Hooliganism

Last week, a video made the rounds in social media of a group youngsters, males and females, dragging an old man from a jeepney, mauling him as they tried to grab his bag. That happened at Pedro Gil Street corner Taft Avenue in Manila, reports said.

The crime was videoed by a man who was riding a bus who noticed the commotion. While unable to help, the man reported the incident to the police, and through his video, helped apprehend the seven miscreants.

Soon after, photos with faces concealed were shared, those were the suspects, the captions read.

From how the young ones acted while barging into the jeepney and dragging the old man out, these misguided children were spurred by the braggadocio of being in a pack. Had each been on his/her own, each may try to act haughty, but that haughtiness will not go as far as mauling an old man in broad daylight while other adults fled.

That scene was a scene of children gone wild like animals. And that is telling of the absence of parental control.

We know there are many more like them, made worse by an environment that encourages such hooliganism as society unravels, and families become more and more dysfunctional.

While there are government agencies tasked to handle cases like these, we all know that government can only do so much, especially when the environment in which the children live in is concerned. Yes, the government has its responsibilities, but to randomly throw every misguided child to government is neglecting the fact that first, there is the family, second, the community. These two units must be as invested in the children, much more than government.

After all, long before there was the state, the families and the tribes took care of their own.

As more and more children are becoming inclined to commit violence, the community must move in as a collective to set these children back on track. Either that, or we will just watch them get worse and worst.