Have you ever considered calling the cops to teach your kid a lesson?

Cigarettes will kill you in the end.

While I do not at all excuse what the police did in this circumstance, the father needs to take a long hard look at what came of his actions.

I would only call the police on something my kids did if it was something criminal they were threatening to do and I told them ahead of time I would call the police. ( A major crime is a different issue.)

I live in Manhattan.

I have a greater fear of being killed or injured by an officer by accident than by some thug on purpose.

No way. And see, that right there is why you don’t involve law enforcement in family situations unless it’s absolutely necessary. I do like the idea of sending them to jail for a weekend, like that Scared Straight program.

Used to be, yes. Now, maybe not. Police are not as reliable as they used to be (imo).

I’m thinking the cop went all Rambo on the car because it ended up in a uni campus, given the high profile shootings, that’s most likely the excuse they’ll trot out anyway.

No parent would like but they would have no option at times. If the kids actions goes beyond control and will pose as a threat to the safety and well-being of themselves, or any other members of the family in or outside of the household. Then I think it would be necessary to call the police. I would never call the police just to use it as a scare tactic.

Maybe the dad didn’t necessarily need to call the police but I don’t think it was insane that he did. The kid was obviously an idiot, he couldn’t listen to his father, and then he refused to listen to the police also, time after time? He obviously became a danger to others by leading a high speed police chase. I don’t feel bad for him. We are overpopulated anyhow.

Man, I agree with @deni. The father had no idea it would end the way it did, except that he knew his son better than the cops. Did he know the kid might react like that? There is a lot that we don’t know that led up to the whole thing, spanning the kids’ entire life.

@Dutchess_III I’d have thought that if you just left the kid alone for a few hours, he would calm down and come home eventually, more than likely the situation would have defused itself. Now this dad had to live with the guilt forever. Very sad.

Yes. It’s very sad. But he did what he did.
I always told my kids I’d never hesitate to call the cops on them if I had to. Never had to though. Well, except that one time my daughter snuck out of the house at night. I called them to find her.
One time, in October, one of our infamous, horrible storms blew in really, really quickly. I called the cops and asked them to find my 11 year old son and tell him to get home NOW! They did.
I love this town.

~ Maybe the father didn’t like his son anymore and wanted something to happen…. Just saying.

I would never call the cops just to teach someone a lesson. I call them when I need them… otherwise, I figure they’re busy enough. Did he not tell them he was sending them after his kid?

@talljasperman Or he was so mad, he let his emotions overtake his mouth, like most of us do at times. “By God I’ll call the cops, that’ll teach the little sob to steal my truck!”

Never – cops kill 13 year old boy with toy gun, cops kill 16 year old boy when he reaches for his cell phone, cops arrest dying woman because they think she is drunk.

An internet contact called the police on my grandson’s girlfriend because she was depressed, and they came and took her to a mental facility. She was really scared and has calmed down a lot lately.

Mind boggling levels of stupidity here all round and one gun.

Not since I’m becoming more and more afraid of cops, with all the power mad bullshit I keep seeing in the news.

Thanks and lurve to all for answering.

While the kid was definitely in the wrong, and should at the very least been charged with reckless endangerment, I don’t believe anything he did warranted the death penalty without trial.

By the time he was shot at, the car was in a parked position on a college campus in which the local PD did not have jurisdiction. If the officer wasn’t specifically ordered to back off until campus police were notified, he should have been, and should have known better.

There should be utter and total outrage that a person can be fired upon while sitting in their vehicle and not posing an immediate threat to anyone, without the shooter facing any charges.

Who watches the watchers, indeed?

@Seek_Kolinahr Welcome to the new normal.

Do I need to ask whether this occurred in the US? I suppose not.

Iowa.

I’m with @flutherother Mind boggling stupidity all around.
Cops are way too trigger happy these days, maybe justified, maybe not, and while I think the dad did do the right thing in many ways, the son STOLE his truck if you want to get right down to it, BUT…the kid obviously had the IQ of a lemon for actually pulling the stunt he did, running from the cops, RAMMING their vehicle. Jesus….another great example of why there should be a license to reproduce. lol

@glacial Rub it in why don’t you, the land of the free and the home of the depraved. lol

When I was 15 my dad took me to the police station and asked that I be put in a cell for a couple hours to scare me. I didn’t know I wasn’t actually arrested until much later. He found out from a neighbor I was driving with no permit or license. I think it was a good lesson in the sense that I completely believed him when he said he would never hesitate to turn me in if he found me with drugs. And the cop that played along with my dad is still a good friend that looked after me until I went off to college.
I don’t think those small town tactics work that well in this day and age. Things were simpler then.