I am one of those people who watch videos on Facebook.   I am amused by the stories about terrible mothers-in-law or fractured families.  But recently, there seems to have been an increase in the number of videos where people are driving while drunk and being stopped by the police.

It’s not surprising to me that this happens, but what is surprising is the responses that these people give to law enforcement.   I’ve watched twenty-somethings blatantly disregard questions or commands—like, “step out of the car, please…” or, “do you have your driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance,” all while texting on their phones and not paying attention to the officer.  Once the office decides to make the arrest and says, “You are under arrest for DUI, put your hands behind your back,” it’s not unusual for the drivers to say, “No.”

Phones seem to be another point of contention with people in these videos.  If an officer tells them to stop texting, they absolutely scream that they are entitled to use their phone.  Which, of course, if followed by a mouthful of disrespecting comments, most of them starting with “F.”

I’ve seen 18-year-olds scream, “do you know who my father is?”   Or, a personal favorite of mine, “Just wait, I’m going to sue the entire police force, you don’t know who you are messing with.”

I saw one young woman tell an officer that her boyfriend was a Supervisor in the FBI and her father was the President, so no one could “mess” with her.  She seemed to be totally unaware that her car was facing the wrong way into oncoming traffic and that somewhere along the line, she hit a tree.   When the office who stopped her found an open bottle of wine in her front seat, her response was, “so what?”

Some of the people I saw in the videos weren’t even drinking.  There was a woman who was texting while driving and was pulled over.  The officer noticed her young daughter in the backseat of the car and scolded the woman for not paying full attention to driving, especially when she had a child in the car with her.  After the officer told her why she was being detained, the woman said, “Well, my husband is a lawyer, so you can’t stop me.”  But stop her he did.  After he issued the citation, she yelled, “My daughter just had an accident in her pants because you stopped me from going home in time.”   His response, God love him, was, “At least she’s alive because I stopped you from texting and driving and getting into an accident.”  You could hear her sputtering as he walked to his car.

And then, there was the video where a woman thought she hit a deer.  She went on her way but wasn’t sure if what she hit was a deer or a dog, so she came back to check.  It turned out that what she hit wasn’t a deer or dog, but a person, who later died.  She left the scene again and called her father, asking him to come and pick her up.  Neighbors in the area alerted police who found her trying to run away, even though she was barely able to stand up.

But my all-time favorite has to be the woman who was driving drunk, hit a fence, a tree and finally a house.  The homeowners called the police and when they found the woman, she began the conversation by saying, “Officer, a house just hit my car.”  And, of course, by the time the arrest was underway, she was screaming obscenities and kicking the officer.

And that’s the part I just don’t get.  When did people get so entitled that they think it’s OK to break the law and scream bloody murder when they are caught?  What happened to respecting property?  What happened to respecting people in authority?  What happened to respect for others?

I hear the word, “entitled” very often in the titles of these videos and I just shake my head in wonder.   Have parents stopped teaching children right from wrong?  Have they convinced their children that they are so special, they are above the laws of the land?  And if they have, why?

What in the world did these parents think was going to happen to their children believing  that they would never have to be accountable for their actions?

OK, I’m old, I admit it.  I’m old enough to remember an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” where a new boy in town was riding his bike on the sidewalk, hitting people coming out of stores.  When he was told by Barney to stop, the boy just went on his way and continued to ride wherever he wanted.

Andy got involved and took the bike away from the boy, who cried, with no tears, and yelled and screamed at Andy that he couldn’t do that and his father would get the bike back for him.  The boy’s father came to the court house to get the bike back and told Andy that it was no big deal for his son to ride on the sidewalk or ignore Barney’s warning.  It was the old, “Don’t you people have anything better to do than harass a child,” speech.    Andy said, (not verbatim), “When he’s in your house, he can do whatever he wants.  When he’s out in society, he answers to a different set of people and a different set of  rules and he is responsible for what he does.”

We need more Andy’s in the world of parenting.

What happened to respect?