The point, and what I was struck by, is the depravity of the behavior—not that slapping a cell phone out of a person’s hand is an especially grave crime, but that it was done for no other reason than the assumed suffering it would cause.

And that type of behavior is on the rise. Hundreds of teenagers in Chicago this weekend gathered for a so-called “teen takeover” of the city. They kicked in windshields, set vehicles on fire, looted stores, and brawled with police. One group surrounded a woman outside an apartment building, assaulted her, and took her belongings, while another stomped on the prone bodies of their peers.

Predictably, local leaders defended the rioters. State senator Robert Peters called the riots “a mass protest against poverty and segregation.” Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson said “it is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”

It might not be constructive to “demonize” them, exactly, but it is certainly not “constructive” to justify their criminal behavior on the grounds that they lack “opportunities.”

[We’ve spent the last three years, at least, treating the little darlings as victims. In terms of in-school discipline, we’ve been treating them that way for more than a decade. How has that worked out for us? Has society gotten appreciably better — or worse? Are streets safer, or worse? Are teens becoming more productive and successful? We know the answers and we know the reasons why we’re seeing social spirals, especially in urban cores. Without effective discipline, you get mayhem — a lesson we keep having to learn over and over again. — Ed]