Roving mobs -- they're real and they're not spectacular
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Roving mobs -- they're real and they're not spectacular
Sometimes people -- and when I say people, of course what I really mean is Matt Drudge -- can get over the top about youth violence, especially when there's a racial spin, taking a string of less-than-remarkable episodes that don't have a lot to do wiith each other and making it look like "Days of Rage II.' Indeed, my friends over at Media Matters took Drudge to task today for once again stringing together headlines about racially changed youth incidents, but this one time I have to note that...
a) These incidents -- while perhaps overhyped by Drudge in his usual fashion -- are still all too real.
b) and they're alarming, especially the ones I know the most about, here in Philadelphia. In fact, what I find truly appalling is that a horde of young people assaulting random, innocent people on Spring Garden Street probably wouldn't have even made the news had it not been the case that a current and a former Daily News staffer -- the latter broke her leg in the melee -- were caught up in it. You have to wonder -- how many other incidents like this are taking place that the police aren't bothering to tell us about?
I'll make the same point I've made about urban violence in Philadelphia in the past. Conservatives portray this strictly as a case of personal responsibility, of the perps and the parents who allegedly raised them. Liberals look toward societal causes -- lack of jobs, unequal schools, laws that make it easy to buy guns, etc. For some bizarre reason, this becomes an either/or debate.
But clearly, it's all these things.
Ultimately, people who think it's a good idea to rob and maim innocent people are the ones responsible for their irresponsible and thuggish actions, with -- in the case of the younger perps -- an assist from blase or outright bad parents (like the ones described in this other mob incident, involivng Philly kids in neighboring Upper Darby).
But why is it suddenly worse now? CBS News reported recently that the unemployment rate for kids 16-19 years old is a whopping 24 percent, while as recently as 2000 is was just 13 percent. Aren't you less likely to take part in a mob when you're busy flipping burgers or valet-parking cars in Center City, and why aren't policy makers taking aim at youth unemployment? So school's out, no one has a job but everyone has a cell phone and a Twitter or Facebook account, meaning dozens of bored teenagers can come together in a matter of minutes? That's a recipe for disaster.
It certainly was for Emily Guendelsberger, the fomer DN copy editor. now Philadelphia editor of The Onion's entertainment guide called the AV Club. She's in the hospital with that broken leg (get well soon) and you can follow her tweets about bad hospital breakfasts and morphine here. In fact, you can help Emily get well. You can donate money to pay for her medical care.
Why? Well, it turns out that The Onion/AV Club hired her as "a contractor," a fancy way of saying they don't provide health insurance. You know...that's the kind of 2011 corporate America bull(bleep) I've counted on The Onion to make fun of, not perpetrate. Their campaign to win a Pulitzer Prize just got a lot less funnier -- shame on them.
Comment removed.- Yutes are rampaging and I'm the one on drugs...shut up you dummy. You gotta dilute the garbage, look at what concentrating it does...inner city culture is the biggest societal fail since sacrificing good-looking virgins to volcanoes.
— 2ndNlong - Comment removed.
- If you want to find out how widespread this mob violence is in Center City go spend a Friday or Saturday night in the ER in Jefferson, Hanaman or Pennsylvania Hospitals and witness for yourself what is going on unreported in Philly (one friday night at Pennsy a male with a bloody face was beaten and his laptop taken and later in the night a women in her mid 20's came in with a bloody mouth after being punched in the mouth and her I-pod stolen). I think Mayor Mike "doesn't have a pair" Nutty just hopes this problem would just go away, bad for his commericals to "make it a night in Philly". Shame on the newspapers for not reporting this carnage until one of their own is injured. :(— jjstudent
- Look at the makeup of the victims and who are the attackers. Go no further than that and you have answered the question on why these incidents go unreported in the media. — jn3
- How can one correlate youth unemployment with violence? Morality, or lack of, is the core issue. On the day it is reported that reading scores are up to a high of 52% efficiency (and considered a success) Will reports that because youth do not have school they are turning to violence. Is it possible that the 48% not attaining the standard score are also the same performing the violence? Now there's your Pulitzer Will, but it would be attained by reporting the truth - it is primarily black youth - you know it, the school district knows it, the police department know it, the video cameras at the Gallery, SEPTA stations, the schools and Sears show it. And still, you hide behind your keyboard and refuse to call out the root cause, the failure of the black American family value structure.— Taranis
This is simply another example in the beginning stage of the total social breakdown that is occurring to this nation as a whole and will move into the middle stages during the next 2-3 years. Some places will be better than others to ride out the social violence when the breakdown erupts. The fiat debt-money system is imploding worldwide. It is an inescapable force that will consume all social structures in all nations. And this is your wake-up call - a dress rehearsal of the future violence that will soon affect each of us personally.- Comment removed.
- Cleanup - every study I've ever seen shows a correlation, if not necessarily proof of causation - between unemployment and property crimes (if not violent crimes).
If you have a reputable link to information that shows otherwise, I'd like to see it.— Talking point sleuth - I wonder if all your platitudes about these poor misguided youth would hold up if you were on the receiving end of one these vicious attacks? I suggest you look up the term for the difference between employee or contractor. In fact why not ask the people responsible for home deliveries. Maybe they can tell you why the Inky changed the status of adult carriers from employees to contractors.— jeandarc
- Comment removed.
- "Maybe they can tell you why the Inky changed the status of adult carriers from employees to contractors." What makes you think I would apporve of that? It's the same thing.— will
- Comment removed.
- What kind of jobs are there for people who will sucker punch women, go on a rampage through Sears and help themselves to whatever they can carry or wildly shoot up a bar because they got thrown out of the place for smoking? I've been unemployed, but that never made me or anyone I know want to kill, maim and steal. The problem is kids who have been parented solely by public institutions and have no sense of morality. They are as moral and dangerous as feral dogs. Time to admit failure and start over.— tr88
- All the violent chilluns need to be rounded up and put in a boot camp up in the boonies along with the other wildlife.— blackhawk90
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