OT- Book em Dano- Jackson in cuffs

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Decater, ILL

CNN has live coverage of the 'Rev' crossing the school lines in support of the 6 HS students that were expelled for fighting at a football game. What's your take on this people?

-- Truth (at@the.ready), November 16, 1999

Answers

Well, while I've sided with Jackson on some issues, on this specific one I simply can't support him.

Some kids seem to believe that their actions have no consequences. Where would they get this idea? Next time you are in the supermarket watch for the families with kids who rampage up and down the isles all the while parents saying "Don't do that", "Don't do that", "Don't do that", "Don't do that", "Don't do that", "Don't do that", "Don't do that".....

The kids continue to 'do that' because they understand full well there are no consequences. When I was growing up, I got one and only one "don't do that". If I persisted, the shopping trip was called off and we went immediately to the car and depending upon the nature of my crime, further remediation was in order.

These days, nothing strikes as much terror into my heart as those little "Future WalMart shopper-in-training" shopping carts.

FWIW, I saw the tape of the fight these kids were responsible for. I think they've already gotten off pretty easy...

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), November 16, 1999.


Kids will be kids. The school system, in promoting a status quo that is unattainable by some members of society, have thereby formented an environment filled with intolerance and ignorance. Is it any wonder our children lash out such an incredibly violent fashion? To suspend the perpetrators of the fight would be one thing. To possibly doom them to a life of closed doors by expelling them permanantly is narrowminded at best. Criminal at worst. Who is to truly say these things should not happen? Is this the legacy of George Bush's "Kinder, Gentler, Nation?"

By insisting on a 'zero tolerance' for violence or any other activity deemed 'non-pc', you create a potentially volatile situation. The socialist agenda of the liberals and democrats never take into account that man is truly, at the basest level, a predatory animal who has had the good fortune to discover self control. Unfortunately, self control is not always going to be there, and the primitive in all of us shows through occasionally. When it does, one should not 'punish', but instruct, and help make amends. The cyclical nature of the attempted-police- state will at one point be our downfall.

-- Dr. Moreau (Where @TheWildThings.Are), November 16, 1999.


I was one of the wild kids racing all about. The House others looked tersely at as they passed. "LaLaLa, Ahhhhhh", chirped in shrill high shrieks, bodies running about every which way, and so forth. It was SoCA in the 60's, and people were letting go of The Old Ways, hanging more loosely, and frankly those uptight eventually came to stand out like a sore thumb. Yet, as a middle aged woman I walk by a few houses with a terse and disapproving expression on my face. I'm an inch away from being the aged woman in her garden gloves shaking her hand spade at the neighborhood boys running by with a good, "You'll never amount to anything Johnny Smith if you don't stop that...."

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 16, 1999.

As someone who fought for civil rights, I take great offense at Jesse Jackson's phoney stance in this matter. He has to know that it had nothing to do with race in this issue...it had to do with very ugly violence. Did any of you SEE it run on the nightly news three nights in succession? Each time I felt my stomach knot up as I watched the level of violence expressed there towards other humans by these brutes. Innocent people in the way were hurt and trodden upon as well. If it were your or my grandchildren or children in that crowd being stomped or pummeled, you would be happy to have those guys expelled for a year!!!

And on the news they told how all but one of those expelled had extensive arrest records before this incident. The permissiveness of the past is catching up with us now, and Jackson is helping to promote this with his interference. If he has broken the law, he deserves to be arrested.

-- Elaine Seavey (GOds1sheep@aol.com), November 16, 1999.


O'Reilly's View: The Enablers of Crime NEW YORK (APBnews.com) -- If you want to know the reason why America leads the league among industrial nations in violent crime, look no further than the incredible story unfolding in Decatur, Ill.

Back in September, seven students from three high schools in that working-class town are accused of inciting mob violence at a high school football game. The school board expelled the seven for two years -- prompting the Rev. Jesse Jackson to travel to Decatur and launch an indignant protest demanding the students be reinstated immediately.

On national television, so-called reporters stood by while Jackson made his case. The students were being punished too harshly, he said. The school district's policy of zero tolerance for violent activity was too punitive. After all, the reverend stated, this was not a gun or knife incident, and no one was badly hurt.

Jackson painted the students as victims of an overzealous, vengeful school district -- and much of the nation bought it.

Looking deeper into the story

But the real story that many journalists were too lazy to dig out is quite something else. Shortly after the brawl, the school board asked the students and their parents to attend a hearing so they could defend themselves before any punitive action was taken. Only one student and his mother showed up. That student withdrew voluntarily from the school district so he could continue his education elsewhere.

The other six students and their parents ignored the school board, which wasn't exactly surprised by that action. It seems that three of the students allegedly involved were third-year freshmen. And, cumulatively, the six students linked to the fight missed more than 350 days of school last year.

Somehow Jackson failed to mention that. Jackson also failed to mention that, under pressure, the school district had reduced the expulsion to one year and had offered the students immediate transfer to an alternative school in the district so they could continue their "education" under close supervision. The students declined.

Jackson backs away

Fortunately, there is a record of just what the expelled students did. A videotape of the incident shows a wild melee with intent to hurt. These guys weren't just pushing people around. They were punching, kicking and hurting innocent people. Civilians who claimed minor injuries filed six accident reports with police.

After my program The O'Reilly Factor related the truth of this story, Jackson backed away from his planned protest at one of the high schools, saying that alternative school might be OK. But the police did not back away. After seeing the tape, the authorities filed assault charges against the young men.

That prompted a federal lawsuit by pro-bono attorneys who are claiming that the students' civil rights are being violated. So now we arrive at the crux of this story.

Mixing victims and villains

Violent crime in America is largely the result of criminals who do not fear society's punishment. The message Jackson and his acolytes have sent all over the United States is that a violent brawl is not that big a deal and the students who are accused of starting it are the true victims in the case.

An uncaring school system that has adopted a zero-tolerance program for violence is really the villain. The students should be punished but not all that much. The Rev. Jackson is very concerned that they continue their education.

And what education is that, reverend? The record clearly shows that these students were not exactly candidates for most likely to succeed. They were on an anti-social path, and you seem to be happy to keep them there.

Any clear-thinking person would take one look at this case and say those kids should be in an alternative school getting as much individual attention as possible. Discipline is perhaps the only thing that can save them at this point. Jackson and his cohorts should want these kids supervised and out of the mainstream, which they proved they could not handle.

Encouraging violent activity

Jackson should also be jumping up and down supporting zero tolerance against violence in all public schools. Instead he's going on national television saying the fight wasn't so bad because the kids didn't have knives and guns.

Please.

Jesse Jackson and Americans who think like he does are enablers of crime.

The attorneys who are suing the school district are quite possibly encouraging more violent activity, especially if they actually find a judge who will side with them. This whole sorry story demonstrates why so many young people are violent these days. Society is afraid to confront them because of people like Jesse Jackson and his merry band of litigious attorneys.

I don't know about you, but I find this story extremely disturbing. But it is also illuminating. Why is there so much violent crime in America? Look no further than Decatur for part of the answer.

By Bill O'Reilly, the anchor of the Fox News Channel show The O'Reilly Factor and the author of the crime novel Those Who Trespass.

-- 6mo (mo@home.com), November 16, 1999.



Boy if there's one thing we relly really really need right now it's another ratcheting up of racial tensions.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), November 16, 1999.

For obvious reasons I will not use names.

I was in the Navy during WW2, One night while I was asleep, a drunk crewmember, EM2 ________ jumped into my bunk and began to strangle me, all the while muttering, "I'm going to kill you, Herbert."

Half unconscious and in terror, I was able to pry his fingers from my throat long enough to cry for help. Other men the compartment peeled the maniac off me and subdued him.

The next morning I went to the exec., told him of the incident, and informed him that in the future I would be sleeping with a dogging iron in my bunk. And that if it happened again, I would hit EM2 ______ as hard as I could. I wanted the exec. to know that if I killed EM2 ________, it would be in self defense.

Well, they transferred EM2_________ that day to the DD 8 _ _. About a week later, EM2 _________ killed a crewman who was asleep in his bunk.

The reason I'm telling this story, is that the exec. on our ship didn't want to deal with the problem so he gave it to another ship to solve, which they didn't, and as a result someone died.

So rather than sending these violent boys to prison where they belong, they are going to allow them to be moved to another school or just loose in the society?

The eventual outcome is foreordained. Lock and load, friends; it isn't going to get any better.

-- Long (john@silver.com), November 16, 1999.


Jackson is a parasite to his race and the worst enemy they ever had. He has done nothing for them or anyone else.

-- Patrick (pmchenry@gradall.com), November 16, 1999.

The guy is a blowhole. One thing I can agree with him on, is that expulsion doesn't serve a purpose. A good paddling on their ass might. I suppose Rev. Al Sharpton will be boarding a plane soon to offer his pearls of wisdom too...

-- Gia (laureltree7@hotmail.com), November 17, 1999.

Tee hee hee. We shouldn't punish, but instruct? What a zany idea! YOu DO realise that children are educated by TV, even in the classroom, don't you? Have you watched kids TV recently? Granted it's one of the last bastions of innovative, original, well observed programming, but the vast majority of it is "Acquire, dominate, victimise all that is different." If you think we treat our elderly folks badly now, just wait twenty years.

(What's that? You're a responsible parent and don't let your kids watch that sort of TV? Do they get beaten up a lot?)

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 17, 1999.



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