City officials want to cut electrical power to the families of vandals
April 27, 2015 8:19 AM   Subscribe

If you live in Farmer City, IL and someone in your family commits vandalism, you'll be asked to pay restitution. If you won't or can't, the city wants to add it to your power bill. And, if you can't pay that, it's lights out for the whole family.
posted by MrJM (11 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Eh, "town considers legal proposal" is pretty thin for a post without something more substantial than a short news link. -- cortex



 
Note this hasn't actually been passed into law yet, it's just an idea at this point.
posted by sp160n at 8:23 AM on April 27, 2015


Well.

Consider Farmer City, IL removed from my "places to travel" list.
posted by entropone at 8:24 AM on April 27, 2015


If it stops these little wankers scribbling *cough* 'street art' over everything with spray-cans then good idea.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:26 AM on April 27, 2015


Baojia?
posted by clawsoon at 8:27 AM on April 27, 2015


Hmm, on reading the article, I'm not as incensed by this as I thought I would be. It sounds like they've tried everything the system gives them to deal with this situation and it isn't working. People have been pressing charges, and the juvenile justice system doesn't seem to have the teeth to solve the problem. I'm not sure I would want to approach this by making the juvenile justice system's teeth sharper, because that seems like something that would catch up people in other situations.

At the end of the day, if these are adolescents, the parents are responsible for them and for making sure they aren't a plague on the whole community. If the parents aren't willing to do that, then maybe the best solution really is to apply pressure to the parents to make them get their kids under control. As long as it doesn't turn into some debtors prison type of thing where you can't get your power turned back on until you pay some amount you'll never be able to pay, I might not have too much of a problem with it.
posted by Naberius at 8:27 AM on April 27, 2015


that's just backwards
posted by ipsative at 8:34 AM on April 27, 2015


Pretty sure this will wind up getting thrown out for the same reason the power company can't cut your power during the winter. Can't freeze a family to death because they have electric heat and a vandal in their home - especially if they can't pay their bill.
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:34 AM on April 27, 2015


Jesus, can they not get meetings together with courts and the probation officers and other youth serving agencies and come up with something better than this? I cannot imagine this solution motivating youth to change their behaviours. God. Have they ever actually met any youth?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:37 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh god the comments section...
posted by Wretch729 at 8:39 AM on April 27, 2015


If it stops these little wankers scribbling *cough* 'street art' over everything with spray-cans then good idea.

I'd just like to point out that street art can also be really witty, beautiful, and a creative use of pretty boring space. There's a pretty wide gap between just tagging something and some of the mural, stencil, and other large scale projects out there, all of which fall under the broad heading of street art. There's some really attractive murals in my neighborhood on completely abandoned buildings.

There's lots of art out there, and a long history of transgressive art. You personally don't have to enjoy it, but that doesn't make it any less legitimate of an art form.

Some of those "wankers" can end up going to really good schools for their craft (street art with spray cans), perfecting it, and make quite a bit of money.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:39 AM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


This doesn't go far enough! The electric company should also punish the descendants of the vandals to the fourth generation. If the family is unwilling to pay, they can always sell the offending children into slavery. It's what God intended.
posted by Behemoth at 8:40 AM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


« Older Kanye West's First Beats   |   You Have to See It to Beelieve It Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments