Wild Teens Trash Court Street B&N, Assault Manager
A reader sent in a disturbing account of a visit yesterday afternoon to the Court Street Barnes & Noble. While she was on the second floor, she noticed a large number of teens she believes were from one of the nearby public schools. In addition to being loud and disorderly, they were also purposefully knocking…
A reader sent in a disturbing account of a visit yesterday afternoon to the Court Street Barnes & Noble. While she was on the second floor, she noticed a large number of teens she believes were from one of the nearby public schools. In addition to being loud and disorderly, they were also purposefully knocking books off shelves. A few minutes later, as she headed down to the first floor, she witnessed an altercation between the manager and one of the teenagers. The manager had asked him to leave the store. “You disrespectin’ me?” the teen shouted back. No, that’s why I’m asking you nicely to leave, but you need to leave, reiterated the manager. Then, wham, the teen wound up and socked the manager in the face, bloodying him and knocking him over, and took off down the street. Rather than stick around to help i.d. the assailant, whom our tipster overheard some of the kids saying they knew where he lived, the rest of them took off as well. No word on whether the cops caught the guy. Update: Turns out that someone did call the cops and they came very quickly, but the assailant had already fled.
Photo by joearchitect
Hi, I was the one who e-mailed Brownstoner about this. Montrose Morris, to answer your question, they were african american teens and the manager who was assaulted was white. The manager kept his cool and actually very politely asked the group to leave. The security guard stood next to the event and did nothing (I hope he’s fired). The young man who attacked the manager was yelling “you can’t talk to me, I’m 18” – good for him…now he could go to jail…There were a lot of kids who were clearly schoolmates in the store. Some of them were just hanging out there and not pulling down books and being rowdy. I heard one express regret over the incident, lamenting that now his place to hang out wasn’t going to let him in anymore.
I have seen large groups of teens hanging out there before and I don’t think it’s quite as MM describes – they’re not hanging out in the aisles perusing literature. I think it’s great for all school kids to hang around after school with books and many, if not all of the public libraries in the city have great after school programs for teens. When I (white) was a teen, no store wanted groups of us hanging out there after school – the only place that would have us was mcdonalds, and that was only because we kept coming back for more fries…
Finally, I really want to commend the manager for how he tried to defuse the situation and I hope he’s alright.
I’ve shopped at this B&N often, and gone to the movies numerous times next door, as well. I’ve never seen or heard rowdy teenagers before, so I suspect this is an aberration, not the norm. That certainly doesn’t excuse their behavior, but it also doesn’t mean that Barnes and Noble has to look like a bank when the armored cars are unloading, either. I find it heartening that teenagers are in a bookstore, and usually see all kinds of kids just browsing and reading. I hope reading is more important than rowdyism.
Nicely done, ScottLee – we’ve all been drenched in irony at some point in our lives. Lord knows I have.
@east river
Yeah, I was just coming back to include myself in my own assessment. Not anticipating the consequences of my own actions = irony.
Thanks for calling it.
Did you include yourself in that comment about posters, ScottLee?
Kids can be jerks, but its our responsibility to teach them so they can grow up to be responsible adults. It’s not just the family that fails, it’s the society as well. Simply blowing these kids off as animals is to miss the whole point of their behavior. They’ve been failed by everyone. Doesn’t mean I think they should get off, they shouldn’t. That’s part of the teaching process. But calling them animals won’t fix anything and marginalizes the fact that their problems become everyone’s problems.
“They are misguided teens. They are human, and not animals, not even necessarily stupid. They are misguided because they OBVIOUSLY did not have the basic home structure and support that a child needs in order to buck the temptations of crime and easy money in a tough world.”
I think some people might make the point that you don’t get to be called “human” until you exhibit the basic behavioral characteristics of human beings: rational thought, foresight, understanding of the consequences of one’s actions, ability to delay gratification for a greater good, etc.
They certainly do have the potential to become humans, and with the proper guidance, support, and resources they may do so. But, as it stands, they are little above animals.
As, one might note, are most teenagers, not to mention a good number of posters to this board….
I just had to add that while I truly abhor physical violence and believe that teenagers need a firm hand, those of you who made the “animal” comments are well out of order. Examine your hearts and minds and ask yourselves where that desire to dehumanize others comes from.
This location has been troubled since it first opened. The adjacent movie theatre gets very busy (it has god knows how many screens), there’s constant double-parking outside on Court St, the sidewalk becomes impassable, the B&N gets mobbed by rowdy teens. All in all, it’s a mess. The solution would seem to lie at a higher level than the particular kids involved in this most recent incident. The cops, Brooklyn Boro Hall, and local business owners and residents should get together to address these issues of over-crowding and anti-social behaviour. Perhaps this is already in progress. Can any BH folks involved in local civic groups comment?
Oh, and did I mention that FCR/Bruce Ratner built this? That’s what high density developments can do for ya, kids!
Let’s not forget the physiological and biological changes going on in teens as well- it’s this age when teens need the most guidance and structure. They won’t learn to take responsibility for their actions if they aren’t taught. And sometimes kids go wrong even in families that are good. Susan Elkins is right though- going from a family structure that isn’t working to a prison structure that doesn’t help won’t make anything better. That’s the real issue.