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July 4th Riot


Seabreeze

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I can see the headline in The Onion now: CMS Parent Protesters Turn Violent.

Yeah, like Miesian said, there is so many other things that are worse than what happened last night. Go to Chapel Hill after beating Dook. That is 10 times worse than last night. There was virtually no damage to property last night but if you look at when UNC beat Dook (I think it was Dook) about 3 years ago, in addition to the bonfires in the middle of the street and 30,000 people blocking roads, there were cars being turned over. I was there and this is nothing. Trust me.

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From my post late last night on Charlotte crime:

People are definitely overreacting about this. Ever heard the saying, a few bad apples spoil the bunch?  This was just a large crowd of teenagers mixed in with the larger group causing trouble.

I beg to differ. The rocket being thrown into the crowd wasn't the only thing I saw, it was just the worse. And half of what I saw was caused by people of age (or at least they should be). The guy who threw the rocket into the crowd looked to be in his late 20's, that to me is not a teenager and is apparently someone who is meaning to do some damage. It's very easy to belittle a situation so long you weren't standing next to it as it happened or it threatened your safety or the safety of those around you. Unless the CMPD makes a drastic change in the way the event was handled and people start gaining more common sense and stop acting like a bunch of jungle gorillas, next year's event is an accident waiting to happen and I wish to be no part of it.

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The fact that similar things and worse happen elsewhere in the state (country, world) does not make this event any more excusable. There should have been a critical mass of police officers there to prevent anything like this from happening in the first place, but it seems like they got the situation under control without any major trouble. Sounds like they just ended up with a bunch of bad characters all in the same place at the same time.

As for the regular punk kids with firecrackers, that happens no matter where you go. Be it the suburbs, downtown, the lake, or wherever, there will be people tossing firecrackers out of moving vehicles at crowds of people. I saw it happen here in Raleigh at the state fairgrounds; I've also seen it at both the city show in downtown Asheville and the Buncombe County show way out by Lake Julian. A rocket is definitely more dangerous, but the kid that set it off in Charlotte was probably too stupid or too drunk to know the difference. He just wanted to watch the people scatter.

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As for the regular punk kids with firecrackers, that happens no matter where you go. Be it the suburbs, downtown, the lake, or wherever, there will be people tossing firecrackers out of moving vehicles at crowds of people.  I....

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I didn't see anything like this at any of the events that I attended over the weekend.

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I didn't see anything like this at any of the events that I attended over the weekend.

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It is perfectly reasonable to assume that as the suburban events gain popularity, more crap will start happening there as well. Trouble makers go where lots of people are, not where there are tall buildings.

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It is perfectly reasonable to assume that as the suburban events gain popularity, more crap will start happening there as well. Trouble makers go where lots of people are, not where there are tall buildings.

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That, my friend, is the most accurate assessment of the situation.

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It is perfectly reasonable to assume that as the suburban events gain popularity, more crap will start happening there as well. Trouble makers go where lots of people are, not where there are tall buildings.

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I can't say that I have ever heard of anything like this at a suburban event in the Charlotte area, but I assume that anything is possible.

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to go another level down... trouble makers go where they can get away with making trouble. That is usually where there are lots of people, as they can evaporate into the crowds after doing something bad.

But there are ways to police large crowds and keep this sort of dangerous behavior from ruining things. The police need to do a better job of evolving their policing as this city gets larger and more urban.

By the way, i have been in the middle of a half dozen anti-american riots in asia, and a couple celebratory riots (soccer/football) in europe. From the images i've seen online of last night, it was FAR from a riot. It was definitely something bad, though, and i would not blame parents from not planning to bring their kids downtown next year.

I believe, though, with some improvements in policing, which is a certainty for next year, the event can be as good and safe next year as it was last year and before. The risk of being hurt at an event like that with no police is still probably much less than the risk of being hurt on the drive home anyway.

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I didn't see anything like this at any of the events that I attended over the weekend.

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Kids will be kids, however there was a guy in his 20s in the Lake Norman area who wasted Police and Medic's time after being "missing," but he was hiding under a dock the whole time.

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Well, the Observer online edition has already downgraded it to a melee.  Perhaps it will be futher downgraded to a ruckus.

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:rofl:

maybe so.

for some reason, this situation is reminding me a bit of the movie 'bowling for columbine' in how we react to the perception of crime. we want to isolate ourselves completely from the risk of crime, so we want to retreat to the burbs, or avoid large crowds downtown, or whatever else. I completely understand people's inate drive to do that when they experience or witness crimes, especially parents with kids... but in the end we've got to try to assess the risks more rationally.

i had my car stolen a few years ago. it was taken from my parking spot behind my home in first ward when i was standing in my house 20 feet away. i heard it drive away, and realized it had been my car when i went outside a few minutes later. i was livid. I think i even borderline yelled at the police when they showed up to my door, saying they weren't doing their jobs of keeping downtown safe, and i was going to move. They found my car abandonned in the belmont neighborhood, and it had been teenagers who took it for a joyride. Other than the damage from getting in, the only real damage was some bojangles chicken stuffed in the back-seat pockets. I really wondered whether i was at more risk downtown, but it turned out that cars all over the city had been stolen that weekend (likely gang initiations), and that it wasn't any more downtown than it was in ballantyne and dilworth, etc. anyway... my point is that after the initial emotions of being a victim or whatever, you've got to rationally assess the risks.

i think the risks of going to an event downtown is probably very low as far as risks go. I just hope that people don't abandon downtown events just because of some hoodlum kids.

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Well, reports are coming in that Charlotte indeed had what would classify as a "riot" last night... Charlotte.com has an article on it, that seems to downplay it somewhat. A friend said he saw tear gas used to subdue the crowd, and the restaurant he works at was one of two closed to allow people to evacuate the streets. He also saw people being cuffed and fireworks thrown into the crowd... no reports of injuries though.

It seems the news has been mentioning a lot of crimes lately. Robberies and murders are on the news every week, lots of double homicides and triple homicides... is this a nationwide trend or is this charlotte specific?

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/12055485.htm

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Dude Norfolk has murders alot. What is your murders up to right now?

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There were 2000 involved in the riot, which resulted in over 100 police being used to subdue it. They only arrested 17-20 however.

Bar owners were on the 6 oclock news saying their customers were afraid to leave their establishments due to this activity on the streets.

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This makes me quite angry. Though I was not at the 4th of July fireworks, a similiar experiance happened to me while waiting in the free parking on 5th street after the NASCAR speed street, there was violence in the parking deck. Some kid was beating another kid with a hammer, kids were running around cursing and drunk as possibly could be (these were not of the legal age either). There were little kids waiting with their parents too, I felt quite sorry for them.

It also shows me that people can't handle something free and something designed to be family fun anymore, be it free parking, a free show. There is a drive to destroy, whether it is based on personal failures or other nonsense, I don't know.

I don't know where society is going but I just thought to myself "the future prison population of america" among other things, parents are not going to get these kids out of this track and hopefully they don't rise to positions of power (oh no Bush did). Indeed.

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the only real damage was some bojangles chicken stuffed in the back-seat pockets. 

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Am i the only one who finds that quite funny? I'm sorry you got your car stolen, but that's hilarious.

anyway, with what happened this year, next year is pretty much guaranteed to be swarming with police, so i wouldn't be too concerned about going downtown.

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Actually are not the Police supposed to be protecting us from terrorism attacks? We do have a dept of homeland security now. It seems to me the Police failed to adequately judge what was needed for a crowd that size. What if the firecrackers had been grenades or something much worse?

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Am i the only one who finds that quite funny? I'm sorry you got your car stolen, but that's hilarious.

anyway, with what happened this year, next year is pretty much guaranteed to be swarming with police, so i wouldn't be too concerned about going downtown.

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lol, yeah it was pretty funny. i asked the crime scene unit lady if she could get some dna off it to catch the crooks :).

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Actually are not the Police supposed to be protecting us from terrorism attacks? We do have a dept of homeland security now. It seems to me the Police failed to adequately judge what was needed for a crowd that size. What if the firecrackers had been grenades or something much worse?

There is no real threat of terrorism, that

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Well as a witness to the "riot", while others might afraid to point out race, but as black person, yes it was rowdy black teens, it's common everywhere for urban teens to act like that. But I do agree that we do need more polices, especially when the new arena opens and the CIAA will be in Uptown Charlotte for a week long event for 3 whole years. You can expect similar behavior.

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Having recently moved back to Charlotte from Philadelphia, I was watching CBS news at 11pm the night this "riot" took place and I had to chuckle at how much coverage the whole thing was given. About all I can say about this is that this is the kind of things that happen in cities. I dont want to downplay the incident, but I can imagine that this group of people felt targeted by the police uptown. Just because there is a large group of people doesnt mean anyone should be "alarmed". I was shocked to find out they were herding people block by block away from the square.

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