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Posted by: DeputyFife

Teens' beach behavior has taken a frightening turn



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Kennebunk Police Officer Chris Russell looks over a momentarily quiet Middle Beach Saturday evening.


Laura Dolce
ldolce@seacoastonline.com

August 23, 2007 6:00 AM

KENNEBUNK — It's Saturday night and summer is drawing to a close. You can feel it in the air, in the chill that wasn't there a week ago. Down at Middle Beach, the sun is sinking lower, casting a golden glow over the group of teenage boys perched on the seawall.
This group, it turns out, is just hanging around making plans for the evening. In a town without a mall or a movie theater, with more sand than social scene, is it any wonder that the beach is the main draw for teens with some free time to spend?
Most of the time, that's just fine, everyone says. But when the sun goes down and the stars come out, so do some of the problems that police and neighbors say they've spent years trying to fix. Some of the problems are age-old teen/adult skirmishes — their music's too loud, they drive too fast. But the adults say things have taken an ugly turn this summer, forcing police to step up patrols. And the beach has turned into a scary place.
"We've had property damage in excess of $5,000 this year, with windows shot out," says director of police services Michael Pardue. "That was at two private residences and a large picture window at the Narragansett. We've had girls sitting in the driveway of a residence drinking, young gentlemen playing football on someone's lawn."
"Some teens crashed a function at someone's house and started taking food from the tables," adds Lt. Bob MacKenzie. "Someone drove a truck onto the seawall."
Both say what's even more disturbing is the brazen attitude a small percentage of the teens have shown toward the adults. There are reports of females being barraged by sexually inappropriate comments as they leave their homes, of teens who block the sidewalk, refusing to let anyone pass, of language so graphic that adults feel threatened.

MacKenzie says he's seen some of it firsthand when he's taken his wife and dog for a stroll along the beach in the evening and the teens refuse to move.
"People don't feel they can walk in peace," he says. "There's a genuine fear. People are hesitant for their own safety."
Much of the behavior, police say, is caused by a small group of teens and fueled by alcohol. The town's police blotter reflects this and has been filled with underage drinking and disturbing the peace charges. A few charges, though, have been more serious, and that has both police and neighbors concerned.
There have been two assault charges already this summer, Pardue says. One involved a beer bottle and the other a knife. And while some of the activity has taken place at Gooch's, most seems to be centered around Middle Beach.
"Middle Beach gets the brunt," MacKenzie says.
Residents there say they don't always know what to expect from the teenagers.
One homeowner, who asked not to be named, says teens used to urinate on his wall out front and speed up and down the street.


His wife says it was worse before the new sidewalk was built.
"I used to go running with my kids and they wouldn't move," she says.
Both say things have gotten better, though — especially since a police officer visited with them to hear their concerns.
That officer was Rick Bancroft, whom Pardue says has been spearheading the efforts to resolve the Middle Beach problem by working with homeowners to hear their concerns. Officers have met with as many homeowners as possible and plan to hold a block meeting soon to further address their worries.
Beach Avenue resident Florence Summerhays says she sees a real difference in the way police are addressing the teen problem. Before, she says, they used to pull up and talk to the teens from their cars. Now, "they park, walk, and talk," she says.
Summerhays says the teens across from her house like to do what she calls "dragging," or burning rubber with their tires. She's seen them do other things as well.
"They'll take the car and ride up on the seawall," she says. "They'll try to jump under the hood of the car while it's moving."

Those stunts — along with playing "chicken" in the street with cars — concern Summerhays in so far as she worries that one day someone will get hurt.
"They do more harm to themselves," she says of the teens' antics and what she calls their "heavy petting." "But I don't mind if they gather and talk."
Her neighbor, Adrienne Grant, isn't so sure about that. The artistic director of the Arundel Barn Playhouse, Grant says her hours force her to sleep at different times — a feat that becomes nearly impossible with all the noise out front. She's bothered, too, by the trash the teens leave behind — everything from beer bottles to fast food wrappers. But what worries her the most is the attitude she sees.
"They have such disrespect for the police," she says. "The way they talk to them ...; that's prompted me to go to the police station."
For their part, the teens say cops are hassling them, targeting them because of their age and looks. They use words like "profiling" when they talk about how they're pulled over or stopped when they walk along the seawall. They also say the homeowners and renters who live along the beach think they own the place, that they don't want anyone else to use the beach.
(To be continued in next week's Coast Star.)

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Posted by: rg1283

Get Paul Kersey out there with a bat or something

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Posted by: adroitcuffs

It's a reflection of the change in social mores overall. There was a time when society, as a whole, was likely to shun those who behaved in such a way. Now, attention to misbehavior is called "profiling". It's only going to get worse...

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Posted by: KozmoKramer

And "In Your Face" obnoxious behavior is considered cool Cuffs.
Ever see Tapout on VS.? The latest reality shows? Some criminals behavior in court for Gods sake.
If your stupid and obnoxious, that has rewards nowadays, regrettably.

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Posted by: DANIPD

Quote:

Originally Posted by rg1283 Get Paul Kersey out there with a bat or something

.....Haha...Now that would be a little too vicious!!!

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