WW I don't know that I had any feelings about it, it was just the way it was.

A bit of a goody goody, I never suffered the long arm of the law, but knew a few who did. I don't know which was the worst for them, the cop dragging them home by the ear, or what their father did to them when they got there. None of this bleeding heart stuff back then, it was more like a bleeding backside, after your father finished with you.

I suffered very few beltings, but I can assure you, they made me obedient, not rebellious.

The toughest kids in our town, some mixed race, but all treated the same, were almost to a kid, in the police boys club. Some went for the boxing, but I was in the basket ball & football teams. There was no anti cop stuff.

I played hooker, & had 2 of the toughest as props. When we went to school cadet camp, & initiation was applying boot polish to kids private parts, we 3 formed our front row, & no one bothered us at all.

Yes there were a few punch-ups, but they were not viscous, & if anyone had ever pulled a knife, [the cowards weapon], they would have found their arm ripped off & jammed up their back passage, & that would have been by their mates. Weapons were just not acceptable in polite or tough company back then.

Life was much cleaner & civil, when the cops had the authority to enforce the law, with out reference to sissy stuff like courts & magistrates. Families knew they would have been run out of town if their kids caused trouble, let alone went rampaging like they do today.

What you're saying, Hasbeen, is that people in the locality had something to do with each other back then. A neighbourhood was a community, somewhere where the kids gathered and their folks probably knew each other, where there would be collection of shops or such like places that were common to the people around.

I am going to say that before all these things were centralised, and people began to commute in mobile capsules to places away from their local environs for work and shopping, that a community and its environs were something that especially a young person would identify with. If a place and your connection with it and its people becomes part of your identity then you're less likely to damage its property or harm its inhabitants.

You know, I think something is horribly awry in the story of late capitalism. I gave my son permission to watch the local news every evening (as opposed to the national news) In the old days, the local news was pretty innocuous - so I was expecting it'd be full of who's grown the biggest potato and things like that. This is regional WA, and every night he is treated to a litany of disgusting and heartless crimes that take place around the regional centres in WA.

What's happening?

I might add that my reference to the "old days" was meant to refer to about a decade ago, around the time my son was born. Back then, that relatively short time ago, the really horrible crimes, the assaults. etc happened in the capital cities...not any more.

Since he's been watching this news bulletin, I'm astounded at the crime that is reported in regional centres every day...and particularly the sheer number of assaults and general violent crime.

Suseonline,
Why the twisting of the gist ? Who's talking about beatings ? You still haven't offered any ideas re compensating victims either. Discipline is not about beating. A beating would certainly go a long way towards discipline if considerate approaches are being disregarded.
Civil Libertarians are doing more damage & further the course of social decline than many of those incompetent Magistrates & ignorant Jurors.
The old adage you've got to be cruel to be kind is now more true than ever. Killing perpetrators with kindness merely kills the decent.
ps. Don't forget to offer an idea.

Good evening to you HASBEEN...

You mention 'the long arm of the law', I'm very much afraid the arm is now rather 'stunted', metaphorically speaking. They have the necessary powers, but acting upon them, can and does cause some ire amongst our political masters, who (unfailingly) seem to know best.

Yet whenever a pivotal crime does occur, one that's implicating our younger youth, their immediate retort is to blame it on everyone (including police) but themselves. But in reality, it's usually a consequence of their own ommission to act, by failing to sanction a meaningful resolution to the problem(s).

Hi there WORLDWATCHER...

You mention coppers should have a better salary or words to that effect, couldn't agree with you more ! I only hope they make any substantial salary rise, retrospective for us old retirees ? LOL.

Seriously, today most police earn quite good money, despite what many will say. The only real impost is the job itself ? Still that's another, very very long story, and I'm wandering right off topic here.

Cheers...Sung Wu.

Yes Poirot, I think there was some of that, but there was also more respect for perhaps the law, or perhaps for each other. These were the days when you didn't lock the doors when you went out, getting robbed was just not something that happened.

With few law breakers around the cops came down on any wrong doing, like a ton of bricks. I think that helped.

Yes before TV people did things like had card nights, & actually got to know each other, but perhaps with "things" being more expensive, & harder to get, they respected others property more. I had mates playing football bare foot, on ice puddles, who would never think of pinching a pair of boots.

Parents never even considered driving into town to pick up a kid after sports training or an honors class after school. If they stayed after the bus, they had to have someone in town put them up.

We had one or more of these country kids, [from 10 or 15 miles out of town], staying with us 3 or 4 nights a week. It was the parents of these kids who became my folks best friends.

Life in general was kinder. You never drove past a car stopped beside the road, without checking if they needed help. No mobiles of course.

When I moved to Sydney getting mugged was not something you ever worried about. I think the discipline imposed on kids by families, often with the stick, did lead to better self discipline as they grew up.