That guy was a complete jerk (nice term). However when parents say stuff like "if that's my kid that guy would be in trouble" is part of the problem too. Us boomers know that when there was a problem we were never considered right even if you were. You respected adults (even that jackass) and let the police deal with it. Our parents would have a conversation with the guy but bowing up to that person shows your kids that they don't need to follow the rules (that is if they are on private property). Those boys did great job of restraining themselves. I think the jerk owes them for new rods/reels, and parents should press charges for what he did. Kids need to know if they were wrong and told don't do it again. Police will explain to the jerk with charges and restitution that he was wayyy out of line. Just because someone talks to your kids doesn't mean you have to bow up also and be a man-Karen. They your sons will not learn proper respect. As a kid back in 60s/70s we would have just left to stay out of trouble. If you teach your kids that you will want to bow up for this they will have missed a bigger lesson. We all want to protect our kids but lessons learned are better in this situation. You won't be able to teach that jerk anything but your son has many years and lessons to learn. Not trying to upset you bc we all wanna protect our kids.