| Author | Message | ||
     Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 186 Registered: 9-2003  |
Here goes...So I'm approaching the main library, by car (glad of the car, in retrospect) and I see, all in, about 50 loud, loitering African American kids of at least 9th grade age straggling and congregating on the MMS side of the street. A good 10 are all over someone's yard. Several police cars. Hollering. One car up by the school. Kids not particularly responding to the hapless white cop trying to shoo them away. So, PC Maplewoodies. Is this the gang stuff I've been hearing about? Is this what we're supposed to accept as alternative, multicultural behavior? It was intimidating. It was frightening. I got over myself and went in to the library with my 10 year old to take out a few books. I came out to kids laying all over my car. One girl suggested to one large young man that he should get off my car. Fortunately he did. I'm telling you I didn't particularly feel "empowered" to suggest it myself. Something's really, really wrong here in PC paradise. These kids should be home, or at least not hanging on the streets. There should be a damned curfew or something. This is unacceptable. More cops, more rules, fewer brick sidewalks. | ||
| mooewe Citizen Username: Mooewe Post Number: 172 Registered: 6-2001 |
I'm not trying to be PC by asking this, but: if they were white, would you feel intimidated, frightened, unempowered, that the kids should be at home, that there should be a curfew? | ||
| jeffl Citizen Username: Jeffl Post Number: 218 Registered: 8-2001 |
I saw it too. It looked like something going on at MMS. Didn't look very scary to me. Lots of kids walking away, laughing, having fun. Boys, girls, black, white. Looked more like some sort of school event that got too loud and scared some people. There were a few police cars though. | ||
| MEC Citizen Username: Mec Post Number: 27 Registered: 4-2003 |
Yes, we saw them too and there was a police car sitting in the Maplewood Country Club pool lot. The "gang" of kids did intimidate me as well and the first thing that I thought was why are't they at home? | ||
| anon Citizen Username: Anon Post Number: 843 Registered: 6-2002 |
It was a basketball game between Maplewood Middle and South Orange Middle | ||
| sbenois Citizen Username: Sbenois Post Number: 10473 Registered: 10-2001  |
To Quote Mr. Ray Davies: Paranoia Will Destroy Ya ---> Brought to you by Sbenois Engineering LLC <- Hey, it also wouldn’t look good coming out of a motel with your wife’s best friend saying you were just planning a surprise birthday party for her husband...- Arturo November '03 | ||
| emmie Citizen Username: Emmie Post Number: 167 Registered: 3-2002 |
Hey, Moo... who the hell cares the color? Any large bunch of teens hanging out way after dark, on a school night... with no direction, all over my car etc. would bother me too! Hang, be good, but don't hang on my car. | ||
| yabbadabbadoo Citizen Username: Yabbadabbadoo Post Number: 2 Registered: 11-2003 |
I saw them too. A group of 8 or 9 were standing around my car. I asked them to move. They did. No biggie. FF | ||
| Ittap2001 Citizen Username: Ittap2001 Post Number: 1 Registered: 11-2003 |
I think that kids are being kids no matter what color they are.Remember when we were kids or was that to long ago.We did the same things such as hang out after games. Only when we are older do we think it is annoying | ||
| michael Citizen Username: Michael Post Number: 421 Registered: 1-2002 |
Given the fact that this past weekend a child was mugged by a group (gang) of teenagers in Memorial Park (not close enough to home for ya ?) , the vicious act being most likely part of "a gang initianion" (not for the poor kid sent to the hospital, I (call me crazy) would not call it Paranoia But here's what will Destroy Ya Ignorance | ||
| Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 187 Registered: 9-2003 |
Yes, if they were white and that loud and not I would've been intimidated. Yes, I think they should've responded to the police more respectfully -- especially if "middle schoolers." That's grades 6-9, right? No older than 15? I would've, at that age. Yes, it affected me that their behavior and noise and swearing (not just the odd "damn) scared my kid. Yes, I wondered why that many kids in packs were wandering about with no apparent parents picking them up. Yes, I thought it was wrong that a bunch of them were all over someone's yard, seemingly unconcerned about someone's property. And on my car. Yes, my anxiety was enhanced by talk about gangs of late, and incidents near that club. And if our police are so overtaxed, and this kind of carrying on is typical at evening games, well then the school sponsors -- or parents -- should be there to monitor and herd the after game crowd. Where were the parents? These were middle school kids. In theory. | ||
| Hank Zona Citizen Username: Hankzona Post Number: 859 Registered: 3-2002 |
There is a league called the Suburban League...comprised of teams of 7th and 8th graders from various towns...I do not think they are officially school teams per se. The coach for the Maplewood team is a great guy who is active in youth sports in town and is also a referee. I happened to be walking by since I live near the school and a kid I know said there was a fight in the stands between "fans" (on a not as important side note, but worth mentioning, Maplewood was winning big over South Orange I was told). I do not know if they were kids or adults. It is not the first time fights have occurred at sporting events in this country(starting at Little League age events), unfortunately, and it wont be the last. Im guessing that it usually has nothing to do with gangs, since its often middle class and middle age parents doing the fighting, but sheer stupidity and immaturity and lack of control. Regardless of who is involved in it, it's a shame, and I am not saying that the fact it happened should be minimized. Sadly our own state passed a law pertaining to violence at youth sporting events and most likely other states as well. If it is "gang-related", then let the truth be known. But lets not rush to label if we arent sure of the facts. On the other hand, lets find someone willing to provide facts without editorializing or glossing over. As for what happened outside the gym between MMS and the walk home, if you felt uncomfortable or threatened Cynicalgirl, then thats legitimate enough. I am glad that the large youth on your car moved when someone made him aware of it. In my experience, when kids are acting out of line, its often done not aware of anyone else in their environment and when its brought to their attention, usually by one of their own group, they stop, and even apologize. Not always, but almost always. | ||
| Dave Ross Supporter Username: Dave Post Number: 5753 Registered: 4-1998  |
What the heck are they doing on top of cars? | ||
| speedie99 Citizen Username: Speedie99 Post Number: 5 Registered: 6-2003 |
CynicalGirl - Good question WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? Have you ever been at MMS just after it lets out? See how many kids are left unattended for hours at a time to linger in the children's room at the library? Some kids are there from 3:00 until 5:30 or 6 when their parents come to pick them up. This is NOT the afterschool program, just kids with nowhere else to go. It forces the librarians to essentially be the caregivers for this period of time. Is this a police problem? I don't think so...it is the problem of our entire community. Not everyone that lives in M'wood can afford the oh so prevalent nanny or au pair, so the kids get told to hang at the library, which is assumed to be a 'safe' place. This wasn't gang activity, just unsupervised kids, so again we need to ask Where are the parents? Shouldn't they be the ones responsible for their children instead of expecting that our public institutions will take care of it for them? | ||
| buzzsaw Citizen Username: Buzzsaw Post Number: 1118 Registered: 5-2001  |
What was this about a mugging in the park ? There is. | ||
| Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 188 Registered: 9-2003 |
Thanks, speedie99. I sure agree on the parents issue. Various threads on MOL refer to kid misbehavior. Sometimes it's related to African American kids, sometimes white kids. Whatever. I'm disgusted by parents' unwillingness to care for their children, and leave them unsupervised. That's why there's violence issues, and drugs and the rest to the degree that there is. Now, for the record. I smoked dope and related drugs o' the times when I was in high school. I don't advocate it, and when my father found out, you better believe I got in trouble. Just as, the one time cops picked me a 2 girlfriends up for "joy riding" around (we were 15) with some older boys they picked us up. And again, I got in trouble. There *was* a sense of what was appropriate and safe behavior for young teenagers and older teenagers -- and it didn't include being routinely unsupervised, or dropped off at the mall, or dropped off downtown to hang around endlessly. Which is what I see these days, here and elsewhere. So, I would suggest that parents of all colors ought to have been supervising those kids and that it's bull sh*t to assume the librarians will serve as after school caregivers to middle schoolers. The issue cuts across race, and class, and money. I am extremely p*ssed off that the lack of supervision, and it's sometimes negative result, is found acceptable. I think the cops should call the parents and throw the book at them. And if we don't have such a law/ordinance, we should. I knew I was asking for it in some quarters by identifying the racial makeup of the group, but as I said above, just as bad if pink, white or other. I realize this will sound hopelessly old-fashioned, but my father's POV on boredom was something like this: If you've got your family household chores done, and you're making all B's and A's in school, then talk to me about boredom and the need to hang out. I doubt all the unsupervised kids I see around fit those 2 characteristics. | ||
| jet Citizen Username: Jet Post Number: 312 Registered: 7-2001 |
Kids will be kids, black or white . If you show fear to a group of black kids they will play on that . Mess with honky , 1969 or 2003 it's all the same, treat them the same as you would a group white kids everything will be OK . As for the lack of respect for the cops , money can't buy that. Leadership , intimidation & the backing of this community to allow the cops to do what they deem necsessary is what gets respect. | ||
| mooewe Citizen Username: Mooewe Post Number: 173 Registered: 6-2001 |
Hey Emmie, it seemed to me that Cynicalgirl cared about the color. Specific mention of African-American kids, a white cop, gangs, "alternative, multicultural behavior", and sarcastic mention of PC Maplewood. I just was looking for clarification of what she was complaining about - kids, or black kids. | ||
| Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 189 Registered: 9-2003 |
mooewe, any sarcasm was a result of past experience with other threads wherein anytime the group happened to be African American predominantly, or urban in behavior, the person who noted it got lambasted for noting it at all. As it happens, I do wonder how many African Americans are Maplewood police, and whether that would help. At the same time, I was thinking about recent gang incidents, or reporting of same as a problem. What I'd read indicated that often, tho' not exclusively, related to kids of color. So, based on the incident last night, in a location near the site of some recent, allegedly gang-related problems, I had to wonder whether what I was seeing was another of same. And I was complaining about the obnoxious, and to me intimidating behavior of the kids who happened to be African American. I, too, wonder if the fact of the cop being white made a difference. Loud, disrespectful, disorderly kids of that age, of any color, need some discipline and supervision. Elsewhere on MOL some folks have defined this kind of behavior as urban, or just different as a result of culture as if it should simply be tolerated and accepted. I disagree. Were they white skinheads, I think folks would have a different view. For me, if they were a bunch of upper middleclass predominantly white kids their behavior would've been a problem, too. I'm honest enough to admit that had the crowd been wearing appropriately sized shirts and khakis I might've been less intimidated -- but equally irrate that their parents weren't supervising. I also don't get into elevators alone with people whose attire or demeanor I find unnerving. Regardless of color. I am not that PC. | ||
| mem aka "toots" Citizen Username: Mem Post Number: 2322 Registered: 5-2001  |
I have driven past CHS many times when school lets out and all the kids who walk in the street are all African American. I did notice the homogeny of it - there were absolutely no white kids in the street ever. My car had been stopped, I had been shouted and cursed at, my hood banged on, and twice they threw a knapsack under my wheels and once yelled "I'm gonna sue you white b*tch, f* you!" I managed to stop without hurting the kids or the knapsack. Also, there was maybe one cop car with one overwhelmed cop. I would recommend two or three. When I went to CHS, no one ever walked in the street and we never had an urge to shout and curse out cars. Maybe this is just a fad? Either way, I didn't intend to sound biased, this is a factual observation. |
