not all young teenagers / families are complete scum and sometimes a word from the bobby is still enough to make some of ’em realise what they are doing is immature and stupid… if they were real scum they’d be smashing windows, not just ringing strangers door bells (which I’m sure everyone has done as a kid at least once)
during the 1990s there was still an old skool type village bobby in the suburb of Reading I lived in, he was a smart chap who left youths alone when they were just hanging around and not causing problems, but would have a friendly word with you when you were genuinely being out of line. He managed to stop problems a lot better than another cop in the same area who acted like something out of “Life on Mars” to the point he was viewed as a comedy figure (even by the rest of the cops) and eventually invalided out of the force on mental health grounds!
