I really have no interest in going over the whole thread to show how I never change my mind or moved the goalposts. I was careful what I posted because I predicted this whole thread. If the title would have been Teen Violence, the thread would be very different. Even though it is an issue in many communities. If anyone would bother reading through the first three pages, the biases would be clear enough. But to be extra clear, anybody with even a slight knowledge of what is actually going on, would be incredulous at the notion that this has any relation to the Lakewood stereotype.
Everybody please rise.
And now to my coup de grace.
Teen Violence in Lakewood
OP: Are we going to pretend it doesn’t exist and hope it goes away or do something proactive?
My immediate response: Neither. We are going to pretend it was someone else’s fault and wait for them to take responsibility.
Don’t bother looking it up. That would be out of character. Pontificate as you will.
Law enforcement was discussed. But it is not going to really do anything. [Being a jerk does not send someone to jail. Even if it can be called assault on the books. Get on the street a bit before you try responding to this.] security is an expense and it will not address the specifics. [..] Nobody bothered to think about the problem.
And this is the root to all these communal problems.
By it’s very existence a community will always be more varied than it’s ideal. This leads to the fact that some would aspire to something not common to larger group. If everyone would be allowed to grow into whatever version they please, then there would not be any community/communities. (And that may be fine. I don’t know.) But to disallow aspirations to outside the norms, just cuts the ability to grow and with it – the most novel chances for positive transformation.
None of us, showed any interest in these teens or the adults that are dealing with this. We just looked for confirmation to our own worldview. Who do we think we are to subject random kids that we never met to be nothing but mere justification for us to spew our values in public?