Oldgringo wrote:OTOH, it's unlikely, though possible, that this scenario will occur in rural areas or hunting/fishing/hiking/camping or otherwise 'outdoorsy' locations.
Stay alert, wherever you are, because you just never know...
When I was a NY State Park Policeman, about 100 years ago, well, 40 anyway. we had just such an incident occur in one of our picnic areas.
The nearby city, Albany NY, had a "fresh air program" where they would bus inner city kids out to the park for a day in the sun and pool and such. Poor cleanliness habits and lacking social skills aside, it worked ok most of the time, but there was a small cadre of gang kids who would take the bus out there specifically to prey on the even more defenseless.
In one such situation a family on a picnic in one of the remote spots returned to ther car to find a group of 6 to 8 teenage toughs sitting or lying on the car and using it for a toilet and canvas for art.
In 1971 there were no cell phones, and the park wasn't equipped with a call box, so their options were to hike up to park HQ, or hope that they could flag down a patrol car or cycle. Now we did patrol very often, but even then it was a relatively long and scary situation. At least they had the sense to move back into the picnic area where they had more people around them and wait for us to show up, and when we did the radios crackled to life and thugs ran every which direction. Even on park trails an Electra Glide can make good time.
One of the neat things was that the only way for them to get back to the city was the bus they came up on, or to hitchhike, and since they came out on the bus they had no idea how to get home. And we arrested hithhikers in the park.
That afternoon we just stationed the parents and a couple of patrolmen, myself included, at the buses, and when the BGs were IDed trying to board, we took them into custody.
"Hello, Mrs Soandso? Your child has been detained by the NY State Park Police and unless you come pick him up at Park Police HQ, will be arraigned and deposited at the Albany County Jail where you may make bail." Albany County did not have a really separate juvie facility at the time, just a separate part of the jail.
Of course the parents were never going to come to HQ, where they would have been issued an appearance ticket too, and the jail was on a city bus route, so the kids were arraigned by a Town of New Scotland JP and transported. None of the kids could produce ID showing age either, so they were essentially treated as adults, and a couple of them should have been.
I have no idea what the end results of the cases were. The kids were charged with Assault; (not A&B) Disorderly Conduct; and a couple of other things.
We took to meeting the buses when they came in and frisking the kids, anythign that even remotely resembled a weapon was confiscated and held at HQ until claimed by a parent or guardian. After a period of time all such contraband was transferred to the NY State Police, and if not claimed in (7 years?) eventually destroyed. One or two guns over the course of the summer, numerous switchblades and gravity knives as well as screwdrivers and jackknives. The kids with the guns were arrested.
It was a different world in the 70s.
