What About Juvenile Delinquency? (1955)

[Music] here he comes where are we heading tell you when we pick up jamie what's that guy waiting for give him a bomb time again i'll cut it out we'll get in the gym what's the matter you chicken or something come on move it what do you one think you're doing anyway what was that you called us i just bought that car now look [Music] don't you have any homework jamie i told you no going out as soon as the guys come by to get one what time it's already after eight i don't know why you can't stay home for one evening if you follow the woman a little bit [Music] just where is it you're going jamie if i knew i'd tell you i don't know [Music] [Music] what do you have boys or write your orders with my new pencil hey those are great my dad's got one just like it where'd you get it we just swarmed all over a guy fell out of his pocket what when did this happen just before we picked you up we bumped some guy in a big buick and he gets out and starts getting smart yes that's carlos names boy did we give it to him we sure messed him up you should have been there jamie who wasn't i don't know some big ball headed guy what kind of a card you say it was oh it was a what's the matter with you i asked you what kind of a car it was i want to know it was a yellow buick why [Music] what do you want to know for jaime [Music] that's his trouble i don't know but this isn't the place to find out we'll see him in the morning at school when we give this to him jamie how's dad how did you know i i heard it over the radio how is he he'll be all right he's resting now he was terribly shaken up and bruised though oh it makes me sick to think about it jamie i'm sorry dad i'm sorry there's nothing for you to be sorry about son it wasn't your fault [Music] i'm all right now you better get upstairs to bed i'm sorry dad [Music] hey [Music] better take this back jamie we didn't know it was your dad jamie we wouldn't have done it if we'd known leave me alone take it jamie you keep it i don't want anything more to do with it now look jamie don't get smart don't forget you could have been along instead of one of us could have been one of our dads wouldn't see me moping around if it had been my old man don't worry i'm not forgetting a thing just count me out from now on there he is jamie we want to talk to you he's busy have you seen the paper this morning jamie have you read about the special station of the city council they're having this morning and all the things they're talking about doing a curfew upping the age of driver's licenses canceling the football games the parties the dances and everything else and it isn't fair jamie most of the high school students haven't had anything to do with the things that have been happening like last night and the statue that was broken and the theater seats and all that but we're all going to suffer for it i didn't have anything to do with it either and don't look at us we didn't kick over any statues you've got to help us jamie well what do you expect me to do we're going over to the city council meeting right now and see if they won't listen to our side before they do anything about it mr mcpherson said we could go he excused us from school and he said you could go with us look all of you leave me out of everything you're planning all i want to do is mind my own business but this is your business jamie you heard him he's not going anywhere he's no sap we're going to the city council go ahead and laugh right now you guys are more afraid than we are but you're not fooling us you think you can laugh at anybody who stands up to you and pretty soon everyone else is laughing at him and you think you've won well i don't care if you laugh or not it won't be funny if the city council does what they're talking about i wouldn't advise any of you to go to that meeting if i were you i'm warning you are you going with us jamie no he's not i'm talking to jamie what do you want me to do don't listen to you jamie because it was your dad i'll go with you you're not going anywhere so [Music] let's go get the car [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're not talking about franks and letting off speed we're talking about criminal acts of violence i say if these kids want to go around beating up people and wrecking things to prove how tough they are then it's time we prove to them just how tough we are mayor honeywell could we say something i'm i'm sorry what's all this do you have some facts to give us that we don't already have i don't know whether you'd call them facts or not but well everybody keeps talking about teenagers as if we were a bunch of freaks or something we're just wasting time we wasted too much time already we've invited mr mcpherson here he's principal of the high school and he can tell us anything these kids can tell us no no i'm sorry i can't that's why when these students came to me today i asked them if they'd be willing to come down here and put their case before you and i think you should hear what they have to say this is bill stillwell the head of the student council and chuck leawood captain of our football team and sally lawrence here uh senior class president and and jamie jamie's dad was the one who got hurt last night mr mayor i think mr mcpherson's right and i think these students are right too teenagers aren't all delinquents only a few are involved in these criminal acts that we're all concerned about if these teenagers who represent all the rest have the courage to come here then i think we should not only listen to them but i think we should invite them to help us stamp out this vandalism i say let's let them talk all right we don't want to punish all teenagers for the trouble a few are causing but something has to be done you know how serious the juvenile delinquency problem has become we have to take some action to prevent this sort of thing from happening again now if you have some suggestions to offer we're willing to listen to you what can we do and what can you do to prevent juvenile delinquency you tell us [Music] what would you do if you were jamie what can we do about juvenile delinquency what would you say you