Letter: Parents should pay for mall incident

How much did the riot on Jan. 5 by the teenagers at the Mall of Louisiana cost the taxpayers of East Baton Rouge Parish and the state of Louisiana? At least one helicopter, as well as ground law enforcement personnel, were involved at the cost of several thousand dollars per hour.

I hope that those teenagers found guilty of participating in the riot, and their parents, will be charged with paying for the cost of it.

Charles mayeux

retired licensed clinical social worker

Baton Rouge

Comments

1) Comment by speakthetruth - 14/01/2013

This whole mall incident is the result of the liberal attitude of not holding individuals responsible for their actions. The liberal philosophy of "it takes a village" (to raise our children) goes against holding these parents responsible for what their brats do. The first judge who tells these parents they are responsible for the cost of this mess will be called a racist (if he is white). I really doubt a black judge would hold the parents responsible, nor the little brats. The liberal attitude of "its society's fault" will continue to create generations of takers that always think they have the right to do what ever they want without any consequences. We are seeing it in all the crime ridden cities throughout the US.

2) Comment by free_market - 11/01/2013

Good letter, Mr. Mayeux. If the parents of the six arrested don't have the financial means to pay for it, then maybe they, and their precious little angels can perform community service hours at minimum wage to compensate.

3) Comment by nimby? - 10/01/2013

in a lawsuit you go after the party with the most money , good luck .

4) Comment by Being_Stupid - 10/01/2013

There are many good parents that have bad children.

5) Comment by DMJ - 10/01/2013

Other than being completely unrealistic, this is a great suggestion.

6) Comment by firefly225 - 10/01/2013

Good point Charles. And add in there the loss of revenue for the stores and the mall. We'll see how often they continue to use this baby sitting service.

7) Comment by [e-mail] - 10/01/2013

These "kids" knew full well what they were doing and they managed to create mayhem and shut down the mall, which was their goal no matter how many apologists come out of the woodwork. You can bet that they were texting victory messages along with exultation of their success of doing somethen so "cool". Social media didn't create such cretins; it merely empowers them and allows them a forum to strut their nonsense. The young cretins have to be controlled, not understood.

8) Comment by slye753 - 10/01/2013

how did these children get to the mall if not being dropped off by their parents?

9) Comment by Traveler - 10/01/2013

I'm waiting for BESE and the State Department of Education to blame the public school teachers for this incident. After all, they blame the teachers for all the maladaptive behaviors that occur during the school day, so why not include in the new evaluation procedure ALL behaviors of students, no matter where those behaviors occur? To do so would make as much sense as the current new evaluation system. Keep in mind that the same teens involved in this incident were in school Monday morning----does anyone think their conduct was better, just because they were in a school building?

10) Comment by Chucky - 09/01/2013

The drums say the “village” is going to eat this one.

11) Comment by prbeav - 09/01/2013

Are the parents in control? It seems to me these children knew they were misbehaving. Assign the children serious public service.