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Notes -
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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