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"Where Are We Supposed to Hang Out? It's A Free Country Isn't It?"
New York, 2:24 PM
Tue Dec 22
61 posts in the last 24 hours
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"Where Are We Supposed to Hang Out? It's A Free Country Isn't It?" |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
04/29/09
04/27/09
The newspapers and the town council were always freaking out about it, like we were organized crime, even though there was very little drug use(marijuana, used in private) and no vandalism. Our very presence was threatening to them. The town hired some hugely expensive consultants to figure out why more people didn't shop downtown. The number 1 reason was "lack of parking", followed way down on the list by "loitering homeless and kids" So, of course they tried to get rid of the homeless people and kids.
I'm an adult now, and I can understand being annoyed by teens, but they're annoyed by us, too. That's part of living in a society with other humans. Somehow it's okay for us to act on that dislike only against them, because they don't have the power. No one would attempt to ban old people who walk around the mall for fitness and don't buy anything. They know what their rights are and they can vote.
04/27/09
So it's the truth. It exists.
04/27/09
04/27/09
04/27/09
04/27/09
Now I'll know what stores not to give my money to. Hopefully the asshats who use this go out of business.
04/27/09
04/27/09
When laws are creating specifically aimed at limiting the freedoms of young people all they do is widen the generational gap, alienate teenagers from participating in society, and encourage them to perpetuate the same oppression on those that follow.
04/27/09
04/27/09
04/27/09
04/27/09
But I do feel less safe knowing that my government has cameras set up all over the city, wherever they think there's a "problem." Like with people asking other people to buy them food. Oh noes! Someone wants to ask me to buy them a sandwich! Call the cops! They're about to start putting cameras on all the lights in the city, so people will stop running red lights. Except that it will only work in the poor areas, because in the rich areas the lawyers will just get their tickets disappeared and do the same for their rich clients. And so the cameras are useless, unless somebody wants to watch what's happening on the corner.
It's like a slow creep towards some distopian society of voyeurism. It's also treating the symptom and not the disease. If kids are attacking women, children, and queer folk, why not figure out why they're doing it and stop it? Why not get the kids who are offending and do something about them? Like education or, depending, jail time? This will just push them to areas where there aren't any silent noise makers, and then the problems will follow them. It's not going to make a difference, big picture.
04/27/09
04/27/09
@Ipomoea: There was a teen heroin addict with his pet dog on a light asking for food for either him or the dog. Me and the Mr. (then undergrads) went and got him some Burger King and some dog food. Funny thing? He was *so much more* excited about his doggie getting food than him getting something to eat.
04/27/09
04/27/09
04/27/09
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04/27/09
*I really shouldn't blame the boys -- fetal alcohol, both of them -- but they were holy terrors who couldn't grasp the concepts of not throwing rocks at people going for walks, not playing in yards not their own and whose parents didn't mind letting them scream in the yard at 11 p.m. on weeknights. The mosquito was the only way we found to have peace without involving CYFD or the cops. (The one time we did call the cops on the neighbors, the mother's boyfriend showed up on our door mean drunk and threatened to kill us for "interfering.")
04/27/09
'Cause hanging out is literally my best skill, and certainly the one from which I get the most enjoyment. But I'm OLD! So this totally wouldn't work on my and my friends.