Human Torch on people's property. Hypothetically, if this had happened in California, there could have been a massive wildfire that ensued. I'm sure some of the wildfires in California started from something smaller than lighting 2 family dwellings on fire.

Finally, lets move to Ware. Where? Ware. The biggest news story out of Ware this summer has been the death of Vanessa L. Kotowski. She was a passenger in the vehicle of Amanda L. King, of Hardwick. Ms. King was allegedly drunk driving when she hit a utility pole. As a result of the crash, an insulator was broken and electric currents were running from the pole to the ground. When Ms. Kotowski stepped out of the vehicle, she was electrocuted to death. For the purposes of this piece, Ms. King is not a kid or even a teen but she is still younger than me and her behavior cannot and should not be excused. First, Ms. King was illegally drinking alcohol; she is not 21. Second, she got behind the wheel of a motor vehicle which was another crime. Third, she had an accident and because of the 3 acts of negligence she perpetrated beforehand, her friend and passenger died. The accident happened on June 23, 2008. She was officially charged on July 2nd, more than 1 week later. Ms. King's first court date was on July 11, 2008, almost 3 weeks later. As of July 2nd, she was only charged with DUI. It wasn't until the court date on July 1th where she was charged with vehicular homicide. How does someone, even inadvertently or involuntarily, kill someone and not have to be locked up even for a few hours? Having an open container of alcohol in Springfield will get you a trip to Pearl Street. Vehicular homicide, drunk driving and arson in Ware and Palmer gets you nothing but time to get your story straight or summons to voluntarily come to court; there are some people we certainly can't have in jail.