Cause and Effect

[den]

What is it about our society that seems to neglect teaching kids about cause and effect?

When I was young I knew that if I did something then something else would happen, like I'd get a whack from Dad. Even Polly knows there are certain things she can't do, and if she does them she knows she'll be a BADDOG even if I haven't discovered what it is.

The son of a friend (remember the 14 y.o. who used my PC to surf for porn?) has been telling me about the Skaties at his school, South High. The Skaties are a bunch of skate-board riding thugs who have been terrorising South for some time. They pick on my young friend and fight with him because he's a) not a Skatie and b) Aboriginal.

Last week the Skaties were roving around town, performing mindless vandalism and generally Bothering people, when they came across some black kids from Delroy High. Delroy is in West Dubbo, and is a depressed area where almost everyone is on welfare and the jeans are thread-bare, and so are the genes. The Skaties beat up the kids they found because they were a)not Skaties b)Westies and c)Aboriginal.

This week about 50 Delroy Westies turned up on the Skaties turf at South High and proceded to beat seven shades of shit out of them, because they were a) Skaties and b) see a). The Police were called, of course, and the Westies were warned off and told they would be arrested if they came within 500 metres of South High.

My young friend laughed himself sick. He said the Skaties were calling out to him and everyone at South to join in and help them.

"Did you?" I asked.

"No."

"Did they seriously expect you to help?"

"Yes."

"Do they understand why no one helped them?"

"I don't think so."

The Skaties are seriously peeved at their fellow South High students for not helping them.

What is it about cause and effect that kids don't understand?

Comments

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Out here that stuff has turned into AK-47 toting high school gangsters murdering each other at school gymnasium assemblies:

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/news/0403/15neworleans.html

I hope your cops and teachers shut that crap down right now, or you all will shortly have to stock up on coffins for those kids...

Sadly,
Mako

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

AH! But in this repressive country you can't buy an AK47, and fire-arms in general are very hard to get. We rarely have schoolyard shootings.

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Predjudice is a vile thing. It doesn't matter if it wears a suit or not. Or how much hair it has/n't. I'll stake you two to one if those Southies were here they would be considered white supremacists. But that's what supremacist thugs *do* here- asking their white "brethren" to "help them when the shit is down" that they've started. In short, picking fights with *everybody. Cowards, if you ask me. That kid who did nothing was using his head. Survival can be tricky. This is a very ugly situation that needs intervention. I'm sure some of the parents are asking themselves and their kid "Where did we go wrong?!!" right now. It's too bad it had to get this far before it was noticed. Because home is where it starts.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

In this case the white kids were asking black kids for help. My friends didn't care if it was black vs white. he was more concerned that it was Skaties vs !Skaties.

He hates Skaties.

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

They were expecting *help* from *black* kids after taunting aboriginals?! *Boggle*.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, and going off on a tangent, are there people who skate who are not Skaties?

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

yes! Lots of them. Skaties are a sub group of skaters

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

So, aside from asinine behavior, what qualifies one as a Skatie?

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

Why weren't the thugs arrested when they did it to the west dubbos?

You guys might not have ak-47s (it's not all that common here, despite what the news media makes you think), but you still have knives....

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The crims in this area are surprisingly weaponless. The last bloke to try an armed hold-up with a knife was shot in the bum by the security guard. Then he tried to hijack a car to escape but the lady fought him off, and the people in the insurance office who saw that ran out and dragged the bloke to the ground and held him until the police and ambulance arrived.

The Judge advised a career change.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's brilliant! It belongs in News of the Weird (http://www.newsoftheweird.com/) under the "least competent criminals" section.

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

*pointing and laughing*

Good thing I was in between bites of my breakfast.

[arcturax.livejournal.com]

The crims in my part part of the 'states are surprisingly witless.

Two men up in the state capitol once tried to steal money from an ATM machine. They figured instead of breaking in and getting caught on camera or putting up with alarms, they would just chain it to their truck and pull it out of the wall, load it up and get out before the cops arrived.

So they somehow chained it and pulled it out of the wall of the bank, setting off the alarm in the process. The got out to load it up but the two of them could not lift it. So in a panic, they decided to just drag it.

The cops, following the rut the 1000 lb machine carved in the road as they dragged it eventually caught up to the thieves, who could not outrun them because they were weighted down with a machine which weighted a lot and was being pulled without wheels over the road.

The men stopped and when the cop asked them what the hell they thought they were doing, they replied, "Oh this is just an old washing machine we were taking to the dump".

At 3AM.

And they actually thought the officer would buy that one.


And for one involving two people I somewhat *knew*, well they rode my bus and I knew their names, but that was about it, but anyway...

These two guys were a couple of big time stoners, didn't have a full deck of cards between them and what few they did have were all jokers.

One day, they decided to rob the bowling alley about a block from my parents house. The bowling alley they went to almost every day to loiter at and smoke pot when they thought no one was looking. So they went in, unarmed except for lighters and an aura of reefer smoke that was enough to kill mosquitos at 50 feet. They then attempted to, get this, hold *EACH OTHER* hostage while demanding money. They went in at first, one demanding, the other the hostage, who was standing behind the would be robber. Apparently the clerk burst out laughing, thinking they were joking. At some point while trying to convince the management they were serious, the hostage was suddenly the robber and the other guy the hostage.

The two were still trying to sort out who was who when the cops came to take them off to jail.

[level-head.livejournal.com]

A similar story happened with another attempt at an ATM machine.

But the truck was not successful in yanking it out of the wall. The perpetrators took off, and high tailed it to a restaurant to calm down, and then went home.

The police were waiting for this, and picked them up as they arrived. They had used the license plate to determine the address ... the license plate attached to the truck bumper left at the bank, chained to the ATM.

===|==============/ Level Head

[arcturax.livejournal.com]

Hmm either some more dumb yahoos or maybe this is an urban legend and we heard two variations of it. But either way its still amusing :)

Re:

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Mine came from a book on criminal behavior, and documented the place and time. It might still be false, but it is sourceable at least. I have not read it for years, but still have the book.

===|==============/ Level Head

[dwaggie.livejournal.com]

Now -that- is a good story ;)

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

I want to know the same thing hedgegoth asked: why weren't the Skaties put down by the police when they did it to the Westies?

Because...

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

The Skaties were: 1) White 2) Not from the West Side and 3) White.

It's the same all over the world, my friend. Whites can beat up blacks until the cows come home. But God forbid some poor black person stand up for themselves and try to get in a few whacks in return.

"Gotta call out the law and put them darkies in their bloody place!"

*retches in disgust*

Re: Because...

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

(smile though disgusted) True enough... what I was looking for, though, was the OFFICIAL reason why the Skaties weren't arrested for the initial violation against the Westies. The cops aren't too likely to admit that they're biased in investigating assaults, and the reason they give for not having investigated in the first place ought to be rather informative.