Readers Blog: Calling The Kettle Black

Mob Attacks By Black Youths Unacceptable

No matter what race you are, all of us who saw the actions of mostly young black people on tape at a gas station as wrong.

Never had I saw a large group of kids ransack a gas station at one time. And they must have been that hungry and thirsty to help themselves from the cooler and the snack aisles.

The fireworks at the lakefront on the night of July 3 ended before 11 p.m. What I want to know is who organized the mob of kids to walk up the hill and go to a gas station.

All it took was for someone to lead the charge so the rest of the group can fall in line like the pied piper and follow along.

I believe that the last time I checked, the city of Milwaukee still had a curfew for those who are under 17 years old. Some of the young kids in the video looked to be under 17.

If you look at the videotape, it was crystal clear that we got a good shot, in color, of who some of the perpetrators were.

Did the parents know where their kids were at that time? No they didn't.

A separate group of young blacks attacked other adults. One woman who was visiting from New York suffered a fractured jaw. Thank God there were some people in the area that cared for the injured.

Before anyone comes to conclusions, I don't think that was a hate crime. It were several knuckleheads acting a fool and injuring innocent people. Boy, wait until Gov. Walker signs the concealed carry bill this week. People might rush to get guns for protection.

To his credit, police chief Ed Flynn said that crime has no color. Many in the black community don't see it that way.

Flynn held a community forum in the Riverwest area to hear from residents. When some of the black people speak out about holding those accountable for their actions, it bodes some credit to the community.

The president of the local NAACP played it off in an interview by believing that the looting at the gas station was an economic problem.

I guess, according to the NAACP president, since young black people can't find summer jobs, they have to act out in other ways, including stealing stuff that they didn't pay for. One mother saw her kids on that video and turned them in.

All it takes is for a couple of kids to snitch to bring that whole group down.

Now back to the NAACP president for a minute. What he believed was a bunch of BS. Even if there's a shortage of summer jobs, their actions are inexcusable.

So if one of the white attack victims fought back and beat the crap out of one of the black attackers, would that be considered a hate crime?

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tsparks | July 12, 2011 at 8:44 p.m. (report)

I heard that the generation coming up are babies that are raised by babies, meaning that young mothers have babies before they're out of high school. It's up to them to shape the behavior of their kids. All the looting and attacking by the black kids did was create more of a negative image from the media. Not all young black kids are bad, though. Take one or two individuals from that mob and the behavior changes.

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meggsnificent | July 11, 2011 at 8:40 a.m. (report)

I work with kids who live in Milwaukee and have experienced unjust racial profiling by the MPD. I don't in anyway condone this type of vicious, mindless violence; however, I am not surprised by parents who failed to turn their children into custody. If a child grows up hating the police for reasons I cannot wrap my mind around witnessing as a young child (arrests, violence, drug abuse) then there is a feeling of distrust in their world and a lack of conscious regard for human decency. This cycle just repeats itself, and without interventions from support staff that actually teach parents on how to make positive decisions for their family, this type of behavior will sadly continue.

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tsparks | July 9, 2011 at 8:55 p.m. (report)

There was almost a week of news coverage about the incidents at Riverwest and very few black leaders speaking out. I will never live in any part of the inner city or the Riverwest area without my best friend, a Smith and Wesson. I have to protect myself if need be. I won't be the one where the police show up after the crime is committed and look down at me in a body bag. I want to have some things and not be an innocent victim. If a mob of black teens want to attack me, it will be the worst day of their lives. And I'm not trying to hear their mama saying that their child did nothing wrong.

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Hckyboy00 | July 8, 2011 at 11:28 a.m. (report)

god forbid people who live in the neighborhood to be hanging out in said neighborhood an hour after a neighborhood activity ended. Stupid people enjoying their stupid parks in their stupid neighborhood.

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curlyboy1978 | July 8, 2011 at 10:04 a.m. (report)

In order to be a hate crime, I think one has to prove this group of kids set out specifically to attack a group of white people. Personally, sounds more a random crowd that got out of hand and some decided to mess w/ the people getting beat up by calling racial stuff out. More importantly - and I want someone to clarify this - what the heck was a bunch of hippy white RW people doing in a park at midnight knowing full well that RW has issues w/ murders, robberies, etc? Were they there earlier to see the city fireworks (which was at 9ish) or something else (one story says they went there to set off their own fireworks - like they couldnt go to any downtown or eastside park for that?). Finally, enough w/ the posters on here and JSONLINE who claim they moved away we really don't need your opinion since you cant be part of the solution.

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