Stupid Teenager Tricks

So early this afternoon, on my way home from work, my cell phone rings. The caller ID shows a number I am not familiar with, but I figure, "what the heck?" and answer it. It's Number One Son on a friend's cell, all agitated. I say "Hello" and am greeted with:

"Oh my GOSH Mom, we were almost arrested!"

I answer with a rather forceful, "WHAT??!?!!?!"

#1 Son: "We were surrounded at an intersection, drug out of Sparkey's car (Sparky is a friend of his, a Senior girl on his crew team who passed up a scholarship to Yale to accept one to Oxford) and patted down!"

Me: "What are you talking about?!?! Are you OK?!"

Him: "Yeah, but it was WILD!"

Me: "Slow down - what happened? I thought you were on your way to practice?!" (Note: I was REALLY trying hard to keep the hysteria out of my voice at this point)

Him: "We were, but it takes Sparky's car a LONG time to heat up and we were cold, so Sparky put her winter crew hood on (Editors Note: This looks like a partial ski mask which actually only covers the back of the head and the mouth - the eyes and nose are open)."

Me: "Yeah...AND??!?!!"

Him: "Well we stopped at this intersection and five cop cars screeched around us and gave us nowhere to go. They started screaming at us to get out of the car."

Me: "WHAT?! WHY?!?! Are you hanging out with criminals?!!?!"

Him: "MOM! Come on. At first we didn't know why they got crazy, but we were scared so we got out of the car. They threw us up against the car and yelled at us a lot. They searched us, patted us down. They even had to call a girl cop to pat Sparky down. This one guy searched Sparky's car and kept yelling at us. He said that if there was a recent bank robbery they could have shot us."

.... Huh?

Me: "WHAT did he say?"

Him: "He asked what we would have done if there had been a recent bank robbery and they saw us, and then said that he would be OK to shoot us if we didn't put our hands up fast enough."

Me: "Was there a bank robbery today?"

Him: "That's what I asked him (THAT'S my BOY!), and he said no and he got, really mad. He said we we looked "suspicious" and they had to check us out because we were in that neighborhood."

...
...

Wow.

FIRST - I'm PISSED! With all the gang violence in our city, all the drug problems - hell all the DANGEROUS drivers, you can think of nothing better to do than to pull these kids over and pat them down for wearing a WINTER hood (when it is 38 degrees) - in BROAD daylight?!??! And it takes FIVE CARS full of you??!?!

SECOND - I am all for "tough love" and "scared straight." Seriously I am. But why not pull the carloads of teens who are cruising around at 11am (or 11Pm), obviously not in school, obviously gang affiliated (ever seen or heard of "Colors?"), and apparently up to no good? Is it better to follow and SURROUND kids who are clearly leaving the school grounds after stretching and working out as a TEAM, dressed in work-out clothes and headed for practice?

I am beside myself tonight. Part of me wants to raise hell with our police Dept. I want someone's ass. But then there is the other side of me - that side that really LOVES those guys today that read my kid the riot act, that scared the crap out of him. And when it all comes down to it, despite all my bluster, I applaud those cops today. They scared the CRAP out of a few kids who don't need it now...but someday they might.

The Gangsters that they missed?

My heart breaks wider.