Ive stated ,as well as others, for a long time that we hear more and more about this because we now have (for the past 30 years or so) a 24 hour news broadcast. Today we have more outlets than ever before to get information from.
That said, and piling on something that
@CZfool68 stated - people dont care about consequences anymore, it's too easy to not truly get punished.
As you know, Im an educator. Yeah, Im one of the liberal educators brainwashing your kids or whatever some of yall think we do
And I can compare kids today to what I experienced two decades + ago, it's different. Not a great deal, but it seem the bad has gotten worse. Being in the building, I see what gets tolerated/passed along, as far as actions go, not speaking of knowledge/education.
I see what parents 'accept' these days and how, usually, it correlates to the child's behavior/actions.
I think back to when I was in school and how things were in the home as well as in the school. I got paddled at school once. One lick. I had the option, I could take the lick, or they would call home - well, much like many of you, home was WAY worse, so I opted for the lick.
I recall a particularly 'bad' day in 5th grade...just a rough year of school for me ... but I recall that day my principal having me in a headlock dragging my butt down the hallway because I was acting a fool.
They went hands on, and Im THANKFUL for them.
That year, to my knowledge, only two kids got paddled for 'fighting' (shoving back and forth, really) during gym, I was one of them. Kids knew not to screw around or Mr. Daniels would pull that paddle out. We feared him. Respected him, but feared too. He had made an example of us and it worked.
My dad went hands on, not abusive, but physical punishment, and I am now THANKFUL for that. I loved my father (loved? Hell, I still do!), but I also feared the heck out of him. I wasnt always the best kid, and I know I caused him and my biological mom a lot of headache and worry, but he disciplined me and Im thankful today for it.
Anyway, today these kids have little fear. Ok, tehy do something dumb and get suspended or ISS (in school suspension) - cool, no work for them! They get in trouble at school and we call and so many parents ask, "Well, what am I supposed to do with him?"
Parents are parenting anymore.
Schools dont discipline enough anymore.
There is no more paddling. Today you get ISS or suspended at worse. I mean, sure, you do something REALLY bad and you can be expelled, but that usually involves a gun. Not even knives.
Back in my day, kids that got popped with cigs got suspended. Today their first time they get a 3 hour 'tobacco education' course on a computer they have to take. Three hours about how it can hurt them etc. Didnt they get this in DARE? Why are you putting them through this, they know it already.
So, back to this - parents dont parent, police dont police enough (or, if they do, the gov is releasing the folks to go do more, no real consequences) and so things spiral downward.
Are we really expecting the citizens to behave better if we lessen consequences? Sorry, this aint no socialist utopia, humans gonna human and it's not pretty.
So here we likely have a child that has been taught how the cops are so bad and that you can do whatever, it'll be ok.
Time to start making an example out of some folks.
[sorry for the wall of text]