Posted on Sunday, 11/01/2009 - 9:21 a.m. PST — by tellthetruthg
Parents do need to be around at these events. The reason, "they have little one's at home and can't make" it doesn't ring true with me, because if they wanted to go out for fun, I'd bet they can get somebody to watch the kids. As far as others doing what the parents should do, I'd rather they are in addition to not a replacement. I hate to say this but I do see the basic morals of human decency becoming more and more lost in the young people as a whole. Not just with inner city kids either.
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Joined: Nov 2009
Current Posts: 2
happened.
The school DOES hold responsibility here. Instead of talking about where to point fingers at they need to start to figuring out how to prevent this from ever happening again!
If there are not enough chaparones on staff and parents then the dance should just be cancled, its all about safty.
Nobody should be allowed to leave the dance unless a parent picks them up at the door. It's not hard to do you have the parents who are chaparones stationed at the door with a sign out sheet for the parents and they could go as far as asking to see the parents drivers license just to make sure. The school could also have permission slips for the dance, with names of the parent who will be picking them up.. no changes acceptable at the door, they leave with the person named on their slip.
If you dont have a ticket for the dance you dont belong on campus, or you will be picked up by the police or security.
The dances do not have to be at night, they could be an after school event or even during school after lunch. Anyone with out a school ID is told to leave or they get arrested.
These are just some ideas off the top of my head. I don't have a child at this school and I don't live in this community but the situation sure makes me angry that it happened. What also makes me angry is people who are pointing fingers when it all comes down to these monsters who hurt this girl. They also hurt the community as well.
My bigger question is... What is the community as a whole going to do to help prevent this again?
Will they have the ability to work together to make it safer?
Joined: Sep 2007
Current Posts: 411
So true, the school is partially to blame. What I keep hearing ppl out here asking is why didn't the father go looking for his daughter if she already called him to pick her up & she never showed up? I started thinking, "Wait a minute here, something isnt right w/ this article." Two girls r making her out to be a humble, shy, bullied church girl but she wanted her father to pick her up way in timbuktoo somewhere instead of AT THE SCHOOL?? Like she was embarassed or for whatever reason wanted to walk alone? She didnt tell her friends bye or asked them to walk her (if embarrasment was the case as w/ kids that age). The two girls that spoke to the school said they knew the older boys had came to their dance & was hanging out front for all to see. The school allowed it & did nothing. Unless she disappear on a reg basis, why wasn't pops concerned enough to look, notify the school or call the police? And why would she leave w/ a BOY off into the cuts TO DRINK w/ OLDER BOYS when she already had pops coming to pick her up? Not to say the friends r lying in this case, but this is why many never believe the image parents or the media put on victims who make the news...Although, true enough it doesn't matter whether she was a grown woman, a parolee or a prostitute, NO MEANS NO! (but of course, few brain-deads in this particular forum wouldn't careless about young victims should they be black, Asian or Latina & put themselves in a situation or have a criminal background( as they always say). With that they deserve everything that happens to them, even murdered (as they ALWAYS insinuate) .
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
This unconscionable and vicious, unprovoked assault upon a young girl tolerated by members of the community should be a cause celebre for the feminist movement in this country which has always fought against the victimization and rape of women. But I haven't heard anything to date. Why isn't the outspoken feminist movement in this country speaking out against this horrific act and what it says about the continuing debased status and objectification of women in our society today still?
Joined: Nov 2008
Current Posts: 601
Good question.
Joined: Jun 2008
Current Posts: 163
their agenda. Meaning................ If the victim isnt from the far left or hollywood left wing acrtress, then they don't give a s h i t about it. Thats why they havent spoken out about it.
And I can back it up.
Joined: May 2009
Current Posts: 424
I'm sincerely curious, when you offer to back up your sobering point. Because I cannot recall a time they ever did choose to speak out just because the victim was a celebrity.
Please give examples?
Joined: Sep 2007
Current Posts: 411
Because the girl is 15 & youth advocates need to step up, once the facts of the story is out. Not just hearsay from the media. But until than I'm wondering if CPS or police questioned the father. There's plenty of blame to go around but there could be only one reason why the media & police would be focused in one direction, something many of us have seen for generations. If it's true, it isn't going to fly very long. Times have changed. Ppl want answers
But yes, I know one gawd dahm thing whether it be a son or a daughter, if any of my babies call me to come pick them up & "THEY ARENT AT THE MEETING SPOT", than I call the cell I bought them to stay in touch & "NOBODY ANSWERS"....A mother's lioness instincts automatically kick into high gear & most of us go in "kill" mode. Than after 10 minutes, if my cubs didnt return my call or I didn't see them along the route & none of their friends have a clue...It's a wrap. The hunt is on. Now fathers are even more protective, and physical, so I can't understand why this man didnt freak out. Most every parent around here said they would have walked to & around the school & in dark areas along her path prepared to deal w/ the worst. And not to be mean, just imagining what was in their heads...the school probably didnt think any female students would walk off alone @ ""9:30""?? I mean at that age who isn't w/ their bff's on a special night like that & all spending the night 2gether catching a buzz?
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
I was wondering the same thing myself. Something fishy in this story that was never explained. What WAS the father during that two hour period?
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
From the articles I've read, this young woman left the dance early and had not yet called her father because she ran into a classmate who was drinking with the soon-to-be rapists. She never made the call, so her father wouldn't come to pick her up until the dance was over.
I've heard an unconfirmed story that when the girl's father called her cell phone, one of the perpetrators answered and told him in the crudest terms how much they were enjoying his daughter's company. Then they laughed and hung up.
I don't know why you want to question the girl's conduct unless you're wanting to excuse the alleged rapists. She went to the dance alone and left for reasons unknown. Maybe she was bored. Maybe someone upset her. She's the only one who knows. Media has reported that she drank a large quantity of brandy, but whose word do we have for that? Was it laced with Rohypnol or GBH? We don't know.
We do know that a terrible crime was committed against a young girl and that there is NO justification or excuse for the perpetrators. Her life has been changed forever just because she left a school dance early. I really don't need to know why she left. I'd rather know why men and boys join in cruelty and commit vicious acts against helpless young girls. That's the only mystery in this story.
Is that enough of a feminist statement for you?
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
no, your personal statement doesn't suffice. It needs to be an official Feminist organization and an official spokesperson.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
NARAL concerns itself with reproductive rights, but since you accept NOW as an "official Feminist organization," you can read an "official statement" from an "official spokesperson" about the Richmond tragedy at the California chapter's website.
Here's a portion of NOW's statement:
"California NOW has been working for years to get educational tools about respect, consent, and sexual harassment & assault into our high schools, and cases like this show just how necessary it is. We will continue working at the local and state level to encourage media and education that teaches young men and women about health interaction. Just as we need comprehensive sex ed in high schools, we need a comprehensive curriculum dealing with issues of consent, rape, and respectful treatment of women and girls.
Our schools already have zero-tolerance policies on drugs and weapons, we need a state-wide zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment and assault in schools. Nothing less is acceptable."
If you care about preventing crimes like the Richmond tragedy you can join, donate money, and support "official Feminist organizations" or groups like Men Can Stop Rape. You might also ask your local media if they received a press release from NOW, and if they did, why they did not print it.
Joined: May 2009
Current Posts: 424
B_Traven, I see we were conjuring up similar reactions at the very same time ... though I took longer to compose then post mine. I'm very glad to see the unique issues you brought to light.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
Thanks, Chris! I've been following this story like a lot of other people because of the number of young men who participated in or watched this vicious crime continue for HOURS, not minutes. I feel real sadness for this young girl and send her every good wish for healing in mind and body.
That said, I've been disgusted by the media. Tammerlin Drummond's commentary began with statements about the volume of alcohol the victim consumed before the attack when none of us really know the facts. It's irrelevant in any case. There's no denying she was assaulted by a number of men and boys, and she's too young to consent to anything, drunk or sober. What she drank or didn't is not the issue here unless you want to excuse the perpetrators and blame the victim.
Byron Williams, another Tribune columnist, used his bully pulpit to link this crime to historic lynchings and more unbelievably, to the death of Oscar Grant, III. It's a stretch to compare a lynching in the Deep South to a gang rape in Richmond, but I can make that leap easier than I can connect the dots to the shooting on the BART platform. The one link that seems clear is the wish to push racial "hot buttons" and keep the focus away from the victim's suffering. Latinos, African-Americans and Caucasians are the alleged perpetrators, the victim is Caucasian, and that makes the media uncomfortable. An ethnically diverse group of alleged criminals and a white victim doesn't lend itself to boiler plate journalism. The Chronicle called this crime "inevitable," and an assembly member linked it to foreclosures. As Marvin Gaye sang, "Make me wanna holler!"
IMHO, the central issue here is WHY would any young man treat a vulnerable young girl this way, what can we do to prevent the next crime and how do we raise our sons to be better human beings. I really don't care what this girl drank, why she left the dance, what she was wearing, why her father couldn't find her immediately or any of the other issues some people seem obsessed with now. I just don't want this to happen again.
I'm not sure why anyone wants an "official statement" from NOW. I do know a little about them because I was a crisis line volunteer many years ago. NOW doesn't have a lot money or power or any of the other things some people must imagine when they think "offical Feminist organization." NOW is made up of volunteers who donate a little money and/or time in the hope of making some positive changes in the world. In other words, they're people like us.
Joined: May 2009
Current Posts: 424
I agree with everything you say here, 500%.
I also disagree with call for NOW or NARAL officials to insert themself into this topic, because imho its very premise seems to blame societal apathy on them. As if it's somehow their fault for not diverting from the already valuable yet underapreciated work they already do in OTHER realms.
Instead, IMHO, news report saturation we've already seen on this atrocity, should be enough to make society care. And if it doesn't, diverting those busy activists from other crucial work elsewhere, won't! Apathy by that same call, towards society's dirty secret of epidemic of violent crimes against women daily (that I spoke of), JMHO, itself says unseemly things itself about its own apathy and sensationalism.
Joined: May 2009
Current Posts: 424
IMHO, it's the prevalence of violent video "games" and movies; ongoing glorification of violence in general, and against women in specific, in "rebellious subcultures" (hiphop and others); longtime deficient parenting in our families; ETC.; that are far more at fault for this crime. And trumping them in blame is the catastrophe of bad parenting handed down from one generation to the next, which entrenches such lack of ethics. Even bluepeas has in the past noted: Children learn what they live. To make more compassionate, less violent, society, imho, we need look to making better HOME environments, and, reducing/eliminating entertainment that promotes/glorifies sociopathic behaviors.
JMHO
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
maybe concerned members of the larger community should come together in protests and vigils and picket some of these rap artists of violent hip hop and hyphy.
I see little way parenting can be affected in the present status quo. But I do think if parents and community were to come together and urge a boycott of violent video games and film and there was actual picketing of outlets selling these products it would create more public awareness. I know Tipper Gore when Al Gore was VP launched such a campaign.
Even writing letters to the editor decrying these products or asking important figures to speak out on these subjects would help.
I agree with Ron in one sense. Hollywood has been a purveyor of the degradation of women as well but Hollywood is no longer the entity we think it as as most of the big box studios are big corporate entities. So it's really corporate exploitation of women and violence that we are talking about when the day is done. And that's another taboo topic.
Joined: May 2009
Current Posts: 424
Then, it seems your agreement is with my comment on Hollywood, since Ron didn't say that, I did.
Joined: Jun 2008
Current Posts: 163
Exactly................
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
I'm glad to hear NOW has a statement about this rape. It is not the first brutal rape in Richmond as one occurred against a lesbian as you might recall several years ago. Richmond is obviously a community that needs local attention from the women's movement in particular. Too often progressive groups just collect a lot of money but don't do enough grassroots outreach and local work. This is true about a whole lot of progressive organizations unfortunately which just become dues collecting operations and don't do grassroots educational outreach anymore. Instead, they rely on lawsuits and paid staffmembers.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
When I volunteered NOW didn't collect much money, but members who gave unselfishly of their time kept us going. We reached out to the community at every opportunity. I learned a lot -- how to run a tv camera for their community access program, handle their phone crisis line, cook chili for fundraisers, go door to door to support decent political candidates, and yes, we filed one law suit. It all helped, and the law suit was necessary and good, imho.
Richmond needs more than NOW can supply. I'm sorry to say that I believe that for all the progress we think we've made the status of women in this country is lower than it has ever been in my lifetime.
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
B Traven, whether the status of women is worse than it's ever been, I'm unsure. But I'm sure the flourishing internet pornography industry, Hollywood and rap music industry are not helping to improve the image of women in any way and are portraying women as objects in many ways. It seems while women supposedly have "equal rights", the policy of this country and our government does nothing to support women in their special role as reproducers of society. In fact, the role and responsibilities isn't even acknowledged. Not only have women not obtained equal pay, but women have never received free day care support which I'm a strong believer in for working women. Women now have become equals supposedly to men in all the responsibilities they are supposed to bear while receiving no special benefits for the extra role they must play. So in a certain sense I agree with you that it's been a pyhric victory. And many professions still do not accept women and women pay a huge price for even attempting to take on professional lives. It's one of our society's big myths that a woman can do it all. If a woman tries, either her personal life (marital) or her children suffer and pay the price IMO.
Also, you raise good points about NOW. Also about the columnists/media coverage. I don't see how anyone can write a rape was "bound to happen". How did these omnipotent media people know something the rest of us didn't know? And if so, they should have warned the school and the parents if they knew this was "bound to happen"!
I believe the racial aspects of this crime make it very uncomfortable for liberals to acknowledge: i.e., the fact that there are crimes against white people for racial reasons as well. So there is an attempt to justify and rationalize the crime in all kinds of absurd ways rather than trying to understand the root causes and why so many people witnessed the rape and DID NOTHING! That perhaps is really the most shocking, if not the most horrific, part of the brutal attack against this young girl. So understandably, the liberal journalists do not want to focus in on this. Because that raises new questions about what kind of people as a society are we raising with what kinds of values? What kinds of human beings exactly are these? What has ghetto life done to degrade individuals and their values?
Yep, nobody wants to talk about ghettoization and ghetto culture and its effect upon human beings and how it degrades and corrupts them. It is a taboo subject but yet it impacts practically every facet of a person's life in the Bay Area whether people recognize it or not, particularly in Oakland where this culture has been given free reign and legitimized for better or worse by the larger community. And it's not just black culture per se as we see more and more Hispanic and even Asian gangs now.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
Great posts from all of you, and I agree. We've got a societal problem that we can't begin to discuss, and just one aspect of that is the influence of violent and misogynistic attitudes on ALL young people, as Traveler wrote. If you criticize the garbage that's now presented as a "culture," you're called "old school," at best and "a racist," at worst while rap, at its worst, is just hatred set to rhyme with a deafening backbeat. Ever hear "Stomp that Snitch" by Young Buck?
Society's lowest common denominator rules with the support of people who should know better. While those attitudes were once seen as the expression of a lack of education and ability, and people who behaved that way were known as "trash" and avoided now the middle class admires and emulates them. Oakland has not only "legitimized" cr@p culture, we support it with a big chunk of our tax dollars. I offer you Mayor Dellums recent wish to "legalize the Sideshow" as just one example of that attitude.
As a nation, we have no respect for women, and you're right -- we don't support the role they play in raising the generations to come -- but we're all paying the price. I see young women every day who are burdened with children they don't want, can't support, and only mistreat or ignore. They have no future. Few of their children will do any better than they have (and some will do worse) because they don't have the perspective that would allow them to either leave East Oakland behind them or stay and make it better.
I don't have the answers, but I do believe it all begins at home. Somehow, we've got to reach these children long before they view gang rape as just another form of entertainment.
Joined: Sep 2007
Current Posts: 411
""Unless you are an official Spokesperson for NOW or NARAL...no, your personal statement doesn't suffice. It needs to be an official Feminist organization and an official spokesperson.""
lol, too funny
Joined: May 2007
Current Posts: 9
I was wondering the same thing about being drugged. How could she become so drunk in a short period of time. Did they drug her drink or give her something and that is why she was out of it so fast.
Joined: May 2009
Current Posts: 424
AFAIK, no it has not. NARAL's mission is about abortion rights. NOW's mission is about gender parity, economic justice (to integrate women into male dominated society). Neither group, nor the SF Women Against Rape group, have ever publicly commented on any of the grisley crimes against Bay Area women that come to mind.
Every single day in our country, a minimum of 3 women are murdered in acts of domestic violence by partners. Many more than that are violently raped or maimed. EVERY DAY. And this repusive statistic has been true for years and years and years.
Speaking for myself, I don't need to hear any agenda-driven political club tell me one specific incidence of evil crime awful for me to know the entire epidemic of it is.
But, your mileage may vary.
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
Rape victims lifted. In addition, they work on legislation state by state to provide healthcare for rape victims. And they are specifically working to get free abortions for women in the military where rape is occurring on a widespread basis now. The more organizations speak out publically the wider public recognition of the scope of the problem of rape and violence against women grows.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
...you should check out what is happening to women in Scandinavia. In countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway, crimes against women are on the rise, but they're finding it difficult to discuss it honestly there, too. Very surprising, considering the status of women there is probably the highest in our world, imho.
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
I googled it and it says the epidemic of rape is against Muslim women in Norway and Sweden. Another article talked about immigrant ethnic youth in the battered women shelters there. The parents of young Muslim teenage women don't accept interethnic marriages. I think I saw a Swedish or Norwegian movie on this theme just a year or two ago through Netflix. One article even mentioned the young women are repatriated to their homeland countries if they start relationships with foreigners. My feelings are that's its their problem, we surely have enough on our own hands in this country and in particular the East Bay.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
Actually, Traveler, I was trying to refer you to articles that discuss why the rape rate in Sweden is now the highest in Europe. Those generally reporting are white, native Swedes and not Muslims, and it appears to have its roots in a cultural values clash brought about by changing demographics. That reminded me of Richmond's cultural shift in recent years and your comments about media reticence.
Like American media, Scandinavian media is reluctant to discuss negative multicultural encounters or crimes when Caucasians are the victim and other ethnicities the perpetrator. Aftonbladet, the largest Swedish newspaper, dodged the topic by blaming the spike in crimes against Swedish women on warmer summer temperatures.
It's difficult to find a balanced article because it's a polarizing subject involving racial relations, immigration, violence against women and xenophobia, but they are out there. My point was that we are just one more place in the world where different races, classes and cultures are coming together in violent ways without meaningful discussion. I wonder how long we can go on without finding a way to bridge our differences or at least discuss them honestly.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
Chris, you're absolutely right about every group having an agenda, and I do know that the local chapters of NOW are held accountable to the national organization. Thanks for your thoughtful posts today and for the kind words.
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
From what i read briefly tonight about Sweden, there are a number of factors in Sweden's high reported rapes. First, there is the claim that rape is reportedly differently in Sweden than in other countries. And that private rape is taken as seriously since 1998 as public rape and that rape laws are reported more widely from the very beginning of a crime than in other countries and that they encompass a variety of sexual acts.
Secondly, it has been reported in the press that there are a number of social institutions like dance clubs in "Sweden that are seen as leading to more rapes. Whether or not this is true, I don't know because this is speculation.
Thirdly, Muslim men see the young Swedish girls as "loose" in comparison to their own religious strictures. However, we don't know how widespread an occurrence this is in Sweden or if it has been limited to a single or certain locales. Because I also read that thus far there is no concrete scientific evidence that Muslim men are more likely to be the perpetuators.
So I wouldn't leap to state that there were parallels between the situation in Sweden to the situation here. As you've and Chris M stated, rape and violence against women is at epidemic levels and transcends ethnicity, race and class. And although this particular rape It might have been interethnic, we don't know that for fact that race and ethnicity played a key role in the rape or that it wasn't merely rap music and gang behavior. So I would be personally loathe to say that this rape had racial overtones just because the victim happened to be white. I'm not ruling it out, we just don't know all the factors that have come into play. But what we do see widespread community outrage and other young girls according to the SF Chronicle being threatened who want to know the identify of the rapists and the onlookers.
There are rapes, though, that definitely have racial overtones in our society. For instance the widespread rape of black women during slavery in the South. And what Byron Williams referred to as the historic lynching of young black men for the supposed crimes of rape or sexual intercourse with white women--l0,000 such lynchings in the South committed by white men against predominantly young black teenagers like Emmett Till and young black men.
Given the many decades that black a nd whites have lived peacefully together in the Bay Area against the number of interracial rapes, I would speculate that the interracial rate was fairly low. Juxtaposing this against the number of rapes committed against black women and black prostitutes against the number of rapes against white women in Oakland and Richmond I'd wager the number of rapes against black women was much higher. Let's look at the rap music and gang behavior as to causes and movies depicting violent acts against women in general as the stimulus behind these brutal acts against women and I think we will find more causal links.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
It's not just Sweden. It's Norway and Denmark, as well, but my point was that the media and the government there seem to be just as incapable of dealing honestly with crimes involving Caucasian victims and alleged perpetrators of other ethnic groups as this country. It's time for honest communication between all people of good will in our communities.
Men rape because they can. It's not a crime that is confined to any ethnic group, and I wouldn't generalize about levels of victimization or profile assailants because the vast majority of rapes are never reported. The leading newspaper in Oslo, Norway claimed that "65% of rapists" were "non-Western" males, but that's a dubious statistic, at best.
Byron Williams and Tammerlin Drummond both injected race into the Richmond equation while denying that this crime had any racial basis. My point was that only the perpetrators know whether race had anything to do with their brutal assault on this young or not. The media seems to feel that it can determine whether a hate crime was committed based on thin air, and that takes bad reporting to a new level, IMHO.
Traveler, if you believe you understand why Mr. Williams dragged the Oscar Grant into this sad story or why Ms. Williams began her article by repeated unsubstantiated information about the quantity of alcohol consumed by the victim prior to her brutal rape, please explain it to me. Personally, I saw it as an attempt to refocus blame for this crime and divert attention from this young girl's suffering, but that's just my opinion.
Joined: May 2008
Current Posts: 1379
Thanks for the response. I will research further on Norway and Denmark. I'm clearly not as informed and up on this issue as yourself.
Re Rev. Williams (and Ms. Drummond possibly), as I stated before, I believe it's liberal guilt. I believe they feel uncomfortable about the victim being white so Ms. Drummond and other media persons tried to impeach the young woman with the alcohol consumption business. This is contemptible in my opinion as young men and older men both try getting unsuspecting women drunk in order to have their way with them.
To my way of thinking and I cannot speak for either of these individuals as I don't know what was in their minds, but I would speculate that they were fearful that this would indeed be seen as a racial crime and not simply a vicious and brutal attack against a young girl. So, Rev. Williams took a preemptive strike in citing examples of what he considered to be clearcut racial attacks against black people in this country for whom the list is quite longer than for Caucasians.
I'm not in disagreement with you that the liberal press bends over backwards in the opposite direction when it comes to crimes committed against Caucasians. And perhaps this is the case in Scandanavia too. I couldn't say though because I'm not familiar enough with these countries although I do know they have a long tradition of liberalism in their political and justice systems. But in the US I believe the majority of racial crimes in this country have historically, and I believe continue to be, committed against African Americans and people of color.
Now Oakland, is an entirely different matter. But the crime we are dealing with occurred in Richmond and is a crime of rape and brutal assault with a huge crowd of onlookers. I believe Rev. Williams' column missed the boat. I think, though, that he was trying to register his own personal shock and disgust. Perhaps it was a clumsy, awkward column. Journalists are only fallible and human like the rest of us.
Joined: Jul 2008
Current Posts: 70
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, and I don't disagree, generally, with your point of view. The "rules" for reporting crimes are very different depending on the ethnicity of those involved, and I think that's simply wrong and damages us all. Neither Byron Williams nor Tammerlin Drummond are media stars, imho, and yes, Williams' column looked to have been written by Mrs. Malaprop, but it doesn't let him off the hook. He's paid to be articulate.
I sincerely believe in "justice for all and malice toward none." Newspapers should present the facts and allow the law to takes its course, and if they don't have the facts, they should refrain from speculating. I don't believe in "pre-emptive strikes" by journalists, no matter what their motive. We're supposed to be working toward a "level playing field," and I believe in equal protection for all; not special consideration for some.
Consider these scenarios:
Imagine that an African-American girl is viciously raped by white perpetrators, and a white columnist reminds the public of Willie Horton's crimes as a "preemptive strike" to lessen the crime's impact on community sensibilities. Would that be wrong?
Imagine that a Latina was the victim of white perpetrators, and a columnist reminds the public of Elizabeth Pena's gang rape and murder by a Mexican national and and his fellow gang members just to balance the scales. Would that be wrong?
My point is that it's wrong no matter who raises the race card to fan the flames, and I believe that Drummond and Williams do real harm by seeking to control the debate. Williams' insertion of Oscar Grant was not only irrelevant and immaterial -- it was inflammatory, imho.
Joined: Nov 2009
Current Posts: 6
I think it is pathetic that no parents volunteered to chaperone the dance.
These are YOUR children. Take some responsibility for their safety.
You have little ones at home? Well, have the other parent watch
the little ones. No other parent around? Trade (co-op) babysitting
with a friend or neighbor who also has little ones so you all can be
there for your kids. Just like the parents at the other high schools
mentioned here did. Being poor does not excuse you from
safeguarding (by both being involved and having APPROPRIATE
supervision/plans in place re: pick-up, etc.) your children. (I am
NOT blaming this particular girl's parent(s), the dance was still
underway when occurred). Sure, maybe you can't afford private
tutoring or class trips to Spain, but you CAN volunteer and/or at least
coordinate safe drop-off/pick-up plans from events. Get over your
apathy, self-focus, and your own version of entitlement issues that
include expecting others (schools, police, probation officers, etc.) to
take care of your kids. These should be supplements, not
replacements for your involvement and parenting. If you believe
otherwise, please stop having kids you are unwilling to take care of.
There are already far too many who need parenting.
Joined: May 2007
Current Posts: 9
The pictures I saw on the news the other night showing this area showed a street with cars going by right next to this area. Was this area right by a street? Were there cars going by and not noticing a gang of kids in an unlit area obviouls doing something wrong. Just wondering if there were others driving by that could of call the police too.