What kind of Alice in Wonderland topsy turvy bullshit is this??? So because the flash mob happens to be “children” (by children we mean 6 ft tall teens that would mercilessly beat you as soon as look at you that happen to be under the arbitrary legal age of 21) they have a right to break every bone in your body and you, because you are over 21, have no right to defend yourself?? It boggles the mind that the police, of all people, would be talking like this.
The way we define ‘children’ is purely a social construct, unlike race or sex which is a biological reality (thats a discussion for some other time). They arrested two flash mob participants, one in St. Louis, the other in South Carolina. One was 5’11 186 pounds, the other was 6’2 212 pounds. One was 17, the other was 19. These are not ‘children’, other than the fact that society says they’re children. But physically, these are full grown men. After puberty, they’re no longer children. In fact, I would go out on a limb and say that those two ‘children’ referenced above are bigger and stronger and meaner than alot of 30 or 40 year old men. Our perception of what a child is is way out of line. Hearing the captain talk, you would think he was talking about a bunch of rambunctious first graders (6 or 7 year olds, real children) not a mob of violent teenagers bigger and tougher and than a lot of legal adults.
I think the children reference might be taking into consideration knowledge, experience, and mental fortitude. Most people that are under 21 probably don’t qualify to be called adults because of this(the mental aspect).
I also feel that this is where proper education should come in to place, so that when someone turns 21(or possibly younger), they are aware of certain realities of the world and the expectations that the world has of them.
[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
I think the children reference might be taking into consideration knowledge, experience, and mental fortitude. Most people that are under 21 probably don’t qualify to be called adults because of this(the mental aspect).
I also feel that this is where proper education should come in to place, so that when someone turns 21(or possibly younger), they are aware of certain realities of the world and the expectations that the world has of them.[/quote]
Well violence is a physical act, so unless they’re retarded, they should know you don’t go around in mobs beating random people and if you do, you might get killed. So someone 6’2 212 pounds thats <21, I wont be thinking at that “hey hey don’t have knowledge, experience and mental fortitude”, I’m going to treat it as a me or him scenario.
I get you, my point was in trying to avoid having 21 year old man-sized children running around.(I was/am one of them, although I am on the short side, height-wise)