Philly Answers Youth Flash Mobs With Curfew Enforcement 377
Not that it's the first city to enforce a youth curfew, and not that kids on a crime-spree is the only variety of moral panic offered as a rationale, but Philadelphia is cracking down through increased enforcement of a youth curfew law after children and teenagers attacked two people in the Center City district — attacks which, according to police, were coordinated via text messaging.
Re:Flash Mobs Are Nerd News Now???? (Score:4, Interesting)
I was a teenager in Philly and there was a curfew. These curfews make sense, I really don't think you are from there if you don't understand why. Currently, these "flash mobs" are sporadic riots involving violence. Imagine living there. Does some kid being out at 12 at night seem more important than not getting mugged and assaulted out of the blue in what you would think is a nice area because there are literally people around everywhere?
The curfew is not enforced racially, for the record. Under 18, you go in. My friend was telling me about how a while back (7 years maybe) he was out at 4am in Philly when he was like 15 and the police cited him and called his parents and he got in a lot of trouble. He's white. These curfews are because a lot of kids do cause problems that late. Right now, yes, there is the disenfranchised black youth, but let's not act like we can't be against violence in the streets if it means we have to acknowledge instances of violence that generally center around a specific population. All it means is we should probably figure out what is making Philadelphia's black youth so mad (there are a lot of obvious things that come to mind) and at the same time don't let them act out in the interim as we try and fix it because no matter what the reasoning, innocent people shouldn't be hospitalized and stores and delis shouldn't be destroyed. No one has the right to do these things to people.
Re:Philly Flash Mob != Flash Mob (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a reason that doesn't happen much in States where it is a reasonable presumption that many potential targets are armed.
The LA riots happened in LA because there was no serious armed opposition except for a very few armed citizens. The reason they didn't spread to the South (excepting a few minor incidents) is that citizens are ready and eager to waste anyone threatening their safety.
"when you realize that kids as young as 10 were raised in a way where they feel assaulting and robbing people at random is an acceptable Saturday night activity."
I wasn't raised to think that gunning them down is an inappropriate response. A child soldier in Africa can kill you as dead as an adult militiaman/woman.
None of this is new. This guy fought back and survived:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Goetz [wikipedia.org]
Re:it's about class, not race (Score:5, Interesting)
if i recall correctly, african americans were brought here as slaves, and have been excluded from fair economic participation, on a horrible scale, just up to 50 years ago, not to mention lingering prejudice, like yours. and i think you want to deny that history leaves lasting effects
you want to see race as the cause, when history, economics and class are clearly the cause. if you were intelligent, you would see this
it is always the dumbest losers who are racists. so, in one regard, i kind of agree with racist eugenics principles: improve the gene pool, but not by killing people based on skin color or religion, but instead kill people based on their support for racist policies. because there is no better way to identify a low iq person than to hear someone say something racist
in other words: if you kill all the racists, in any society in the world, the iq of society jumps massively
so what do you think about that modest proposal to improve the gene pool, scumbag?
(snicker)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:You're trying to blame others (poor tactic) (Score:4, Interesting)
Dude, you're arguing with the most trollingest troll ever. This guy is a dyed in the wool moron who will respond to your ever post with an incoherent mixture of words and meaningless punctuation. Sorry man but YHBT.
I know it, and I'm pretty much stopping now, but you know... there's just certain things that I don't feel you should let slide. I'm not trying to convince this guy of anything. I'm trying to let him make a fool of himself. Whether he's a troll or not, his bullshit stays on /. forever. I'd rather his legacy be looking like a clown than helping make /. the kind of place where racists can come to get their rocks off. There are plenty of sites for that.
(And troll-dude, FWIW, I've posted a couple GNAA trolls myself in my time -- funny ones, too -- but this kind of racist horseshit crosses a line. It's not funny, it's just dumb.)