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A mixed-color group of high school footballers was going to toilet-paper the house of a girl on the same cul-de-sac as the school athletic director. Seems the house had been TP'd at least once already, and cars may or may not have been egged, during the school's homecoming week shenanigans. When the group pulled into the circle, dad was already in the yard, with what I'm guessing was one of these but may have been one of these. Adults step out in front of the kids' jeep, wave them down, tell them to turn the car off and maybe get out, maybe get on the ground. Maybe the torch gets pointed at them, and they definitely get cussed out. The athletic director intervenes, speaks quietly to the kids (per the recording described in the police report, final section), and they are leave in less than three minutes.
Of course, it's suspected that this is racially motivated, despite it being (it seems) a white kid driving the Jeep. (EDIT: I was wrong about who was driving, as pointed out below by /u/Gdanning) I guess had the other four individuals also been white, Mr. Kolar would have put away his torch and enjoyed watching people toilet paper his house? Or perhaps that neighbors don't mind people hauling ass through the cul-de-sac as long as there aren't colored folks in the car? I really don't know. But the AD will probably lose his job behind the deal.
https://madison365.com/it-was-scary-athletes-parents-call-for-firing-of-baraboo-athletic-director-criminal-charges-for-others-in-vigilante-incident/
My wife and I watched this on the local news last night and had the same thought - "man, fuck these parents". Seriously. As far as the kids and the "flamethrower" go, I'm filing both under the Boys Will Be Boys category. The kids were engaged in low-level, mischievous pranks that have been common as long as humanity has existed, got caught and probably properly scared by the adults. This isn't a real problem! Maybe the kids shouldn't TP houses and maybe the adult overreacted, but whatever, no one's hurt and the whole thing is pretty funny.
But the parents? I barely even know what to say. I can't imagine, as a teen, having gone to my parents and informed them of my activities if this happened. I would have been in deep shit! I'm absolutely baffled every time I hear one of these stories with narcissism transferred onto the children reaching to new heights of "my baby didn't do nothing wrong".
I really don't even know how to respond to Anne other than shaking my head and saying, "you stupid bitch". I was unsurprised that the news segment didn't include any of the boy's fathers.
Spongebob-jaw-drop.jpg
Lady, you're doing it wrong. Very, very wrong.
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See I remember my parents teaching me that "guilt by association" is something stupid and horrible that they only do in Stalinist countries, and you should never judge people for something their friends did, because here in Freedom Land you can only be held responsible for your own actions, not anyone else's.
Moldbug's "America is a communist country" seems truer and truer.
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Is there something about this that's interesting? TBQH I'm not seeing any light here.
It's not the most important story in the world, I agree, but I felt it was an example of "Culture War" so shared it to the Roundup.
To me it's pretty emblematic of the larger CW on a very micro scale. In the culture I grew up in, teenagers TPing houses and grownups trying to catch them was a common trope, as was the "extra-grumpy old man" whose land/lawn nobody cut across or messed with. These were experiences universal among my peer cohort, regardless of ethnic or economic background--everybody knew That Guy, he was a dick to everybody, and that shared experience helped create peer bonds across ethnic barriers. Everybody pranked somebody, whether having their car sitting on blocks when the bus got back from an away game, or TPing a house, or dying coach's dog green, or saran wrapping a car, or pennying a new teacher's door shut, or whatever. There was pretty much a peace convention on egging dating back to before my time due to some severe paint damage, but being rowdy and having fun is great for kids....as is getting hemmed up by some grown folk when they go a bit too far.
I see no reason to read, or even suspect, racial bias in this incident, and based on what I read in the police report, I see no reason for Langkamp, or anyone really, to be arrested or lose a job. This is, or was, a pretty run-of-the-mill enactment of an old drama with deep roots in my culture.
The inversion of responsibility, the holding of instigators up as heroes, the apparent compulsion to shove race into every possible story, the fact that the arresting officer found it necessary to take all three dudes into custody immediately, without even allowing them to put on shoes, the failure of the detectives to find any video when the lady next door had some....all of these are things I find interesting. But not everyone shares my interests, I do understand. Hope you find a more interesting story to engage with!
Hmm.
Okay, call me a cynic, but this was a null-update for me. SJ is pro-student/youth, is exceedingly passionate/remorseless, likes hounding people from their jobs, and claims everything is due to an "ism" - nothing here is surprising to me, hence no "light". It seemed like this was a case of "Can you believe what Those People did this week?", to quote the thing up the top of the thread.
That said, I suppose the fact that something's a null-update for me doesn't mean it's a null-update for others, and I was definitely being kind of mean by raising it. So, eh.
(ETA: I did find the parent statement Walterodim provided to be a nonzero update.)
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(Wrong thread, you want the one below!)
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I have no idea whether it was a racial thing -- it seems more of an "assholes gonna asshole" from what the article says, but the driver's name was John Beaudin. The white student referenced in the article is Zach Burgess. And, looking at 0:25 here, John Beaudin looks pretty black to me.
Gotcha, I'll edit that--I wasn't clear on that detail, thank you!
I very much agree it was "assholes gonna asshole", for sure. But the guy was already standing outside when the Jeep pulled onto the street, before knowing what color of kids were coming to TP his house, so I have a hard time attributing it to racial bias.
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I can't tell reading the police report why the officer involved chose to arrest three people when only one was waving a torch around. It came off very much like "fuck it, arrest everyone and sort it out later" which I certainly would hope is not the case.
Also, based on the self described actions of that AD in the police report, there's no fucking way he should lose his job. He shouldn't even have been arrested. Granted he's biased, but so are the kids who said he did anything other than try to defuse the situation. Between irresponsible teenagers who think it's acceptable to destroy property and a respectable adult, I will believe the adult every time.
Maybe I was primed (by your post) to read this in a certain way, but that report really came off as "teenagers make trouble but are somehow the victims here, punish the adults who tried to stand up to them". Which is kind of mind blowing to me.
The neighbors audio recording described at the very end supports the guy's (AD's) story, too. He's said to be talking softly, not telling, and not using profanity. That officer takes a bit of a swipe at the detectives who were supposed to find video, heh.
I think it's amusing that some of the kids say they weren't going there to TP but only to look at how bad the house had been "got", and another kid is like, "Man, it happened so fast we hadn't even opened our toilet paper yet!"
@Gdanning Please do not injure yourself when you facepalm; I'm sure this brings back memories of the thousand-yard stare variety.
I'm afraid I am going to have to ask you to clarify what you are referring to.
Ah, nothing specific; I figured that you've had any number of experiences of the "please exercise your right to remain silent, why did you have to talk..." variety.
True. But nothing compares to the many, many jailhouse phone call transcripts in which the suspect's discussion with his girlfriend re how, when, where and why he committed the crime is interspersed, every 30 seconds, with automated announcement warning that the conversation is being recorded and can be used in court.
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Many such cases. Similar to the Oberlin bakery.
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