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By age 23, at least a quarter of all youth in the U.S. — and perhaps as many as 41% — are arrested at least once for something more serious than a traffic violation, according to a new study of American teens.
[color=#333333][font=Georgia]The study is the first since the 1960s to try to determine the percentage of youth who are arrested. Previously, the research estimated that 22% of Americans had been arrested at least once for a non-traffic violation by age 23. Study: 1 in 3 Americans Arrested By Age 23 | TIME.com
I noticed that underage drinking was the first crime they were citing, from the 70's on. The drinking age was reduced to 18 in 1969-74. In 1984, the U.S. Government said, "Well, you can keep your minimum drinking age 18, but you'll lose 10% of your Federal highway dollars if you do," which caused all the states to bump the age up to 21 again. So yeah, I'm sure there WAS a bump in arrests after that. Forget traffic tickets -- the money-maker in college towns is underage drinking citations. In her senior year in college in a popular college town, my daughter called me on her second day away and was telling me about the night before - the traditional "first night" for the freshmen college kids at college. She told me she had been downtown with friends for a drink -- she was 21 -- and was amazed at how many dressed-to-kill 18-year-old freshman college girls were zip-tied to benches, crying hysterically with mascara running down their faces, while the police were calling for transport (guys, too, but generally no mascara, there.) The kids had fake IDs and were trying to be grown-ups, and the police were just waiting for them to do something dumb like that. How's that for the first call home? "Hey, Mom, Dad -- I need bail money . . . " Underage drinking can have fines between $100 and $2,500, plus possible jail time (seldom enforced), losing your license for a period of time if you are a minor, etc. etc.
I noticed that underage drinking was the first crime they were citing, from the 70's on. The drinking age was reduced to 18 in 1969-74. In 1984, the U.S. Government said, "Well, you can keep your minimum drinking age 18, but you'll lose 10% of your Federal highway dollars if you do," which caused all the states to bump the age up to 21 again. So yeah, I'm sure there WAS a bump in arrests after that. Forget traffic tickets -- the money-maker in college towns is underage drinking citations. In her senior year in college in a popular college town, my daughter called me on her second day away and was telling me about the night before - the traditional "first night" for the freshmen college kids at college. She told me she had been downtown with friends for a drink -- she was 21 -- and was amazed at how many dressed-to-kill 18-year-old freshman college girls were zip-tied to benches, crying hysterically with mascara running down their faces, while the police were calling for transport (guys, too, but generally no mascara, there.) The kids had fake IDs and were trying to be grown-ups, and the police were just waiting for them to do something dumb like that. How's that for the first call home? "Hey, Mom, Dad -- I need bail money . . . " Underage drinking can have fines between $100 and $2,500, plus possible jail time (seldom enforced), losing your license for a period of time if you are a minor, etc. etc.
The sad part about this, they are not enforcing these laws due to concern for public health or safety, its about generating revenue (pure and simple).
Its the same thing with the drug laws, when they were first created, it was a way to control certain races and where they spent time in certain parts of the city, drug laws were never originally meant to be used against Caucasians or regular citizens of the city/state, it was about forcing 'certain' people/races, they didnt like or trust, out of their town, to go somewhere else.
People should disobey and/or refuse to comply with these goofy laws!
I don't think it's normal (not that something being "normal" by the definition it sounds like we're going with makes it any less bad) for teens and young adults to commit crimes such as that. I'd chalk that notion up to someone watching too much TV. But all I know is my experience. When I was a teenager, I snuck out of the house in the middle of the night to go hang out with friends (not to do drugs, or steal, vandalize, etc.) and one time we were stopped by some police who told us to get in their vehicle and they took us back to our houses. That, and one time I was walking in the median not knowing it was illegal. Thassit.
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