Parents and politicians dismiss violence and robbery as ‘just kids being kids’
After thousands of people — mostly young men — trashed cars and Union Square all because a social-media influencer said he was going to give away a PlayStation, Mayor Adams asked the logical question:
Where are the parents?
“This is not a policing issue, [it] is a parenting issue,’’ he said.
As if to unintentionally prove Hizzoner’s point, a mother of two of the rioters, aged 18 and 19, went ballistic — not on her older son, who admittedly assaulted a cop, but on police officers who prevented him from doing horrific damage,
“You cannot blame parents. This is the blame of society, of people who use their guns to harm rather than protect,” Stacy Lucas told The Daily News — though not one NYPD officer pulled a weapon.
Her son, Angel John, 19, described losing his sneakers in a melee with cops, and being “forced” to attack them when officers failed to let him return to the roiling pile of bodies to retrieve them.
“I had to kick them and do extra stuff so that I can try to get my sneakers,” said John, who allegedly struck a cop in the face, but earned cuts and bruises from his violent encounter with authorities.
Once in custody, he said he was served peanut butter sandwiches and milk, though he complained he was lactose intolerant.
His mom justified his appalling actions.
“Kids are going to be kids,’’ she said.
Some world when your mom is defending your idiotic behavior rather than grounding you.
Alas, it’s not just parents who have embraced this “see no evil” attitude.
In Chicago, young people ran violently through the streets earlier this month. Cops found guns among the delinquents. “Flash mobs” conducted mass robbery, running into a 7/11 and clearing the shelves.
But when a reporter referred to the budding felons as engaging in a “mob action,” the new progressive mayor chastised not their behavior — but the question.
“We’re not talking about mob actions. I didn’t say that,” Mayor Brandon Johnson, 47, snapped during a news conference. “These large gatherings . . . it’s important that we speak of these dynamics in an appropriate way.”
Bring back judgment!
These “kids’’ don’t need parents and politicians standing at the sidelines, egging them on.
Why do youthful miscreants in Democrat-run cities feel so entitled to expensive freebies, the only way they feel they can express their disappointment when sponsors fail to deliver is to lash out physically? And why are they all but excused for behavior that should land them behind bars?
We’re teaching generations that no behavior is out of bounds, and there are no consequence for actions. That their feelings over certain words are more important that robbing and vandalism.
After all, they — the rioters — are the real victims.
It’s time to stop babying full-grown brats. For their safety, as well as everyone else’s.