These spree vandalism cases always leave me shaking my head. I just fail to understand the thrill of mowing down mailboxes or breaking out car windows. I hope we get some good tips on these cases, because I would sure like to see the miscreants responsible for these crimes face the music.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Current events
Looks like we have a vandalism outbreak a couple hours ago. Someone thought it would be fun to smash mailboxes in the Highlands neighborhood at around 3:15 AM this morning. So far, officers have investigated nine cases, and I imagine as day breaks those numbers will climb.
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Some years ago some fine young men from Gretna came to town, evidently to see how many parked cars they could sideswipe. Don't remember how much damage was done, but the incident sticks in my mind because they were caught just a block from my parked pick-up.
As I've said before, I understand, (but done condone) robbery, larceny, burglary, fraud, etc, because I understand risk vs gain. The persons who commit those crimes risk arrest and prosecution (or sometimes bodily injury/death), but there is potential gain of something of intrinsic value to balance the risk.
Vandalism, on the other hand, must result from some sort of psychological disorder, whereby the vandal perceives some non-existent gain to balance their risk of arrest and prosecution. We know there isn't any gain, but they think there is some sort of gain.
You'd think that if they were going to risk butting heads with the CJ system, they'd at least try to steal something. Why break a car window, unless you're trying to get at something of value inside the car? Only a crazy person would just break it to break it.
Anon 10:26,
Crazy...or just plain dumb? I think it's a combination of the two.
I'd like to see vandals face the music by watching their victims destroy their most prized worldly possessions. We all know these punks probably don't have enough money to pay restitution. Let's see how much fun they have with that PS3 after I've finished wailing on it with a baseball bat...Office Space-style. Think it's funny to bust out windows? Let's see how funny it is when every single window in their car is broken out.
Indeed, I'll bet they'll find it significantly less hilarious when they find themselves on the receiving end.
@10:56
Gain? Many robberies make off with $20, hardly any gain in most cases.
In terms of vandalism, its a form adrenaline, like sky diving. They get high off of comitting a crime and trying not to get caught.
I've done stuff like that over 20 years ago, though never to the extent of breaking car windows, but similar things like tipping trash cans, stealing lawn ornaments etc.
Also, in some cases there may be a type of hate. Like maybe they hate rich people (relatively rich) and go to a middle class neighborhood to vandalize.
Chief-My neighbor is a welder. He has built a cage around his mailbox out of rebar. It is welded to a steel pole that is sunken into about 100 lbs of concrete. He is tired of replacing mailboxes. I'm surprised he hasn't filled it with C-4 set to detonate on impact.
My strategy is to have the cheapest, easiest to replace, mailbox.
256
We got nailed last October in the spree in the Country Club and Southwood areas.
1:39--I read years ago how to fix a mailbox. Buy one of the very large ones and put a smaller one inside. Fill the space in between with concrete. This was for rural mailboxes, and is said to make toothpicks out of Louisville sluggers.
Well, if risk and adrenaline are what spree vandals get off on, we should have a Nebraska law similar to this one, which would probably ratchet up their adrenaline rush. Allow the aggregation of multiple misdemeanor vandalisms in the same spree, so you could make a felony criminal mischief out of the lot.
Put the burden of proof (that DF wasn't authorized) on the prosecutor. Disallow any civil action by the vandals and anyone acting on their behalf if the DF wasn't proven to be unauthorized by the statute. One of the first things I learned as a rug rat was that you don't mess with other folks stuff, and to expect the same from them.
I couldn't quote the laws governing mail boxes, but I have read that some of the "reinforced" mail boxes that people have erected, at least in rural areas, have had to be removed as a traffic safety issue. The idea is that anything close to the roadway should be of a break-away type construction so as to impose the least danger to motorists who may lose control of their vehicle. You may want to look into it before spending time and money to create an indestructable mail box.
Chief are there any kind of ordinances in city code about mailbox construction?
Personally, if they were legal, I'd want the kind of mailbox that explodes when struck with a baseball bat or golf club.
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