WHY??

[Sim]

I've been getting up for a bike ride at 6 every morning this week and last week. Cycling down the road today at about 6.10 and i get abput 150 metres and see smoke at a local recycling centre. I rode over and surley enough smoke was billowng out of the paper bank. The fire station is just in front of this but its not manned so i had to phone 999 and the poor retained fire fighters were all rudly awoken. They said it was arson, so to get to my question,

WHY DO PEOPLE FEEL THE NEED TO ARSON THINGS, REALLY WHY?

The fire had been going all night, luckily it has been wet here the last few days or the trees that were overhanging the paper bank may have set on fire an it could have been quite bad.

Likewise a huge arson attack on a power substation in Birmingham caused power to go off for over 24 hours.

WHAT DO THESE MINDLESS IDIOTS GET OUT OF IT?

Grrrr RANT OVER!!

[Kinoulton]

One of my extended family, who was quite a gifted child when younger, turned a bit strange as a teenager (didn't we all!) and then started setting fire to things.

Serious things like haystacks and farm buildings.

He never hurt anybody, but of course, you can't let it go on. After psychiatric tests he ended up in Rampton for life.

However, I suspect that people setting fire to waste paper are just low life.

[Nicky]

i just don't know sim :roll:

[Cornish Tiger]

It could have just been sheer stupidity though. To my shame, when I was 10 I had a gang and we used to make dens in the huge cubes of shredded paper at a paper factory on an industrial estate across the road. It was the best fun, as it was like life size lego. We'd heave these enormouse bundles about until we had built a den, and then light a bonfire in it and toast marshmallows. Honestly - it never dawned on us. How we weren't killed! The same gang decided it would be great to dig a tunnel from my house to my neighbours, so we set to with shovels and dug it about 4ft deep, then started heading off to John's house. Thank God his dad found us and told us to get out just before it collapsed!

[Sim]

Yes unfortunantly so i would imagine it was the undesireables which we seem to be collecting in Bridgnorth, you see such a small town these people can make a name for themselves because here they're hard so if people can't make a neam for themselves in Wolverhampton or Telford or Dudly they come here, take them to a big city and they'd be ripped apart. So we have to stick up with it unfortunantly.

[dailywaffle]

A few years ago I did jury service in an arson case. What came out of it was the complete pointlessness of it; the guilty party really didn't care whether the building burnt down or not, and his accomplice couldn't really be bothered to stop him. They were 'bored', and had 'nothing to do', bless their little cotton socks.

There was no remorse, only anger at being convicted. There seemed to be no sense of 'consequence', and certainly no sense of 'accountability'. And they were a wee bit older than 10 !

You can only shake your head. Mind you, some of the jurors weren't much better !

[Sim]

Yeh it does just tend to be boredum anbd mindless individuals who just have nothing better to do, but so stupid.

[Rizzo]

I often wonder whether they should print about these fres in the Mercury - surely it encourages the idiots to set light to a post box, bin or whatever so they can see the report of deliberate fires and think "that one's mine" etc.

[DCat]

That reminds me of when B&Q in Leicester burnt down a few years back. A lad was hanging around looking suspicious, so the security guard told him to 'leave'. Next thing, he sets light to a bottle of paint thinners, and the place goes up like something on November 5th. the place didn't have sprinklers (the rebuilt one did!) but luckily nobody was hurt as they were all evacuated safely.

However, it turns out the little grunt was 9 years of age so couldn't be prosecuted because he was 'below the age of ciminal intent'. Balls! The little git knew exactly what he was doing.

I heard from a friend later that he was part of a traveller family who were having problems and he was taken in to care and was receiving psychiatric help. How much did the little sod cost the City in terms of firemen, social services, health services etc?

I also hasten to add that I have worked with traveller kids when I worked in a school, and do not have a problem with them.

OK, rant over.

PS - Sorry about your relly, Kin. It must be difficult for a family when something like that happens

[Kinoulton]

Yes, I don't want to start sounding like Colonel Bloodknock or mr Angry of Tunbridge Wells, but this idea that kids are not responsible for their actions is totally alien to me, and frankly, I think it just puts cr*p into kids' heads.

Of course I was naughty as a boy, up to a point. The point being that I was always aware that if I really annoyed someone then I could well get one of the following:
a) In serious trouble;
b) The disapproval of people I liked;
c) A good kicking.

Consequently I spent the rest of my life being a bit unruly but always accepting any blame and consequences that came my way.

The Japanese are brought up to believe that you are totally responsible for their own actions and apart from inventing kamikazi missions and karaoke, their society is much better for it.

[Rizzo]

At this point, I hold my hand up and admit I and my friend set fire to the dry grass in the derelict allotments behind my house when I was about 8 or 9......but not because we wanted to burn it!
We'd been reading an Enid Blyton book and wanted to copy the part where they made a camp fire, cooked potatoes in the ashes and ate outside in the dusk. Sadly, the book did not explain that dry grass catches fire easily, and a few sparks spitting out from our little pile of twigs and rotten wood soon set a fire we could not put out ourselves! Having a small amount of sense, we ran for my Dad (who was in the middle of having guests around for tea) and he got the hose and a spade and soon quenched the flames before it got too far.
Needless to say, we were both clipped around the ear by my Dad, confined to playing in the garden only for a week (a terrible punishment since we ran in the fields and outdoors all day). When my friend told her Mum what had happened, she got clipped round the ear again by her Mum for being naughty!

I admit we were often naughty and did similarly silly things, but the nearest we came to malicious deliberate damage was throwing a piece of mud at a neighbour's front door on Mischief Night (Hallowe'en) and then hiding behind his wall. He caught us, we got another clip round the ear and steered clear of him ever afterwards.

[Kinoulton]

Me and my brothers did a similar thing. We lived in a big old house with lots of cellars and from these cellars ran eerie dark tunnels that were rumoured to have once connected to another big house right across the road.

We went as far down one tunnel as we dared, made a den and then lit a tiny fire in our "fireplace".

You know what happens to fires in tunnels don't you? Within seconds the whole tunnel, and all the cellars were filled with smoke. We ran away and upstairs to the kitchen which was already getting very smokey and our mam was going frantic.

A couple of our older brothers had to put wet tea-towels over their mouths and rush down to put our little fire out.

We were not popular boys after that.

[Rizzo]

Kinny - do you ever wonder how we survived?? I mean, nowadays, kids are prevented from doing anything as remotely dangerous as playing conkers without goggles!

[Kinoulton]

Looking back, we must have all had nine lives.

I got in with a "bad lad" and we crept into the grounds of a sort of home for delinquents.

I suddenly got nervous and ran. I got to the edge of the grounds and there was a 10 foot drop to the road below.

So I just jumped, badly cutting my hands and knees when I landed on the pavement. I then ran across the road causing cars in both directions to swerve and break.

As I ran into the house I met half of my family coming out to see what all the honking and tyre screeching was all about. Seeing me with blood running down my legs they thought I'd been hit by a car.

[mrsmoody]

woah! thats sounds pretty scary! i never really go up to much... though when i was younger we used to play knock and run :roll: but thats about it!

there were a couple of other things such as throwing sticks over this massive hedge to try and get each other (i have a scar on my arm now where i missed a huge one coming right at me :roll: )
but one day when i wasnt there some ended up going in someones garden and they told them to stop, and kids being kids they deliberately ended up throwing directly in the garen and one day they went after them and informed the police! and letter came round the whole street fromt he council as a result and the passage through the hedge got blocked off! (which we also used when playing man hunt!)