I sure wish I could get my hands on them. We really need to bring back corporate punishment. We never would have tried this when we were kids. We'd of been harshly punished both at home & at school. A lot of the kids now a days don't have any respect for the law or people. They think they can just do what they want, when they want to and to whomever they want to. I sure hope the little guys ok.

Corporal punishment.
Corporate punishment is when your rival gets the corner office instead of you.
What an unfortunate group of teenagers though.
They should be gathered together for a group hug, and given money for food.
The poor dears are probably just hungry, and since they most likely did not have any involvement from their parents growing up, they lack the social skills, and only know how to hunt in packs for their meals.
Spineless. Gutless. Sociopathic.
metalman.

Corporal punishment. Do you want these kids to change their behavior because they are afraid of getting a beating? Or because they have a change of heart...and genuinely want to do the right thing?

I would hope we could progress from " Oh I shouldn't rob this kid and slap him around because I might get a beating" to "Why would I want to hurt this kid?"

Beatings are easy to give and will gain instant, temporary results. Teaching a child to love and respect others. That takes more effort.

What a traumatic experience for the 10 year old and his mother.

The parents of these youths in question must be very proud of their offspring.

'The poor dears'...what a joke! Their brats that need to punished. Just think about it. I'm sure you'd all be singing a different tune if it was your 10 year old that they hurt.

Moses, what do you suggest until society does change?

Mythoughts, metalman was being highly sarcastic.

These thugs need a wake up. That poor kid and his family -- geez, a fun evening out in the park and they get this. Think they'll go back?

Sadly, they won't even be caught, let alone dealt with, whatever that may mean.

Thanks noisy. I missed that. I'm just so furious that this happened to that little 10 year old. Sorry metalman. I re-read your post & see it now.

Hmm. Mythoughts, methinks you missed the sarcasm. For myself, the tune I am singing is that the addled teenagers who shook down the ten year old are a waste of skin, at least right now. I hope that they eventually become mature, productive citizens, but won't be holding my breath waiting for that to happen. Although I do normally support corporal punishment as a means of correction, I find myself agreeing with the (real) Moses. Subjecting the teenagers to a beating for what they did to a little boy is probably not going to stop them from doing it again to another child in the future. Instead, it may actually re-inforce their skewed perception of the world as they travel down that wrong path they have chosen.
Violence begats violence. Look no further than the middle east or northern Ireland for examples of that axiom. Remove the teenagers from their current circumstances, put them in a strictly supervised work camp for month on the first offense. Two months for the second offense, unless the crime is worse. Four months, sixteen months and so on. Make work camp an unpleasant place to live, no privileges like coffee or smokes, cold showers once a week, live in tents, wear pink clothing, and hard work every day. Refuse to work and you don't get fed.
How am I doing so far?
metalman.

Wow rob a kid geez how sick eh

Maybe we need to spend more money on Aboriginal outreach programs in the schools. Clearly, these youth need a gentle hand to guide them on the proper path. The parents probably could use some fundamental skills training, so they can identify and correct the childrens misbehavior. Lets all pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, to show these children the way, and hopefully they will turn themselves in. Jesus be praised.

that what happens when u shutdown the pg hotel,now they find different parts of the city to hang out. fortt george psrk

It is not just this that is scary. What about the women who was beaten beyond recognition and raped in a park? What about the woman who was drug by the hair to a vehicle shortly after? She managed to get away but.... Not one thing has been said about these since and no arrests have been made. We need to all face the fact that Prince George is not a safe place and be more aware for ourselves and our children.

The population is decreasing in PG and I do not blame that on just the smell of the place.

Simon, come on pray to Jesus for these thugs? Pray to a jewish Zombie who is his own father, that can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul, that is present because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree???? ya that makes total sense!

This brings back memories of delivering the Progress newspaper along George St in the mid sixties. The Paquette clan always knew when collection day was, and regularly tapped me for a pocketful of change.

Reevus I was leaning towards atheism. Until a friend and I were talking and he said that it would of been impossible for two babies raise themselves on the planet. So it had to of been God put to adults on Earth at the same time in the Garden to make the choice to eat fruit that God said not to. That made me rethink that what is said in the Bible is true. Also some stories in the Bible are happening today. Just a thought.

Have to head er to work today have a good afternoon all.

My Thoughts: If it was my kid who was robbed/attacked, I would be in such a rage that I would not be the one who could objectively deal with the situation. Of course at the moment I would do everything I possibly could to protect my child.

Boomer: No one person can change society, but we can all make a difference in a kids life. Help out a single mom, be a Big Brother or Big Sister, sponsor a kid to go to camp, or play soccer, or hockey. Kids change for the better not because they get corporal punishment, but because someone cares for them.

Metalman: I agree that the freedom of violent youths should be limited until they can prove themselves to be trustworthy with their freedom. But it's not about punishment as much as it is about protecting society from harm, and giving the troubled person an opportunity to change their ways. That "opportunity" should last as long as it takes to achieve the goal.

I have a problem when they say at a parole hearing that a person has paid their debt to society. Being incarcerated is not paying a debt to society. What one does after they get out is how you repay your debt to society. We all have a debt to society...that is paid by contributing in such a way to make society better.

I like the camp idea.

Great idea for the camp.

where are the parents of these punks.
kids need boundries and punishment for going beyond those boundries....Sick
I agree with metalman boot camp all the way
parents of kids like this should get the comunity service and parenting skills course too
because we all know kids have to learn this behavior from somewhere

Is called Drugs , and what people will do to get money for the curse. Prince George is welcomeing in these people with all the services we are providing even for SEX OFFENDERS, read the paper today page 3. We even have a BIG VAN driving around this area giving out needles, maybe even to the DRUG DEALERS to sell.

"where are the parents of these punks?

-Begging for your change downtown.

I don't read anything about drugs in this story bitter; you must have read a different story. All we have here are a group of bored kids who don't know right from wrong. We can blame people until we're blue in the face but assigning blame seldom solves the problem.

Maybe we should wait until the robbers are found before speculating on what their problem is? Maybe they are just bored sociopaths. Maybe they are drug addicts. Maybe they are street kids. We don't know yet.

WHAT I do know is this child will be affected for the rest of his life and the bored kids will go on to bully some other child, and the Bleeding Hearts will make excuses for them.

Not to downplay the incident, but from personal experience I have learned that if you are bullied and beaten up as a child, you will not necessarily be scarred for the rest of your life. In my case, I grew up being bullied by the bigger 'tougher' kids in our tough neighbourhood.
When we moved away, and I started attending a school where no one knew me, I resolved to never allow bullies to pick on me again, and it worked. You have to learn to push back, earn their respect. One side effect though; to this day, I really really hate bullies.
metalman.

This was a 10 year old up against 5 or 6 teenagers , this was bulling on a large scale. Bleeding Hearts do not make excuses for them.

Anyone that was raised in PG knows that this is an endless cycle. There are the tough kids, the ones that always pick on the others. They get into fights at the PG X, in the park, on the street, in the school field, wherever kids hang out. The newer generations of the same old families that behaved this way when I was in school. Tons of kids in each family, drunk or cracked out parents.... It goes on and on.

Its not about drugs yet, but in a couple of years the gangs will be looking good to the little thugs.

Black and white thinking is so much easier than really exploring all the complicated reason's for behaviour and the flaws of society. Hence why politicians use band-aids!