Curbing Extreme Violence in Southlake
Southlake, Texas, a small suburb of 24,000 uppity souls in the northwest corner of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex, is becoming a dangerous place to live. Southlake is a pristine town that struggles to maintain its dignity and purity in the face of the multitudes oozing out from crowding neighbors.
A police blotter from February 8 describes these evildoings:
- 12 juveniles consuming at a party that had gotten too loud
- vandals shooting out a residential window
- vandals shooting out a vehicle’s windows
- 3 DWIs (all adults)
- two identity thefts
- theft of a stove (!) from a residence
- theft from a storage unit
- two construction thefts, including one arrest of an adult
That’s the sum total for one week of violence in Southlake. Obviously things are out of hand here. And the blotter doesn’t even mention the worst of it: the public nuisances presented by unruly teens at the local mall.
Local mall? Well, no, Southlake would never be so undignified as to allow a mall. (Southlake doesn’t even allow you to rent a tool from Home Depot. Apparently, town founders felt that residents shouldn’t fix their own houses, they should hire undocumented migrant workers.) Instead, Southlake features something called the Southlake Town Square—a ludicrous, Disneyland-ish attempt to re-create an old fashioned downtown area. The Town Square features places to work, shops (generally overpriced trendy crap, in my humble opinion), eateries, a movie theater, and, to the distress of many, a place to hang out for annoying hordes of middle school urchins.
An article today in the predictably leftist local rag talked about Southlake’s interest in cracking down on the hangers-out. The pubescent hordes are perceived as little more than a nuisance. They hang out in the book store, a roomy Barnes & Noble that stays open late. B&N is corrupting the souls of our youth! This must be stopped! A curfew is required! The police chief will petition the city council for an 11pm curfew for children under 17.
Never mind, of course, that there is no real crime problem, youth or otherwise, in Southlake. It’s kids being kids, being loud, and getting out of hand once in a while. The merchants should have the right to solve this problem on their own without a heavy-handed intervention and crackdown by local ordinances and flatfoots.
Oddly, no one views hundreds of kids in one place as a blessing and an opportunity. At least they have somewhere to go, somewhere that the watchful eyes of many adults keep them from getting into any real trouble. And they should represent a tremendous financial opportunity for someone–if you can’t make a buck sucking up the bored dollars of the overly pampered middle school and high school set, you’re not trying. Maybe the owners of Southlake Town Center should push out one more unnecessary Ann Taylor store in favor of an arcade.
A Southlake curfew will represent one wonderfully bad but typical example of the predominant modern use of government: as a force, to suppress behavior of others, behavior that you don’t happen to like. The affected teens can’t vote, so there’s no fear of resistance or reprisal. Of course, the bogus argument is always that it’s “for the safety of the kids,” and to help curb vandalism. We all know, though, that it’s about people who are tired up putting up with snotty, loud teenagers. But a curfew will only push the kids whose parents don’t care further into the shadows.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I really gotta ask this question — how the hell do you steal a storage unit??? That one made me smile.
This is kind of like the ridiculous law passed (or maybe they tried to and failed, not sure) in my state (WA) that says that drivers under the age of 18 can’t be driving with other teens in the car after 11PM (or something to that effect).
So in essence, if you have 5 teenagers at a party, and one of them is sober, before you’d hope that the sober one would drive the rest home. With the new law, if you have those same 5 teenagers, you have 4 of them that have the potential to kill someone because they are drunk behind the wheel — all in the name of not driving with other teens in the car.
Good thinking!
-olly
February 12th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Oops. “Theft *from* a storage unit.” Sorry about that.
-j-
February 12th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
[…] Curbing Extreme Violence in Southlake February 12th, 2008 by Jeff Langr Southlake, Texas, a small suburb of 24,000 uppity souls in the northwest corner of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex, is becoming a dangerous place to live. Southlake is a pristine town that struggles to maintain its dignity and purity in the face of the multitudes oozing out from crowding neighbors. A police blotter from February 8 describes these evildoings: 12 juveniles consuming at a party that had gotten too loud vanda … […]
February 13th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
They’re hanging out at Barnes & Noble??? Loitering around a purveyor of BOOKS??? Oh my god! What have the youth of Southlake come to? HORRORS!!!
I’m imagining the cover of a 1950s style dimestore pulp novel about the troubled youth of America: “Biff liked his literature like he liked his girls…CHEAP…” (Image of a teenaged boy reading a book over a cup of coffee, with two pouting girls in the background.) “…it’s the allure of the PROUST, baby!”
But seriously, as a parent I have to ask: What are these kids doing hanging around somewhere late at night? Looks to me that this is as much a case of socialized parenting as it is socialized property protection.
February 13th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I’m not sure why things should be different today than from when I was a kid. In high school, I was generally allowed to hang out with friends until late hours on Friday and Saturday. Our parents needed to know where we were and that we were safe. Of course, we got into trouble now and then, but part of teaching kids to be responsible involves allowing them some freedom.
The kids who go to the mall or a movie that lets out at 11:45pm and then hang out a bit aren’t the problem. Curfews, as with most laws, end up taking away freedoms from the law-abiding and do nothing to curtail the real problem (teen vandals, for example).
February 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I don’t agree with government curfews, either, for the same reasons you cited. But apparently there’s a conflict going on. I don’t have any right to just go anywhere I want for long periods of time and do whatever I please. What I can do is bounded by the property rights of others. If the owner deems my action on his property to be somehow depriving him of the value of his property, then I’m bound by his request (or his duly charged agent’s request) to either cease the action or leave, whichever it may be.
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised, though, if a concept like “property rights” is utterly alien to those kids, as it’s most likely lost on their parents as well, who apparently don’t take much interest in where their junior high school-age kids are and/or what they’re doing, either. Perhaps if they did–in addition to teaching them a thing or two about how to conduct oneself on someone else’s property–the conflict wouldn’t exist in the first place.
February 13th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I agree–that’s why I said that “The merchants should have the right to solve this problem on their own.”
You’re right, I don’t think we emphasize property rights enough. Nowadays it’s fashionable and chic to denigrate ownership of material goods, and to look down on people trying to defend their property. Why, in nations like Sweden, I can go onto anyone’s private property by the beach and just hang out all day!
We criminalize sometimes questionable personal choices like drugs, steroids, cigarettes, and consensual but paid sex. That’s the message our kids hear. In contrast, stealing private property (”Rent”) and thieving from, or causing destruction to, evil corporations is often considered cool.