Pyat and the Rape of the Robot Santa

[pyat]

We live across from a elementary school yard. Last night, for a couple of hours, three boys were smashing a 5-foot tall animatronic Santa Claus to pieces. They pantsed it, spat on it, threw it from a low roof over and over again, and pretended to rape it. (EDIT: I think I may have used too strong a term - one of them pretended it "hump" it, which is just the sort of nasty thing 11 and 12 year old boys do to gross each other other.)


Then they scattered the broken pieces on the road.

Finally, the broke the springs from the legs and went off down the street, taking swings at each others heads. I took some photos when they were throwing bits of the school roof and in the road. I tend to ignore anything that happens in the school yard that doesn't involve something being set on fire, or someone bleeding.

For a little while I was telling myself that, hey, they were 11 year or 12 years old. They do these sort of things. I used to do that sort of thing, right? Then I reflected that, no, I didn't. Our destructive tendencies were limited to throwing empty bottles at a brick wall if we were sure no one was looking, and we generally felt sheepish about it afterward. Once, my friend Bill and I smashed up a Ouija board we found in a parking lot because it offended our rational sensibilities. And once I set fire to my bedroom carpet while experimenting with a candle and a glass jar.

Mayhem in the name of science is acceptable! Abusing a helpless human figure strikes me as incredibly disquieting on a deep level, and its not something I'd have ever done.

Ah, the happy laughter of innocent children, right?

Comments

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

If you took pictures, why didn't you call the police? It sounds like a little scare would do them well. Because chances are, their parents aren't raising them.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I called the police a dozen times in the first year we lived here, for various reaons. They either didn't show up, or showed up three hours too late. By the third year we lived here, that crop of bad kids had moved on to high school, and things were quiet for about five years. Hopefully, this is not a portent of another summer of fireworks being shot at houses and kids peeking in my front window.

I might take the pics to the school, though. Odds are the principal knows who they are.

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

Good idea.

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

Yes, the principal would likely be a better bet.