Did you get away with anything in your Youth?

[qwlauren35]

Last edited Fri Apr 10, 2015, 10:38 AM - Edit history (1)

I was a really good kid. I didn't shoplift, fight, etc. However, I drive my car too fast and I have run some red lights.

But I still remember hanging out with some young white guys who talked about how they'd like to trash a restaurant just for the heck of it, and the only thing stopping them was that they'd get in trouble.

I didn't know people actually thought like that! Maybe it's a young guy kinda thing. Like frat parties and hazing.

So, what about you? Have you done anything wrong and gotten away with it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit: Right now, 28 people have said that they did "wrong" things quite a few times. So, I want to explain why I did this poll. Everyone on the right keeps saying that the people (black) the police are shooting are "criminals". Because they were shoplifters or missing child support payments. I wanted to point out that LOTS of people commit crimes. But some people don't get caught, or, more importantly, don't get arrested... or shot. And those people are usually white. So, instead of suggesting that the black people who are getting arrested... and shot, deserve it, and no one wants to suggest that they shouldn't be arrested, maybe either the same lenience should be applied as is applied to white youth... or more white youths should be arrested. Either way, the conversation would be drastically different. America would be quite alarmed if white youths were getting arrested... and shot, at the same rate as black youths. And the "Tough on Crime" theme would probably die a quiet death.

22 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Never, I was always a good kid.
	4 (18%)
	OK, once. Felt guilty and never did it again.
	1 (5%)
	Once or twice, but it really wasn't me.
	1 (5%)
	Quite a few times.
	8 (36%)
	That was my entire teenaged experience.
	4 (18%)
	I did it, went to jail for it, never did it again.
	1 (5%)
	Other...
	3 (14%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[PeteSelman]

1. Just about everything.

I was a wild child for sure. We were very good thieves, even at a young age. Of course, no one expects kids to be stealing books but that's what we did. Every AD&D hardcover book and module we got five finger discounts on.

My brother was such an expert shoplifter he made quite a bit of pocket money as a kid. Whatever anyone wanted, he could get. Albums, tapes, clothes, paint markers, spray paint, whatever.

We'd drink in the schoolyards, rumble with other corners, graffiti, smoke weed and all that.

Was never much for destruction of property but there were a few occasions where things got out of hand.

Yeah, pretty much got away with everything. And if we did get caught, my dad was a cop, so that was a get out of jail free card.

Growing up street, this is just the way it was.

[Art_from_Ark]

2. I tried to stay as far away from trouble as possible

My mom had enough problems, I didn't want to add to them.

[Zorra]

3. I refuse to answer on the grounds it may incriminate me. nt

[Rex]

4. LOL! Manny!

You rapscallion you!

[Art_from_Ark]

6. He was preparing for the time he would become

Big Brother's nemesis

[H2O Man]

5. Other.

I was the angriest teenager in America. I did lots and lots of "things" -- some pretty destructive, and some self-destructive. I got caught a couple of times, and escaped detection hundreds of times.

I turned out okay.

[Ron Obvious]

7. Just the usual kid stuff

Trespassing, shoplifting candy bars, sneaking into the cinema, genocide...

[Snow Leopard]

32. lol!

too funny!

[Jamaal510]

8. ...

-Stole $20 from mom's purse, had her think she lost it, then "found" it for her, and she rewarded me.
-Got a kid in trouble in the 7th grade who I thought wiped a booger on my P.E. shirt, but found out he didn't do it.
-Jacked off in living room while parents were sleeping.
-Pissed in my dad's beer when I was about 3 or 4 years old to get him to stop drinking.
-Wandered into big bro's room, and stole a beanie and a DVD that he never returned to me.
-Had a bunch of sugar at lunch one day in the 11th grade, and acted hyper in front of the whole class while our English teacher was away.

[RiffRandell]

9. I was a bad teen.

Got decent grades though and got into college but the shit I pulled....mainly drugs, lots of sex (not bad but my parents would think so) and occasional school cutting which I blame on my bad boy boyfriend.

RIP he came to my wedding and later committed suicide.

Funny thing college was 10x worse.

[Warpy]

10. I was a teenager from hell

but I never hurt anyone else or destroyed property people were using and I wasn't a thief.

[gwheezie]

11. I committed a few felonies

Got away with it and lived to tell the tale.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. I was always pretty moral,

but I could have done life for the amount of drugs I carried around. This was in young adulthood. I was a good teenager, but cut loose in college and after.

[olddots]

13. I snuck away to civil rights marches

anti war protests and demonstrations for peace and freedom ,if thats bad I'd do it again and will do it again .

[AgingAmerican]

14. I spent my teenage years running away

Stealing cars, picking parking meters, drinking beer, smoking pot, fighting, taking and selling drugs, stealing, shoplifting, bouncing in and out of and escaping from juvenile facilities, living in abandoned buildings, riding trains, hitchhiking, and lots of other nonsense.

So the answer is yes.

[Kalidurga]

15. I was a bit wild

Drinking, driving (not at the same time, I wasn't that stupid), B&E abandoned properties, running away, mouthing off at teachers (no the second bomb was not at all necessary neither was the first), skipping school a lot, probably trespassing as property lines in the woods aren't always actually mostly never marked, swimming in prohibited areas, hitchhiking, went to bars with my cousin quite a bit(oddly enough I never drank alcohol in a bar), and I started cussing up a storm about the time I hit 15, lots of fighting, and if I was hanging with my siblings or my friends I was up to whatever they were up to.

[cali]

16. smoking pot, acid, hitchhiking and yeah, driving under the influence

[tosh]

50. Replace hitchhiking

with a couple of additional recreationals and that would be me.

Got away with all of that.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Are we including crimes of non-violent drug possession for personal use?

I may have broken one or two of those laws, at some point.

[jberryhill]

18. Conspiracy to tear the tags off of mattresses

[LeftInTX]

24. Bet you were alot of fun on a date!

[jberryhill]

28. You'd be surprised

"Hey, let's have a look at your mattress!"

I had a lot of luck with that one back in the day.

[qwlauren35]

19. I should explain.

The police are arresting and KILLING black youths and men for "petty crimes". Things that "some" people get away with all the time.

I have heard (among conservatives) the idea that since these individuals are "criminals", they deserve whatever they get, including death.

I just wanted to point out how common it is to commit crimes, especially when you're young, and how there's a double standard of who gets away with it (typically white) and who goes to jail for it (typically black).

Now, I didn't ask anyone to identify their race, but just give it some thought...

[Adrahil]

20. Underage drinking and some hotdogging in a car. That's it.

No drugs, theft, or anything like that.

[qwlauren35]

21. Anybody else?

Since I added my note?

[Go Vols]

22. Never stole or tore shit up

But I was hell on wheels as a kid.

[magical thyme]

23. other than trying pot, avoided trouble like the plague

I got away with nothing. Never mind crossing a line. If I saw a line, I got the crap beaten out of me. Mostly I just tried to hide.

[edhopper]

25. Yes,

but somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.

[Blue_In_AK]

38. Nice Sound of Music reference.

[edhopper]

45. Thanks

Music AND Words by Rodgers.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

26. If I was black I would have been shot dead several times. Since jaywalking does carry the death

penalty as does a broken tail light, yes indeed I would have been shot dead several times

[ismnotwasm]

27. Oh yeah.

[malthaussen]

37. But not since you became older and wiser, right? Right? n/t

[ismnotwasm]

47. Well...

It took me up until nearly 30 years of age to become "older and wiser" until then I was a off and on criminal, by law.

[jberryhill]

29. Stampeding Cattle Through the Vatican

[One_Life_To_Give]

30. There was some debate if we broke the laws of Physics, or it just seemed like it.

Them signs with numbers are just suggestions, right?

[mercuryblues]

31. I tell ya what

I didn't do, it will be easier. I didn't steal, kill anyone.

Race cars was a favorite pastime. I wish I did it for pink slips.

[B2G]

34. Unless you count underage drinking, smoking pot and

TPing your friends homes, no.

[GoCubsGo]

35. I was never lucky enough to get away with something.

Hell, as a kid, I was punished more often for other peoples' offenses than my own. I went to Catholic school. They believed in blanket punishment. Everyone paid when somebody stepped out of line, which I never did. I also learned early that if I got caught, I would often get punished 10 times harder than anyone else. So, I just never bothered doing stupid or illegal shit that would make worry about getting away with something. And, my parents let us have small amounts of beer and other alcohol at a young ages, so I never got into the underage drinking thing. I never understood what was the big deal about it, because my parents took all of the mystery out of it.

[malthaussen]

36. I refuse to answer on grounds that the Statute of Limitations may not have run out.

As for your thesis, I direct your attention to the concept of "compartmentalization." You will find that "It's different for me" is a pretty representational feeling in cases like this.

-- Mal

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

39. By today's standards, yes, but the standards of the 80's, no.

I once told a police officer my name was Arthur Rimjaub and I told the Border Patrol to fuck off at absolutely every opportunity. I suffered no consequences for this other than being told I was disrespectful and that I had lousy parents.

I was also involved in some pranks that would definitely result in charges today, such as dry ice in a school swimming pool, lowering a car into an empty swimming pool.

The stupidest thing I ever did was helping a friend "steal" their car back after it had been towed illegally. These assholes came right out and said that if we didn't pay immediately they were going to steal the stereo. But the police said it was a civil matter so... we just went and took it.

However the next morning when my dad found out I probably would have preferred to have been in jail or shot.

[pipi_k]

40. What I did in my youth

was "wrong" from the viewpoint of my parents, but I never did anything illegal.

Actually, I got blamed for a lot of shit I never even did. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[HereSince1628]

41. Never. but not because I was a particualarly good kid,

I was just so deviant and deep inside myself that I had no interest in what others had or did.

Imagine Sheldon Cooper without the brain power.

[zappaman]

42. I shoplifted books and records.

Quite often.

[Scurrilous]

43. Senor No Information Notice y Adjudication Withheld (Traffic Division).

In Miami-Dade County Courts white male privilege is alive and well....

[PufPuf23]

44. Never lied, cheated, stoled, tattle-taled, nor violent but ....

my parents sent me from rural Humboldt county to a boarding school (military academy) in Marin when started 8th grade and was age 13.

My 3rd weekend went to Haight Ashbury; late September 1966.

Got dosed with a "love burger". Smoked my 1st joint under the cross in Boyd Park by Mission San Rafael.

Next thing I knew I was into rocknroll, trendy chemical amusement aids (pot and lsd and mescaline only), and was staunchly anti-war.

Had good cover of being exceptional student and a goody-goody and made good friends. Was lower academy (7/8 grades) cadet of the year and student of the year in spring 1967; Dad thought West Point, Mom bought me a motorcycle.

Changed to a more liberal and co-ed school grade 10 and on half scholarship.

Rebellion at home was going to work for the US Forest Service age 16 as was much preferable to Dad's gravel crusher though was a cut in pay (and hours).

Went to presidential campaign 1968 and anti-war rallies in San Francisco and Berkeley between Fillmore West and Winterland shows.

Stopped hunting and was tending to hippy to my Dad's consternation (add being a federal employee)

February 1971 (senior year) got expelled from school because told a teacher of what considered positive drug experiences. Was not caught with nor on nor anything at the school nor providing others with trendy chemical amusement aids, but was technically guilty for events did not specify.

Caught all of us by surprise. opps. Finished high school on the Reservation (but not American Indian).

[Blue_In_AK]

46. We were probably at some of the same antiwar rallies

in San Francisco, but I don't remember seeing you there.

[PufPuf23]

48. Such a time that was.

I think you were that pretty hippy girl. Had to have been.

[Blue_In_AK]

49. I guess I wasn't too bad back in those days.

I never lacked for companionship, at any rate. . It was a lot of fun, wasn't it? We were so young and naive that we really thought we could change the world with our love.

[lumberjack_jeff]

51. It seemed so at the time.

In retrospect, with the exception of a number of road trips in which distance was measured by the six-pack, it was all pretty tame.

[Jackpine Radical]

52. What is "wrong?"

Is it synonymous with "illegal," or with "immoral/disgusting/stupid or whatever?

I would have to confess to (long, long ago, far beyond any statute of limitations) having often done illegal things which I did not consider wrong, and sometimes wrong things that were within the law. And maybe a few things that were both wrong and illegal.

Which of those subsets am I supposed to be answering about?

[Codeine]

53. I was an. . . odd child.

I was simultaneously geeky and punk/goth. I had the highest SAT scores in my school's history but failed all sorts of classes because I simply refuse to do any assignment that wasn't a test. I felt that if I could ace the test I deserved an A, and couldn't reconcile myself to the fact that shit just didn't work that way. In that respect I wasn't "good" but in my own way I don't think I was "bad" either. I was learning!

All my goth friends got into drugs in a big way but I've been straightedge my whole life; never drank or used drugs. And all my punk friends got into stealing and shoplifting shit and vandalizing everything in sight -- I was too "moral" (and too scared shitless) to steal or destroy anything.

The worst thing I ever did was make little black powder explosives from film canisters or used CO2 cartridges with my D&D friends -- we used to set them off at a disused quarry to avoid damaging anything or setting a fire. Even when we were bad we were careful, but that shit would probably put me on a federal watch list now.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

54. Being a kid is all about learning what right and wrong mean.

And learning what things are 'wrong' because they harm another, harm oneself, or harm no one but are considered immoral by various superstitions. That's one reason we do try kids as kids and not adults, and a reason why kids should never be tried as adults, no matter how heinous the crime.