For the past 20 minutes police have been following a group of thugs pretending to be Sullivan High School students. They've followed this group as they've circled Sullivan High School from Bosworth to Ashland - Pratt to Albion. Police know the ring-leaders and are keeping a good eye on them. According to the police, they look ready to fight.
3:13 PM: Oops... Spoke too soon. Some knuckleheads started fighting in the 6800 block of North Clark. Police on scene call for back-up.
21 comments:
Well, at least they're there ahead of time and being pro-active rather than reactive. Good for them.
I was walking down Pratt today around 3:15 PM. The cops had a couple of kids in handcuffs; perhaps those were the ones who were involved in the altercation.
The cops were also snapping at kids to get off of the corner at Pratt at Ashland. A group of teen girls took offense to this and argued with the police. One cop yelled at the lead girl, "Don't you have a baby to take care of at home? I'll lock your ass up if you don't move!"
One of the girl's friends had to lead her away because the girl continued to curse out the cop. All of the girls continued to complain: "If we were a bunch of white people standing on the corner, they wouldn't have said nothing! The cops are racist as hell! Fuck the police!"
They missed the point. Fights and other disturbances have been happening around Sullivan since school began, and the first quarter isn't even over yet. The people who live around the school are tired of it. I often find myself walking through there in the afternoons, and I'm tired of the noise and confusion, too. If the kids would just take their asses home immediately afterwards, or at least not hang around the school and the surrounding areas, then maybe they wouldn't have to deal with the police snapping on them.
One of the girl's friends had to lead her away because the girl continued to curse out the cop. All of the girls continued to complain: "If we were a bunch of white people standing on the corner, they wouldn't have said nothing! The cops are racist as hell! Fuck the police!"
I agree they miss the point. I guess the point is they should be free to stand on a street corner and wait for someone to get shot before yelling that the cops don't do their job.
Maybe they did it?
just let the black kids fight. no one is racist, all the crime is because of black people
"The cops are racist as hell! Fuck the police!"
Thats what this young lady is yelling today, but when her babys daddy is beating her ass, then she will be screaming for the police she hates to come & protect her.
The people who scream at the police being racist when they do their job & write on the walls "FUCK DA POLICE" are the same ones when they become victems scream that the police are not doing there job.
The parents stand up and scream at police when the police keep the kids from hanging around corners in the neighborhood, but when there children get shot again they will scream the police are racist for not doing anything about the shooting.
"The cops are racist as hell! Fuck the police!"
Who's teaching the kids this crap? The schools? The parents?
LatinKing you my friend are a 13 year old moron from the suburbs... smile!
LatinKing you my friend are a 13 year old moron from the suburbs... smile!
I can't imagine ever talking to the police or any adult like that when I was a kid. My god - I would never say anything like that to the police now!! What in the gods name is wrong with these kids? That looks like such a nice school - where do most of these kids live?
Boxing Tomboy wrote that one cop yelled at the lead girl, "Don't you have a baby to take care of at home?"
Questions for us residents. What kinds of beliefs, assumptions, or preconceived notions led the police officer to say such a thing to a black, teen girl in our community?
Does such an insulting statement - spoken by a paid professional with a gun - help maintain peace and order or ratchet up racial tension and disobedience?
Are there other ways for the police to speak to youth in our community, when the youths are causing a problem?
Any ideas on how to encourage parental involvement in these ongoing issues?
MJH,
"Questions for us residents. What kinds of beliefs, assumptions, or preconceived notions led the police officer to say such a thing to a black, teen girl in our community?"
You missed one; what kind of EXPERIENCE does the officer have? What have they seen -that you have not- that would make them say such an admittedly unprofessional thing?
Let's compare. "Fuck the police" Vs. "Don't you have a baby to take care of at home?"
Absolute disrespect Vs. an insult.
Maybe she does have a baby at home...
Any ideas on how to encourage parental involvement in these ongoing issues?
Well, if the thought of finding out your child was on the wrong end of a bullet, or the one pulling the trigger isn't enough... I mean all it takes is standing on the street corner doing nothing... or riding on a bus... or sitting in a car... or...
Are there other ways for the police to speak to youth in our community, when the youths are causing a problem?
In this current climate when you're not sure what teenager has a gun, I sort of expect cops to be a little brusque. Not saying it's acceptible, but...
As for the "cops are racist" talk, I blame a lot of sources, not the least of which are "community activists" who respond to nearly every police shooting with cries of police brutality or racism. Seriously, I've looked through news reports and can't find one instance of a police officer shooting a suspect and the community agreeing "yeah, he had it coming. He shouldn't have been doing whatever it was he was doing." So if kids/teens/young adults see that kneejerk response enough times they automatically calculate that police=racist. It's a handy-dandy all-purpose assessment that can use anytime, anywhere without much effort. Of course there are racist cops and brutal cops. But not every situation falls under those two categories automatically.
But as to "are there other ways for police to speak to youth", why worry about that? if I had kids I'd tell them don't even get in a situation where a cop even HAS to address you in such a manner.
Dear I Live Here Too, Avoidance can’t change the subject. Instead of a respectful reply you posited my question against a snarky one of your own. You have no idea about what I’ve experienced or seen in my life as compared to that of the police. Questioning me does not get at solutions to the issues before us.
You seem to suggest that the police officer’s verbal insult behavior aimed at a black girl was the result of the fact that she had possibly insulted him first, or that such behavior can be explained by the job conditions police endure. We all know that our police work in a stressful, risky, and life threatening environment every day. That does not justify trading insults on the street with one child or a group of children. Tit-for-tat exchanges are what children do. Many police officers demonstrate a higher standard of professionalism than what occurred in the incident described by Boxing Tomboy. Unfortunately, many others do not adhere to these standards.
We can opine all we want about 1) what parents should say or do and 2) what’s on the minds of officers when confronted by an unruly crowd of teens. But so far, no has offered suggestions here about strategies encourage parental involvement or how to encourage police professionalism on the street.
But so far, no has offered suggestions here about strategies encourage parental involvement
Like I said before, if the knowledge that hanging out on street corners is a dangerous habit these days doesn't spur them into action, "encouragement" from a stranger won't either. Besides, personally, I'm not into "parenting" the parents.
That beings said, why do you assume the parents are NOT involved. Many parents have to work during the day and when their kids are out of school. Perhaps the mother of this "vocal" teen had already instructed her to avoid hanging out on the corner, to come straight home, etc., and this kid chose to ignore all of this. Kids do this, you know. Don't readily assume the incident that Boxing describes is the result of a lack of parental involvement. You can be involved, but you have to put food on the table too.
So what specific "parental involvement" are you talking about?
MJH,
I also question that policeman's remark to the teen girl. If he knew for sure she had a baby at home, that's one thing. But if he didn't know that for sure, that remark of his was out-of-line.
Unfortunately, there are bad eggs within the ranks of the police who automatically assign the worst types of stereotyping to people of color.
I, well as a lot of African-American kids, were taught how to deal with the police if we were stopped while we were growing up because of the real possibility of encountering prejudiced officers. Yelling and screaming at cops instead of being cooperative, was never presented as a good idea. If you know you didn't do anything, why automatically have an attitude with the police, escalating the situation? Every cop is not a racist out to lock up every African-American and Hispanic person they come across.
I also agree with man on the street that perhaps the young lady and her friends were told by their parents not to just hang out and around after school. We all know how hard-headed teenagers can be. It's the old "in one ear and out the other" syndrome, with a dose of peer pressure thrown in, probably.
Asking a black girl if she has a baby at home to take care of.
What an efficient way to transform a gruff, violent, and attitudey young woman into a simpering, put-upon victim of the white patriarchy!
Check out the big brain on billyjoe. Did they get a new dictionary at the public library you post from? "Simpering" and "patriarchy" are spiffy words for a turd like yourself.
Dear MJH,
I do not see my reply as at all snarky.
You posited a completely one sided argument against the officer. I simply added the element of what "experience(s)" led to the officer to allegedly (hey, if convicted criminals are referred to on the news with allegedly, a police officer deserves no less, no disrespect to BT, or MJH intended) say such an -as I pointed out- unprofessional statement to these kids.
Comparing a civilians experiences against the experiences of a Police Officer and implying they are equal is as absurd as ... oh never mind.
It keeps being pointed out that the girl was black. Does it matter if the cop was black or white? Is it less bad if the cop was black? Is it more bad if the cop was white? Why??
How many of us have seen a crowd of teens, completely out of control, screaming at an officer? I have. It is unbelievable. Personally, I do not see how the police control themselves.
The kids exhibiting these behaviors have no respect for ANYTHING; Not the police, not for school authorities, not for society, not for others property, not for adults, not for their friends, not of getting arrested, not of getting hurt, not of dying, and most importantly, not for themselves.
Ah, "i live here too", I may have been wrong about you when I commented about one of your posts in a different thread. Your post here was spot on. But if you think it's bad now, wait and see what it's like in another,say 10 or twenty years from now.
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