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Saturday, May 18, 2013
Playground Arson Sucks!
by Scott Holbrook, published on August 9, 2010 at 1:29 PM
Storyline: Above The Fog
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Last night the Auburn Community's main park had it's playground torched. As an member of the rec district's board of directors I am obviuosly upset. As a father and resident of the community I am furious. Vandalism & delinquency costs a community on so many levels, from lost dollars and time, to lost opportunities and as was the case with a rock toss over an overpass recently, serious injuries and possibly worse.
Whether in the heart of a city, or in an outlying suburb it is getting worse, and nobody is immune. I so encourage anybody that witnesses any questionable activity to please notify the proper authorities. Only by banning together & sending a strong message we will not accept this sort of behaviour will it begin to end. Somehow appreciation & respect continues to erode from our society. Community Leaders, Teachers, Parents and kids all need to work to educate and instill a sense of worth and value that will make kids think twice before committing a sensless act such as torching a playground, or inflicting injury.
Just my 2 cents worth for today.
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Scott Holbrook
August 9, 2010 | 1:30 PM
Turn in Vandals!
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Robert Horowitz
August 9, 2010 | 1:44 PM
A little Singapore-style caning would fix their wagon. All the vandalism at the newly fixed up schools around Sac makes me sick. What is wrong with these people? Perhaps this type of behavior could be deterred by a good, old fashioned ass whooping, televised for everyone to see...
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mrEd
August 9, 2010 | 1:58 PM
Often it is a lack of youth activities programs that lead to this sort of destructive behavior. Unfortunately funds for such youth programs are cut to accommodate the wealthy by way of tax cuts and/or funding pro-corporate wars overseas. Perhaps instead of brutalizing the perpetrators of this crime, as suggested above, we should take a hard look at our priorities when it comes to public funding and such that might otherwise occupy youth more positively in the community.
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Scott Holbrook
August 9, 2010 | 2:34 PM
We are blessed in the Auburn community to have numerous youth activities, In fact the park where this happened includes a public swimming pool available at real low cost, we have youth team sports, activities such as ping-pong, we built a skate park, we have open gym time for free - hell we have lakes and rivers my kids go to all the time, we have driving ranges, movie theaters. These kids (I am assuming here) have tons of stuff they can do, we have a free to attend Boys and Girls Club, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Future Farmers, we have an off road motorcycle area, we have performing arts programs- that excuse does not fly MrEd - we are not talking about kids smoking pot or other harmless bored kid activities - we are talking crimes that are hurting people & sending them to the hospital, and others that are costing thousands of dollars putting them into the felony area - For all I know this was a prank to put on You-Tube - it is getting worse and worse -I think we need to have serious consequenses for parents and kids - Make them think very hard when they light that match - Making excuses and blaming society allows for acceptance and excuse of bad behavious - we need to instill individual responsibility & accountability!
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mrEd
August 9, 2010 | 7:21 PM
The fact is that we don't know who did it or why... it could have been adults for all we know. Studies do show that organized youth activities decreases youth crime. Perhaps Auburn is the only place immune to social funding cuts, but I doubt it, so it's likely there have been cuts in youth activities there as there have been elsewhere. I never indicated their should be no accountability or responsibility; I was responding to the knee-jerk punishment response from the previous post. If you also think there are ample programs for youth and the solution is a caning stick... well... good luck with that.
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Roni Deutch
August 11, 2010 | 1:51 PM
How unfortunate! I love children, and hate to have read that they were secondary victims of this arson.
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