Help to make sense of the Daily Mail’s ongoing effort to classify every inanimate object into those that cause cancer and those that prevent it.
And if the Heil itself is actually alleging that this incident started because kids caused “criminal damage”, it’s just one more lie for anyone gullible enough to trust the newspaper.
Accounts from more reputable sources say that one or two of the skaters may have been trying to boardslide on a steel stair rail (which doesn’t do any “damage” worthy of the name, let alone the “criminal” variety); the security guard cosplayer objected but didn’t do anything; then this busybody with anger-control issues showed up and started throwing punches.
The Heil’s problem with that version of the story is that it’s not going to scare old biddies about today’s out-of-control youth which, along with cancer misinformation and presenting fascists as the good guys, is one of the paper’s specialties.
Did you watch the entire video? For some strange reason there‘s a cut version, and the full version as a twitter embed that shows up on my laptop, but not on my ipad.
Anyway, what I see is this: Asshat (probably „provoked“ through gestures and verbal exchange) punches first person, who falls down, second guy comes forward and talks to asshat, evades his punch, third guy talks to asshat and is punched so that he falls. Only then a fourth person pushes asshat to the ground, and someone (I guess it‘s the first person) swings at asshat with skateboard, misses, swings again and hits asshat on the head, with an admittedly somewhat satisfying sound.
Which bad decisions do you see on the part of the skaters? They turned the other cheek twice before they decided that it‘s enough now.
Well, the initial provocation, though unseen, would be one bad choice. They didn’t really “turn the other cheek”; they confronted/provoked more, and then the skate whack. All bad imho.
None of that makes Mr. Asshat’s actions excusable. He should have been the adult in the situation, if they couldn’t behave nicely. It looks to me like he sucker-punched the first kid, in fact. That’s one of the purest evil, shitheaded, cowardly things a person can do. Even so, I see the skate whack as attempted manslaughter, and that’s where things went way over the top. The sound is sickening to me. I’m thinking that particular reaction is where we part philosophically on this.
moralizing language frames potentially deadly violence as progressive political metaphor rendering blogger comfortable with own vicarious voyeuristic glee.
that kid wasn’t just defending himself - you can easily kill someone hitting them in the head with a metal skateboard truck - it can crack the skull. believe me, the skateboarders are definitely the sympathetic party here - but this is like the beginning of the movie where a young kid makes a horrible mistake that haunts him for life.
Let’s stick with what we know, shall we? Since we don’t know what that “initial provocation” was, we can’t say for sure whether or not it was a bad choice.
They literally turned the other cheek: simple because they responded verbally, and not with violence, they made themselves vulnerable to the next two punches. Think about that for a minute.
And did you get what they were saying, because I couldn’t make it out. How do we know it wasn’t just something along the lines of “hey, you can’t just punch them”. That wouldn’t count as confrontation or provocation in my book.
Do you think a person who does that requires a provocation to trigger their rage? From my experience, they are often just looking for any excuse, even if nothing happened.
I don’t know about the US, but in a civilised country that would just count as self-defence, because the asshat demonstrated repeatedly he’s a threat, and he was hit just once, and then they ran.
What I find sickening is that these kids were made to suffer through this, and one of them was driven to respond violently by that asshat. Even though it was entirely justified, they will be traumatised.
It IS terribly sad that an adult was allowed to physically assault three minors in full view of a security guard, and none of the adults present took any action until the assaulted minors in question defended themselves.
Yep, shameful. It’s also sad the violence escalated. Defending oneself doesn’t have to mean harming another. Fair or not, all they had to do was leave.
