More Troubles with Teens
Last week, we reported on an incident at the Court Street Barnes & Noble, in which a band of teens had an altercation with a manager and one eventually socked the guy. A similar problem seemed to happen yesterday, according to this note from Park Slope Parents: “All of 5th Street between 6/7 Aves is…
Last week, we reported on an incident at the Court Street Barnes & Noble, in which a band of teens had an altercation with a manager and one eventually socked the guy. A similar problem seemed to happen yesterday, according to this note from Park Slope Parents: “All of 5th Street between 6/7 Aves is taped off tonight. According to the policeman: ‘Stabbing’ ‘After School’ ‘Yes, it was students.’ He is not allowed to confirm if it was a fatality, but given all the investigation still going on at 8pm, I fear the worst. I have walked through the groups of teenagers on 7th Ave at 3pm almost every day last year and often this year and while they are often rowdy and often oblivious to anyone else on the street, those same students can also be very respectful and polite. It is scary and sad and yet another issue we should all be aware of and talking about.” Meanwhile, another group of Brooklyn teens was arrested for attacking another youth. Well, let’s talk about it, then. Thoughts?
Sorry, guys, but race and class intrude upon almost every discussion about life in Brooklyn. We don’t engage in discussing afterschool, or teen violence in Brownsville, East New York, or even Bensonhurst, because it’s expected, no big deal, and doesn’t affect us. Sad, but true.
It’s only when it spills into “good” neighborhoods, or areas that are gentrifying, that it ends up here, and becomes a hot topic. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be discussed, but only that it must be discussed because that behavior is not acceptable anywhere.
Afterschool programs, Big Brother/Sister, Boys/Girlstown, church programs, mentoring programs, whatever is needed to help not just the kids wandering aroung Clinton Hill, or after school in Park Slope, but all kids who need it, are paramount. All kids, no matter who they are, need guidance and direction.
We need to be just as outraged and saddened at the news that a kid gets stabbed on Mother Gaston Blvd, as we are a kid in Park Slope. Face it, we are not. Race and class will be obsolete and irrelevent only when we really all are equal in society’s eyes, and sadly, that day is nowhere in sight.
socio-economic status is a cop out.
It’s largely bad parenting, loss of family values and lack of self-respect.
here’s the hard evidence.
Far Rockaway High School
Always a lower middle class area.
Same housing
Same location
Same school
Same board of education
Through the 30’s 40’s and 50’s
produced 3 future nobel prize winners.
Recently had to be shut down and restructured as smaller charter schools due to the failure of the school as a whole. Too much violence in the surrounding areas. kids shooting kids, stabbing each other. everything but learning.
not enough respect for education. a failure of parenting and the emergence of a thug culture.
I don’t see why people are jumping all over Montrose for adding context to the discussion and being brave enough to talk about the 800 pound gorilla in the room. there’s a long history on brownstoner of trying to tiptoe around the issue and far too often racism plays into all of this. I’m not saying it does so today, but the undercurrent is there.
That said, from friends who are lawyers, I hear tales of the “snotty rich kids” who do get off and whose crimes are hidden because their parents have money. One of them defended a rich kid who saw a group of hispanic people at a protest and drove his car into the crowd, killing one of them “by accident.” That little lie got him off. I ask you- who drives a 2 ton vehicle into a group of people, claiming it was only to scare them, and walks away- some accident.Never made the papers either, and why do you think? (Just saying, since people jumped to the defense of snotty rich kids).
I’m not trying to be flippant about a very serious subject but MM was simply making a point about bringing up the matter over again and over again. So we all discuss it without actually using the “R” word but we all know what we mean.
i didn’t totally miss your point. you’re distracting from your point by comparing what these teens are doing with snotty rich kids. it’s not comparable, even remotely, and the fiction that it is comparable is just one tiny more piece of justification that these teens, whoever they are, and their parents don’t need.
as for race/class, the fact is you don’t know how rich or poor the kids discussed in this article are. and you’re the only poster here who’s assuming that you do, and opining on it.
eastriver – the comment about awareness was from the original posting on park slope parents. it was undoubtedly targeted toward parents of kids at the school and/or with kids in neighborhood schools. do you really not get why they need specific awareness of these incidents?
“Frankly, far too many parents have left the care of their children to others – the schools, their kids’ peers, or a computer or gaming screen. Respect is not taught, not respect for others, property, authority, or respect for themselves. There are no consequences for anything, until the cuffs go on, and then regret. Not for the deed, but for getting caught.”
Montrose — well put.
I think the value of increased publicity for these stories is to highlight the very problem you identify.
Maybe if more parents of young children heard more stories more often about problems going on with older children, it would give at least some of them reason to reconsider the values they are teaching their children.
Some people won’t believe a problem exists unless they are repeatedly reminded of it.
Oh come on Biff. I feel for the kid who was stabbed and for his family. I really do, but don’t you find the comment “..yet another issue we should all be aware of” remotely funnny? I mean seriously people welcome to Brooklyn. Our public school kids are out control. Street crime is a fact of life. This isn’t a new issue. How can you not be aware of this?
btw, calling someone glib post the Cruise/Lauer interview takes guts. Maybe you have some Brooklyn in ya.
I was assuming based on the article linked about the Staten Island attack. It said they were from Livonia Ave in Brooklyn – which I associate with East New York, which I understand as having its fair share of poverty.
Also generally speaking
“…igniting class and race issues …If all anyone can take from my post is that I don’t approve of snotty rich kids, then you’ve totally missed my point.”
Montrose, I agree with pierre on this one; where is class or race mentioned in the story?
I disagree, I find that on a blog like this, story after story of youth violence has no point other than to toss gas on the fire, igniting class and race issues that go nowhere but downhill. If all anyone can take from my post is that I don’t approve of snotty rich kids, then you’ve totally missed my point.
I also am realistic enough to know that “learning how to care” sounds airy fairy and useless. Of course we need deterrence, punishment, and prevention. But how about changing hearts and minds so that less people need to be punished? I don’t claim to know how to effectively do that, but that part of the plan certainly needs to be addressed, not just simply dismissed.