Sounds like the old days...
My father used to tell me how the police, back in his day, would “scare” young boys with an “arrest” and a ride in the police car for, say, sneaking into a movie theater.
But, in this case, the problem is that there’s no father in the home. And, even with a father in the home, he would have to be a good father, or this boy still would lack a good role model.
I put my sons into church youth groups and in activities with strong male role models, such as scouts, etc. I hope these moms are looking into those things, too.
We had a few officers in our small community....one named ‘Yorky’ nobody forgets even to this day. He was a midget. But there’s not a kid in town who wasn’t afraid of him. His voice was so deep it scared the daylights out of you...when he spoke we jumped! On the other hand he was good to all the kids as well...we loved it because he was no taller than we were!
But kids respected the officers then...as well other adults. If our neighbors saw us up to something we shouldn’t be they didn’t hesitate to raise their voices. Today “you can’t interfer”.
My dad died when we were young from military wounds...when my brother got to be about twelve my sister’s boyfriend said he needed to toughen up like a young man.....so they put him on their farm to work during hay season. He took his “butterfly net” because he was into science and biology......can you imagine what those big tough farm hands put him through! But he learned...he did learn. LOLOL