Don't make a good boy go bad*

Somebody must have left a pistol in the ignition

14-year-old boy who shot at cops is “a good boy”

The 14-year-old boy accused of shooting at two cops in Staten Island over the weekend was hit with attempted-murder charges and ordered held on $300,000 bail Sunday — as his aunt called him “a good kid.”

Isaiah Ramos wore black Nike slides, black shorts and a white t-shirt at his arraignment in Staten Island criminal court for allegedly firing on two cops in an unmarked police cruiser shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday.

The targeted officers were in their cruiser near Prince Street and Vanderbilt Avenue around 10:10 p.m. when the young teen gunman walked up and opened fire — missing both cops and the car.

He is a good kid,” the teen’s aunt said outside court. “But sometimes things happen.”

*(For younger readers: this headline is from a late-60s public service ad campaign that urged drivers not to leave their keys in the ignition, with the tagline, “Don’t Make a Good Boy Go Bad”. The message was met with a certain amount of derision from critics.)

UPDATE: Gideon writes to correct me, stating that the phrase was don’t help a good boy go bad, not “make”. As I recall, Gideon needed no help in that regard, nor did anyone make him, but okay.

(1967)