MLK Day mini-riot in Phoenix...

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2005-01-17 07:25pm

Breaking news as I type, but there's some kind of fight going on in Phoenix after a Martin Luther King Day celebration, hundreds of teenagers are milling around, some are kicking the living shit out of each other, and all the kids appear to be black, too.

Lovely way to remember the guy...

It's literally still occuring, so I guess more details will be coming as they're available.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-01-17 07:27pm

"It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-01-17 07:28pm

Remember kids, the best way to remember someone is to prove that you lack any SHRED of the integrity that they had and to prove to the world that their messages have been completely forgotten.

I hope the celebrations elsewhere are going better.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2005-01-17 07:37pm

Thankfully it doesn't appear that anybody's shooting each other, but seeing cops pepper spraying black kids today of all days is pretty unsettling.
Perhaps not nearly as unsettling as seeing black kids trying to beat each other to death, though.

It looks like the fight started between a group of girls, and spread out.

One kid had what looked like ten guys jump him and start stomping him senseless.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-01-17 07:39pm

I blame video games.

*flees*

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-01-17 07:41pm

How many people are involved, here? Are we talking on the order of twenty youths, or does this encompass entire city blocks?

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2005-01-17 07:43pm

RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2005-01-17 07:45pm

Frank Hipper wrote:Thankfully it doesn't appear that anybody's shooting each other,

That happened a few years ago in my home town. A former classmate of mine was gun down at a MLK parade over some stupid high school band rivalary. If there was an afterlife I don't think King would be too happy up there with what he's seeing.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2005-01-17 07:46pm

Master of Ossus wrote:How many people are involved, here? Are we talking on the order of twenty youths, or does this encompass entire city blocks?

At most I'd say there's a couple hundred kids on the street, and never more than ten-twenty involved in a fight at any given time.
It's pretty much over by now. I have no doubts it's going to make the national news.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-01-17 07:50pm

Alas, it reminds me of the old Chris Rock bit .... a white friend calls him on the phone and says he's lost on a street called Martin Luther King, what should he do? "RUN! I don't care where you live in America, if you're on Martin Luther King Boulevard, there's some violence going on!"

Progress isn't just one smooth climb up, is it?

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2005-01-17 09:34pm

THIS is how you people celebrate a civil rights activist's life? Do you shoot each other on Remembrance day or something?

Seriously, if this is progress my stomach's weak, I want to get off.

Predator · Post by **Predator** » 2005-01-17 10:22pm

Thinking about the kind of culture that produces this sort of thing, I actually have to wonder whether the "fashionable" method of holding a hand gun - the whole sideways thing - may have saved lives, due to the shooters being less accurate while trying to look cool. Random thought of the day.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2005-01-17 11:01pm

I'm not suprised. Vaguely bothered by it but I expect no better.

And in an ironic note just glad that it's not happening in Detroit.

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2005-01-17 11:05pm

I find this exceedingly sad... it tarnishes a lot of what this kind of day is supposed to stand for.