Buck-wild kids means chaos
Columnist James-Ingram
With the tragic news of the Virginia Tech shooting rampage, I couldn’t help but think how possible (and feasible) such a tragedy could be….and maybe right under our own noses.
Sure, between ESL “politricks” and the national obsessions with racist morons like Don Imus and the mystery of Anna Nicole’s “baby’s daddy,” it’s easy to forget that (as of late) bad behavior is increasingly becoming the order of the day.
And on the east side of the Mississippi, we’ve dodged the bullet (literally) far too many times for my comfort. Let’s examine just three such instances.
Starting on Christmas night, two female teens created a near riot (of almost 200 people) following their fist fight at the St. Clair 10 Cine in Fairview Heights.
Last month, Fairview Heights police arrested two young men (18 and 19 years of age) near the St.Clair Square mall after one of them allegedly fired shots inside the mall.
Then, in early April, St.Clair Square security broke up a fight in which one of four women (involved in the squabble) was stabbed in the thigh. Ouch!
For those brothers and sisters who are crossing their fingers and praying “Lord, don’t let them be black folks,” get off your knees and save it because (unfortunately) all of the aforementioned happened to be “us.”
And that’s the problem.
Fortunately, no one died in either of these instances; but the headlines could have easily reported multiple murders in any one of these cases.
What appalls me is the “business as usual” responses that lawyers and Fairview Heights officials gave in each instance.
The City of Fairview Heights tabled a proposal to ban teens from St. Clair 10 Cine (after 9p.m.) when Wehrenberg Theatres lawyers complained that the age-restriction ordinance would put the theatre out of business. Why? Because teenagers account for 50 percent of their business.
In addition, what they didn’t say was that (statistically) African mericans (who make up 12 percent of the population) watch 50 percent of all movies and are the movie industry’s most loyal customers.
After the shooting and the stabbing at St. Clair Square, Fairview Heights Police Chief Ed Delmore said that there was no cause for concern and St. Clair Square officials are not considering any changes to their security procedures. Say what?
Maybe I’m paranoid, but I’m just skeptical enough to believe that (as was the case at Galleria Mall in St. Louis) that if these events had directly impacted the well-being of white patrons (and indirectly it does) that the outrage alone would have fueled sweeping changes in how business is done at the mall and the theatre.
Personally, I’m fed up – disgusted that many of these teens have the right to disrupt my movie-going experience with loud, obnoxious behavior, while folks like me waste our money and strain to watch (or hear) a movie that we paid to see. The nerve of me, thinking that I have a right to get what I paid for.
Why should I feel that I have the right to go to the mall without being stabbed or shot? I must think that I’m some sort of privileged character or something.
But, after all, if Chief Delmore tells me that there is no cause for concern, then perhaps I’ll just start leaving my bullet-proof vest at home. I’m sure the Fairview Heights police and rent-a-cops at St. Clair Square (in their infinite “wisdumb”) will continue to squash shootings and stabbings without consequence.
Wrong. These nit-wits are simply rolling the dice and, with their approach, it’s only a matter of time before Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson will be broadcasting the outcome of some major tragedy here, while those in charge shake their moronic heads in disbelief.
And what about the parents? Why are we, as a society, suddenly so reluctant to ask parents (the ones responsible for the incorrect behavior of these young folks) to, simply, DO THEIR JOBS!
Because in the final analysis, the fundamental problem lays at the foot of the sperm donors and sperm recipients who masquerade as parents and who have abdicated their responsibility to teach their children to be civilized.
Email:jtingram_1960@yahoo.com.