Definitely some people like to rain on other people’s parades or be bossy
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Hope that isn’t Mindy Cohn. 
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You know what’s a far bigger drain on the public coffers?
Having the police spend an hour of their time dealing with what might be a minor infraction.
In fact it might not be an infraction at all, depending on how the rule is typically enforced, in which case calling the cops is about the same as pulling a fire alarm when there’s no fire.
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That’s part of the problem. In white world, maybe being extra extra nice is… A nice thing. But some extra special white people INSIST on everyone being extra fucking nice to them in return for not going into a rage and even then they might fly into a rage because fuck everyone, we are white and we do what we want. I mean really? Nobody needs to be extra fucking nice to BBQ in the park. White, black, blue, it should not matter who you are or how nice you are. If you’re in the park with your group, you can use the facilities. It’s yours to use. Assuming you are respectful enough to see that other people are there too, maybe even close by, because the park is theirs too. But only respectful enough, not super fucking nice here is your own plate of food. Fuck that. People need to be left the fuck alone to do whatever the hell they want in public places. These asshole righteous whites are the ones we need to cull from society. They have no place. This is clear as day. Whites do not have special rights to assert over anyone. Glad this is being televised. Maybe that will put people back in their lane.
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There was probably a rise as cell phones spread from the top down. Rather than having to go to find a payphone, and possibly cooling off, more of these people would have their instant instrument of vengeance at their side, like passive-aggressive gunslingers (or gunslinger by proxy).
The recoil as camera phones are near universal, the software is there, and that people react to stuff now by pulling out their phone and recording is only now catching up.
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I thought Google Glass was a good idea, if executed in a dorky way. Always recording, always streaming to a cloud account that’s redistributed. That way there’s no whipping any phones out, it’s already out, already recording and can’t be deleted.
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Seems more a By-law issue. Like walking a cat without a leash.
Well, those particular racists aren’t being more careful, but some, more aware ones are - the one who realize their ideas are going to be met by some with scorn, and therefore are less likely to voice them for fear of their public utterances going viral. If you look at the smarter (low bar, I know) leaders of racist groups, they’ve long been very careful about what they say on camera - that dynamic applies everywhere in public, now.
But yeah, racists, not being very smart or aware, mostly don’t realize that.
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You know, every year at the anime convention we go to, they have a dance party in the lobby of the main hotel, and at some point, someone invariable starts doing the electric slide, then you have like… 50, 60 kids in cosplay doing the electric slide. It’s shit like that which warms the cockles of my heart.
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I think it only matters to white, female, concern trolls, actually.
Anyway, keep calm and do the electric slide!
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Something about my earlier response didn’t sit right with me, or others evidently.
First off, if it were ME, this would never have happened. Some folks enjoying a BBQ? Great. As long as they aren’t shaking down passers by (including me =`) whatever floats your boat and doesn’t sink mine… no big deal. I would just walk on and not stick my pale ass nose into someone/anyone else’s business who seem to be doing no one any real harm. Enjoy.
But if I did feel the inordinate need to make ANY sort of comment, I would come at it from a very friendly and humorous angle. Maybe start with “omg that smells delicious!”
And of course we didn’t see the initial contact, but based on what I did see I am not hopeful that the white lady is some sort of hero.
I will relate a story that came to mind based on this story. Once upon a time, many MANY years ago, before there was an Enkwife or Enklings, I used to go to a great BBQ place in SF called Brothers In Law on Divisidero. Well one day in the Bay Guardian newspaper (a thing that once was that was literally made out of dead trees!) there was a glowing review of the place and I thought ‘hey they would love this as a poster!’ as it happened I worked for the graphics part of a huge corporation with a stat machine and… so I made it huge, mounted it on some gold posterboard and brought it down to the shop the next time I wanted to order some BBQ. ‘Hey I made this from your great review in the Bay Guardian!’ She took it and basically tossed it to the side and barked ‘whaddaya want?!’ Ribs, brisket, sweet potato pie? Next time I went down there for BBQ there it was on the wall. Goes around comes around.
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I think the problem here are bubbles. Racists live in their racist bubbles just like I live in my liberal bubble. The difference, though, is: my bubble has windows to the outside word while theirs have images of what they want the world to be like instead. Thus, they think that in the world they live in, they are entitled to such behavior.
On a sidenote: what’s that accent she has? Took me 5 minutes to realize she wasn’t upset about a turtle grill.
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The black versus white angle here seems a bit contrived. The woman calling the cops is clearly batshit insane and I have a feeling she’s an equal opportunity harasser. And besides she was correct about the law she was citing. Still, I’m glad to see the big BBQ-in that followed, if only because BBQs are awesome. As is the electric slide.
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Maybe, and just a one second theory, social media has enhanced this? The anonymity of social media is leaking into real life?
Maybe people are becoming so overdosed on the court of social media, having passed there through the rise of Jerry Springer-type public TV courts, that they aren’t placing themselves into any kind of real life context. Maybe they feel empowered through witnessing, or engaging in, “righteous” assaults on people in their own walled gardens, and that their community awareness has diminished to the point of insignificance.
I see this walking around London - people stuck in their phones typing away, headphones on, walking in a straight line, “entitled” to an unhindered passage through the physical world, ignoring all obstacles and certainly ignoring me. Which is mildly problematic for them, because I reciprocate in kind.
I don’t blame technology. I blame people.
Maybe we should just take away their food.
The problems of making a quick comment before I have to go and do something else for most of the day. My proof reading is bad enough as it is.
What I meant was that racist acts like this were easier to ignore by the general public as they were not being reported by most of the press. In the past decade or so things have changed as these acts can now be filmed and uploaded as they happen and people on the other side of the country or the world can find out*. There is bad in social media, but there is good too. We just need to find out how to amplify the good.
* The first time I noticed things were changing was in 2005 (I think) when I saw a Lancashire Evening Post article about how a local fascist had been arrested, when the police searched his house they found one of the biggest weapons caches ever found in the country. The British national press didn’t cover it for weeks, if at all, but were happy to keep attacking muslims every day as if they were all terrorists. If it wasn’t for LiveJournal I would probably never have heard about it.
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I am reminded of an event that happened while i was living in Oakland (admittedly more than a decade ago). We were smoking on our porch when who should show up but a British guy who had been car-jacked near by. We allowed him to use our phone (cells still being pretty rare and this neighbourhood having few pay phones) to call 9-1-1. An hour or so later, with the victim long since gone, the police finally arrive.
The police in Oakland have been for a long time, and i would guess still are, useless fuckers.
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