Tough line on thugs

Mar 24 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE news that an Easter crackdown is taking place against yobs who attack trains will be welcomed by every decent law-abiding person.

Some stretches of railway line have become the congregating grounds for anti-social youngsters bent on causing trouble.

Quite why anybody would get pleasure out of placing heavy objects on tracks or chucking bricks at trains is hard to understand.

It must be a very simple mind to do it and not to know that there is an obvious danger to passengers and the attackers themselves.

There is a material cost to society, too, as railway staff have to repair the vandalism perpetrated by these young thugs.

The two-week operation by British Transport Police in itself will not curb the excesses of a minority, but the tough line is a step very much in the right direction.

However, parents must take an even firmer stand, and act accordingly whenever they know – or even suspect – that their children are flouting the law so outrageously.

Do you really know what your child is up to? If not, why not?