What's the matter with kids today?

[samhexum]

A family-run bus business in Astoria that has been in operation since the 1980s may have to close down after its premises were repeatedly broken into and its vehicles were damaged by youth vandals. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to try to save the business.

Astoria Express Transit, known for its fleet of yellow school buses, has been repeatedly targeted over the last two months by youths who have caused damage and loss of earnings to the business totaling more than $100,000, according to its owner Gail Gualotuna.

The alleged assailants got into the company’s 26th Avenue yard in broad daylight on April 2 and then started up a bus Gualotuna had just purchased a few weeks earlier. They then “wreaked havoc,” Gualotuna said, driving the bus into several parked buses and other vehicles – smashing windows, doors and mirrors. Some of the carnage was captured on CCTV footage.

The same vandals broke into the location again on April 23, Gualotuna said, although she managed to chase them off the site before they could do any damage. A different group broke into the yard on Sunday, May 7, and threw rocks and stones at a bus smashing a further five windows and a door, Gualotuna said. Police confirmed the three incidents took place.

Covering the cost of repairs to her buses has put the company in the red, Gualotuna said, and she is considering laying off some of her 10-person workforce next month if circumstances don’t improve fast.

Her father, Luis, set up a GoFundMe page this week to try and bring in some much-needed cash to keep the business afloat. The fundraiser has so far generated around $2,000, with a goal of raising $50,000.

Gualotuna said she is upset and worried about the future of the business her parents established in 1986 after immigrating from Ecuador. Gualotuna took the business over when the pandemic hit, she said.

“I’ve worked so hard these past two years after the pandemic to continue this business,” Gualotuna said. “But I don’t I don’t know if I can keep up with it. I don’t know.”

Gualotuna spoke with the Queens/Astoria Post on Tuesday, May 9, after law enforcement and small business owners in Astoria launched a new initiative aimed at deterring suspects from repeatedly targeting local businesses.

The new initiative, called the Astoria Merchants Business Improvement Program, sees police issue suspects with a trespass notice if they return to a premises after previously shoplifting there. The notice can also be issued to individuals who persistently harass or threaten staff and customers at the location, or if they continuously damage the premises.

However, Gualotuna said the program will not deter repeat offenders from harming her business, given the assailants who have been targeting her company are minors who were apprehended and then let out again.

“What can I do?” Gualotuna said. “They get arrested, get let go and come back,” Gualotuna said. “What do I do in that case? I feel like my hands are tied.”

Gualotuna said many youths who commit crimes in the city are not being punished, so they do not fear law enforcement.

“They’re not scared of the police. They’re not scared of being arrested,” Gualotuna said.

She said the attacks on her business are tough to take.

“I’m recovering from the pandemic. I took out loans to be able to keep running like I am now, but it’s becoming impossible to keep up with the loss that I’m constantly having to repair my buses,” Gualotuna said.

She added that the company cannot generate revenue when the buses are out of service and getting repaired. Astoria Express Transit transports students to local schools and also provides services for private trips and camps.

She feels that the city is soft and crime, which is putting businesses and staff at risk.

“They pick and choose what they want to be serious about,” Gualotuna said. “I feel like there’s not too much justice in the system … especially for the small business owners, families that are hard working-class families. [Law enforcement] need to be stronger, reinforce more.”

https://queenspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/May-7-damage-Photo-provided-by-Astoria-Express-Transit.jpg

 

[samhexum]

This could've gone in the FLORIDA thread, but (sadly) this could happen virtually anywhere in the U.S.

 

A 14-year-old Florida teen fatally shot his sister in an argument over Christmas gifts, only to be shot moments later by his own teenage brother, authorities said.

The argument started when the brothers, ages 14 and 15, were out shopping on Christmas Eve Sunday with their mother and sister, and got into a spat over who was receiving more Christmas gifts, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference.

After shopping, the boys, their mother, their 23-year-old sister Abrielle Baldwin, and Baldwin's two young children, ages 6 and 11 months, went to their grandmother's home in Largo where the argument continued.

That's when the 14-year-old brother "stood in the doorway, he took out his .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun, and he pointed it at [his brother] and told him he was going to shoot him in the head,” Gualtieri said.

The 14-year-old tried to get his 15-year-old brother to fight and an uncle ended up separating them and moving the 14-year-old outside into the driveway area.

That’s where he found Abrielle carrying her 11-month-old baby in a carrier. She told him: “You all need to leave that stuff alone. Why are you trying to start it? It’s Christmas,” Gualtieri said.

The 14-year-old ensued to argue with her, called her “derogatory” terms, and shot her in the chest as she was holding her infant in the carrier, the sheriff said. She fell, and the baby fell too, but was unharmed.

The 15-year-old brother then came outside, and brought out a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, and exclaimed, "You shot my motherf------ sister!" and shot the 14-year-old one time in the stomach, according to the sheriff's office.

The sheriff noted there was an "eight second gap" between the time the 14-year-old shot Abrielle and before he himself was shot. At the time he was shot, he was no longer in possession of his gun, the sheriff said.

The 15-year-old then ran, threw his gun in a nearby yard and fled to a relative's house in Clearwater.

Abrielle was transported to a hospital and died of her wounds.

“She was just a woman going about life doing her thing with her two kids,” Gualtieri said. “Now you got an 11-month-old and a 6-year-old boy, and their mom’s dead.”

The 14-year-old was also hospitalized, underwent surgery, and is in stable condition. He will be released from the hospital to the Florida department of juvenile justice.

The 14-year-old was charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, and delinquent in possession of a firearm. The Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney's Office will determine whether or not he'll be charged as an adult.

When police located the 15-year-old brother in Clearwater, he made self harm statements and was taken to a mental health facility. He was charged with attempted first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.

The .40 caliber handgun the 14-year-old used to shoot sister was recovered, but the .45 caliber gun the 15-year-old used has not been, officials said.

Gualtieri said during their investigation and interviews with locals, people said that the two teenage brothers "carried guns all the time."

He said that the brothers got their guns by “stealing them from unlocked cars, they’re out in the middle of the night doing car burglaries,” noting both were arrested for committing numerous car burglaries in Oldsmar in May.

"These young kids 14, 15 years old routinely carry firearms and this is what happens when you got young delinquents that carry guns, they get upset they don’t know how to handle stuff so they just take out their guns and start shooting each other and one of them kills his sister,” the sheriff said.

The 14-year-old has arrests dating back to when he was 12 years old, including minor in possession with a gun, disorderly conduct, grand theft auto, auto burglaries, and battery on a school employee, Gualtieri said.

“This proliferation of guns in the streets and guns in this area and guns in the hands of these kids is the worst I’ve ever seen. I don’t think we’ve ever seen it this bad. I really think we need tougher laws to deal with these kids. They are not getting the consequences they should get," the sheriff said.

https://www.aol.com/news/florida-teen-accused-fatally-shooting-145013077.html

[+ sync]

Children are living, breathing recording/playback units.  They are constantly looking, listening and remembering what's happening around them, and what they are seeing and hearing today is what is the matter with them.  

What's the matter with kids today is US the adult population collectively.

[+ WilliamM]

There is nothing wrong with kids today 

[+ augustus]

Kids have always been rotten.  The law is not dealing with them effectively.  

[TonyDown]

Maybe this kind of behavior has always existed.  But now the internet spreads our viral news everywhere, such as this thread. 

That we are now a heavily armed society seems to be a factor as well, how violent behavior is more apt to involve gunplay.