Mr. Askew died a tormented death. His violent passing is a warning to a nation in dramatic decline. But it is a warning that is sure to go unheeded.

Imagine being picked on and bullied day in and day out for 10 years. Gangs of teenagers constantly harassing you. When you step out to get groceries, come home from visiting friends, or just try to get some sleep—you constantly live in fear.

Your home is not your castle. It is a gathering ground for 10-, 15- and 18-year-old thugs who get a kick out of mistreating you.

You have tried standing up for yourself, but at 64 years old, you are past your physical prime. You have called the police, your family members have called the police, and several neighbors have called the police, but nothing changes. In desperation, you resort to bribery—paying your tormentors to leave you alone—but that only results in even more thugs assaulting you.

Broken windows. Vandalized gardens. Constant trespassing. A nightmare.

This was the life of 64-year-old England resident David Askew, before his premature death by heart attack—brought on by the mistreatment.

Neighbors said Mr. Askew had been “tormented to death”—“like bear baiting.”

His tormentors would bug him, bug him, and bug him, until he finally exploded in rage.

“This has been going on for about 10 years,” said neighbor Avona Davies. “They tormented David for money and cigarettes. They harassed him every night without fail.” The pack of feral teenage yobs even picked on Askew’s 88-year-old, wheelchair-bound mother, whom he lived with.

Thus is the sad state of British society today. It is a far cry from the society, though not perfect, in which Victorian morals, and strong families, once helped turn a small island nation into an empire.

Yet today, apparently there is nothing anybody can do to control Britain’s young offenders. Is Britain doomed to a future in which its children and teenagers run roughshod over everyone else? Will it even have a future when these teenage monsters become adults and supposedly leaders?

The police, for their part, actually seemed to have put effort into helping Mr. Askew. They periodically staked out his house, they installed video cameras, they built a fence, they even lived in Mr. Askew’s house for a time. And some teenagers even got a firm talking-to.

But it was to no avail.

When the police arrived the final time, the youths were long gone, and Mr. Askew was lying in the garden he often defended.

Police have arrested an 18-year-old on suspicion of manslaughter.

Thus passed a man who actually contributed to society. When a woman collapsed in the middle of the road last December, Mr. Askew was the first one out into the street to help her and call an ambulance.

“We had done everything we could,” says Chief Superintendent Zoe Hamilton, who defended the work of her officers. Surprisingly, Mr. Askew’s mother agrees and has thanked the police for their effort.

And that is the scary part that Britons should pay heed to. There may not have been much more the police could do!

Think of it: 10 years of constant harassment—despite police intervention. Law and order cannot last.

Lest you think Mr. Askew’s case is an isolated incident, consider. On March 2, the Times reported the death of Albert and Kath Adams, both 77. The couple died in a fire when someone lit Mr. Adams’s scooter on fire and the flames spread to the house. Neighbors claim it was a revenge attack after the couple confronted a gang of teenagers who harassed residents and vandalized the community.

Within 12 hours a second scooter, belonging to neighbors in their 90s, was set alight. A message, whether intentional or not, was sent loud and clear from the teenagers to the retirement community: We can do whatever we want, and there is little the police can do. Interviewed residents refused to give their names for fear of reprisals.

The reality of the limits of the justice system became all too clear to restaurant owner Sal Miah on March 12. When teenagers broke into his beer cellar, he chased them down and brought them back to his restaurant, where he told his diners not to worry and his staff to watch them until police arrived. Meanwhile, a bunch of the teenagers’ friends arrived and started trying to kick his restaurant door in.

Fearing for the safety of his guests, he locked the door and went outside to stop the teenagers from getting in and damaging his property. In doing so he pushed some of the teenagers away from his windows.

But when the police arrived, they didn’t care that the teenagers had broken into his property, or that he had managed to catch the perpetrators and hand them over to the police on a platter. Instead, the police believed the gang of teenagers, who claimed Mr. Miah had punched and attacked them.

For his trouble, Mr. Miah was fingerprinted, his mugshot taken; he was charged with assault and battery, and was thrown in jail for five hours. According to police, Mr. Miah should not have tried to apprehend the youths and should have “observe[d] from a safe distance” before calling them.

“This country is getting worse,” says Miah. “You see gangs tormenting people and they are just getting away with it. … The system is a joke.”

The British press carries stories like this nearly every day: drunken vandals, teenage murderers, child abuse, knifings, gang violence.

So does America’s. Whether you read the Philadelphia Daily News or other headlines you will see American youth cursing, kicking, stomping, knocking bystanders to the ground, trashing stores, assaulting law enforcement, “flash rioting,” stealing, murdering and worse.

Collectively, these events paint a dark portrait of a society terrorized by vomit-spewing, hooded, knife-wielding thugs.

The rise of teenage tyranny contains a message that all would do well to heed. It is an intrusive sign of the times.

The biblical book of Isaiah contains prophecy written down for today. Much of the book predicts positive things for our world after Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. But this same book also records many dire prophecies of what will occur just before Christ’s return. Isaiah specifically warns that children would cause a great portion of the violence affecting our nations today.

“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them,” Isaiah wrote. “O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:12). Isaiah said children would be our oppressors. The original Hebrew word means to drive (like an animal), to be a taskmaster, harass or tyrannize.

This verse is a great summation of today’s news headlines concerning young people. Most children do not respect their parents or any authority. They drive society like beasts of burden, always wanting more. They harass and goad. And now some have become tyrannical monsters who murder us.

With society degraded so far—it is a sad thing to say, but no amount of legislation, or even law enforcement, will be able to fix things.

Yet there is hope and a solution to the problems facing Britain today. The solution revolves around the reinstitution of family as the bedrock of the nation. For practical advice on how teenage-tyranny can be solved, read our free book The Missing Dimension in Sex. It will open your eyes to the real God-designed purpose for marriage and family. And it will give you ways to ensure your child becomes a healthy, successful, productive adult.