Because I live in NYC and have always had the perception gang activity and such were mostly an urban phenomenon. I guess I didn’t think there was enough population density in Oklahoma to support gangs! (I have never been to Oklahoma and am not sure I have ever known anyone who has, so I did tell you it was a statement borne out of ignorance)</p>
<p>
And on other topics, it’s the left-wing news sources that promote hate and division. It’s still early, give it time.
I think Bay asked a pretty reasonable question. The race wasn’t clear and I still say that young man has the coloring of my son, at least in pictures. It was never clear to me that the third boy was black or bi-racial until you showed a picture of his mom.</p>
<p>Do you really want to do this, look for the race angle in everything?</p>
<p>If we were smart we would all look at the one uniting factor among these recent atrocities–that the perpetrators were all MALE, between 15 and 25 or so. And they all had guns.</p>
Yep. It’s the male thing. How many female spree or serial killers have their been? Not many. But lots of males. Something is going wrong with the raising of boys in our society. This is a huge, huge problem.</p>
<p>Who are you talking to, sally? Aren’t you the one who proclaimed what race the killers were, based on jonri’s impression of the photos you deride?</p>
<p>Zoosermom,
Oklahoma is actually one of the more urban states as much of the population is concentrated in either the Oklahoma City or Tulsa metro areas. However, the town they were in is pretty far from either area. One of the girls in my hall is from a nearby town and says that drugs, particularly meth, is a big problem in the more rural regions of the state. Since it has to come from somewhere, there are presumably gangs that operate in the farther flung cities. </p>
<p>I did base my presumptions of the boys’ races on photos of them and photos/videos of their families. I expressly admitted that I did so.</p>
<p>I made my remarks in reply to those who said this was a racial hate crime. I haven’ t seen any evidence of that. Moreover, my own assumption is that Jones is white, Evans is African-American and Luna is bi-racial. Therefore, I think it’s unlikely the attack was racially based.</p>
<p>*Quote:
Teenagers and sociopaths aren’t two entirely different species.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>I think that person meant that teens often don’t have discernment and often don’t have a long term outlook. I don’t think they meant that teens are sociopaths. </p>
<p>this whole story is just horrific. A family has their child go to the US for a college sport and ends up being senselessly killed. </p>
<p>Reminds me of that Italian bride who was killed by that crazy Venice Beach person.</p>
<p>"By your logic the President should comment on every single murder every single day, lest he look “content” with the rate of gun violence in this country. Give me a break. "
-Nope, not at all, only when balck is killed by white or hispanic, only on those. He will never ever mention the white victim, under his radar, just NOT worth it, there is no buying votes mentionning white victim, what’s the purpose? NONE…not for Jesse, not for Al, not for any of our greats and the greatest of them all, I am an awe, huge admirer…bless everybody’s heart, soon we will start buiding pyramids for the well deserving ones…</p>
<p>This isn’t a racial crime, neither was the the three boys on the bus stomping a younger white kid, and neither was the Zimmerman trial. We’re infatuated with racism in this country. The left constantly attaches race to stories based on their own speculations, and then the right(after criticizing them for it) does the same thing because the left did it before. They’re both dopes, if it’s not there stop crying out that there is racial intent within a crime.</p>
<p>The Blaze has easily some of the most intelligent and in depth news discussion on t.v. They did an hour long discussion on the NSA from moral, constitutional, and crime preventing perspective on “Real News”, when the rest of the country did 5-10 minute segments on it. You might not agree with them Sally, but it might be because you are radical and not them. Agree with their Libertarian viewpoints or not, they dive into the meat of their stories more than any other news channels on t.v. that I’ve seen and I watch them all from time to time.</p>
<p>I personally believe that the president’s statement post-Zimmerman trial was absolutely appropriate. Especially knowing that the case was front page news for months. Furthermore, I do not classify Obama as black. He is half black and half white. Only the remnants of US Jim Crow laws continue to allow society to classify half black individuals as full black. These individuals inevitably have to accept their classification as being black. But I know several half black/half white individuals who do not classify themselves as either race.</p>
<p>I am really disappointed by the tone on this thread. There are strong statements that are IMHO heavily racist even though we have yet to hear the facts of this case. I come to this forum because I want to engage in healthy discussions from people who strive for higher levels of education. Please keep the politics out of this or we will never walk away from this incident any smarter than when we arrived.</p>
<p>I completely identify with Christopher Lane as much as I did with Trayvon Martin. Two young men, minding their own business, who should have arrived to their destinations completely incident free regardless of their backgrounds or race. I don’t need Foxnews, Obama, NRA, or Al Sharpton to express my sympathies.</p>
<p>“I am really disappointed by the tone on this thread. There are strong statements that are IMHO heavily racist even though we have yet to hear the facts of this case. I come to this forum because I want to engage in healthy discussions from people who strive for higher levels of education. Please keep the politics out of this or we will never walk away from this incident any smarter than when we arrived.”</p>
<p>Had a similar incident (“thrill kill”) happen near me over the summer in the middle of the small town rural midwest that didn’t make as big of national news -</p>
<p>It appears that the death penalty won’t be sought because it is the responsibility of the county to pay the court costs and death penalty cases are very costly (sad that it comes down to money!)</p>
<p>BTW - I am one of those <em>horrible</em> mothers. I never married my son’s father and have raised him as a single mother since he was 4 years old <em>gasp</em>. He finished high school with above a 4.0 GPA, is currently in school on a full tutition scholarship studying engineering, volunteered with Habitat for Humanity throughout high school, made the Dean’s List his first semester of college… Perahps it is becaue <em>I</em> chose to raise him alone.</p>
<p>"Just to clarify: Jesse Jackson has put out a statement calling for prayers for the victim and his family. "
…and he called for march to protest against such crimes, right? I bet he did and Al supported this idea…</p>
Perhaps the government and people of Australia need the President of the United States to express his sympathies to the family and their nation. Again. This case actually is an international incident.</p>
I was married before my kids were born, but had I gotten to a certain point without marriage, there is no question in my mind that I would have gotten pregnant on my own. It was always an open question as to whether I wanted a husband, but biology willing, I was always going to have kids.</p>
<p>Zoosermom, it would be nice if the president did so. But he would spend a lot of time doing so due to a high number of foreigners who are killed in the US. I had the same thought when Alice Gruppioni, Italian newly wed, was killed in a hit-run at Venice Beach.</p>