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Last Saturday it was a beautiful day, and I was out walking with a friend in a local park, when I suddenly heard a voice behind me aggressively asking, "What have you been saying about me?". Another kid appeared in front of me, looking as though he was about to hit me, as I turn round, I notice that the aggressive questioning was directed towards me, and it came from a kid who looked about 14, topless, and carrying two cans of stella (rather threateningly, if that's possible).

So I said, "I didn't say anything to you", then suddenly another three kids appear. I'm pretty confused at this point, and I'm soon to be even more confused when one of them hits me in the jaw. It doesn't really hurt, but I'm astonished by it. This kid must be 15 max, he's about 5'4". Then one of the kids gets me in a headlock. I'm carrying my jacket but I throw him off alright. Then they spy a group of about 10 other kids, and a few start moving over towards them.

I stand staring at them deciding what to do, then out of nowhere a group of "alternative"-looking kids arrive, asking questions. I'm still a bit confused, but I spot the kids who moved away start laying into this tall guy. His friends don't seem to be helping, they're trying to get the kids away but not getting very far. There's a lot of commotion, but I can spot this guy getting kicked and people running about everywhere. At this point the one who initially approached me comes up to me, and says "Sorry you had to get hit mate." I'm baffled. He says, "Leave. Just leave."

I don't know what to do at this point, I stop and wait to see what they do, I'm about to go over, but they start to leave. Also, someone mentions that they've got knives, and at the end of the day there's just one of me, and I've never been in a fight in my life. From the looks of things they've stopped attacking the tall guy, they're leaving and I'm being ushered away.

Anyway, I'd pretty much put it out of my mind. I had a stiff jaw and the kid broke a bit of my tooth off, but I'd taken the view that there's not much I could've done about it.

But today I see this story, http://www.miltonkeynes.com/news/article/698. Seems like they kinda hurt those other guys.

I can't really remember what the kids looked like other than basic details. Is there any point me going to the police?

just go on with your buisness, you got into it with some dudes some words were exchanged, got a little physical then you went home big deal

weird... I was just reading this:


PLATINUM SELLING RAPPER TELLS '60 MINUTES': WOULDN'T HELP POLICE CATCH EVEN A SERIAL KILLER BECAUSE IT WOULD HURT HIS BUSINESS AND VIOLATE HIS 'CODE OF ETHICS'

Thu Apr 19 2007 12:47:1 ET

Rap star Cam'ron says there's no situation -- including a serial killer living next door -- that would cause him to help police in any way, because to do so would hurt his music sales and violate his "code of ethics." Cam'ron, whose real name is Cameron Giles, talks to Anderson Cooper for a report on how the hip-hop culture's message to shun the police has undermined efforts to solve murders across the country. Cooper's report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, April 22 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

"If I knew the serial killer was living next door to me?" Giles responds to a hypothetical question posed by Cooper. "I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him -- but I'd probably move," says Giles. "But I'm not going to call and be like, ÔThe serial killer's in 4E.' " ( For an excerpt of Giles' interview, click here

Giles' "code of ethics" also extends to crimes committed against him. After being shot and wounded by gunmen, Giles refused to cooperate with police. Why? "Because...it would definitely hurt my business, and the way I was raised, I just don't do that," says Giles. Pressed by Cooper, who says had he been the victim, he would want his attacker to be caught, Giles explains further: "But then again, you're not going to be on the stage tonight in the middle of, say, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, with people with gold and platinum teeth and dreadlocks jumping up and down singing your songs, either," says Giles. "We're in two different lines of business."

"So for you, it's really about business?" Cooper asks.

"It's about business," Giles says, "but it's still also a code of ethics."

Rappers appear to be concerned about damaging what's known as their "street credibility," says Geoffrey Canada, an anti-violence advocate and educator from New York City's Harlem neighborhood. "It's one of those things that sells music and no one really quite understands why," says Canada. Their fans look up to artists if they come from the "meanest streets of the urban ghetto," he tells Cooper. For that reason, Canada says, they do not cooperate with the police.

Canada says in the poor New York City neighborhood he grew up in, only the criminals didn't talk to the police, but within today's hip-hop culture, that's changed. "It is now a cultural norm that is being preached in poor communities....It's like you can't be a black person if you have a set of values that say ÔI will not watch a crime happen in my community without getting involved to stop it,'" Canada tells Cooper.

Young people from some of New York's toughest neighborhoods echo Canada's assessment, calling the message not to help police "the rules" and helping the police "a crime" in their neighborhoods. These "rules" are contributing to a much lower percentage of arrests in homicide cases -- a statistic known as the "clearance rate" -- in largely poor, minority neighborhoods throughout the country, according to Prof. David Kennedy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "I work in communities where the clearance rate for homicides has gone into the single digits," says Kennedy. The national rate for homicide clearance is 60 percent. "In these neighborhoods, we are on the verge of -- or maybe we have already lost -- the rule of law," he tells Cooper.

Says Canada, "It's like we're saying to the criminals, ÔYou can have our community....Do anything you want and we will either deal with it ourselves or we'll simply ignore it.' "

i've got nothing against the police, i just don't know how much it would help to go to them.

Marsupialized wrote:just go on with your buisness, you got into it with some dudes some words were exchanged, got a little physical then you went home big deal

they dislocated that poor fucker's knee. for no reason!

HCT wrote:Is there any point me going to the police?

In Swansea? Probably not.

HCT wrote:

Marsupialized wrote:just go on with your buisness, you got into it with some dudes some words were exchanged, got a little physical then you went home big deal

they dislocated that poor fucker's knee. for no reason!

I'm sure they had their reasons

I've no real advice to offer, HCT, but I've got this to add:

That police report wrote:The gang started to attack him, causing him a fat lip, black eye and dislocated knee.

I can't ever recall a fat lip being mentioned by the police as an injury sustained in a crime before. "The victim was left with a thick ear, and the feeling of a hand on the back of his legs."

I know what else I'll add: fuck Cam'ron, then.

One summer maybe 6 or 7 years back there was a gang of about 5-10 high-school-aged kids who would occasionally hang out on the sidewalk across Damen Ave. from Wicker Park, just kicking the shit out of any young white people who happened to walk by. The kids would stand around near that convenience store parking lot, then suddenly jump random people and start beating and kicking them. I saw this happen several times while driving down Damen. It didn't look like they were trying to rob them or anything, at least as far as I could tell. They seemed to be just knocking the yuppies around for fun, sort of welcoming them to the neighborhood or whatever.

People would call the cops, the kids would scatter as soon as they arrived, but then they'd be back in a couple days doing the same thing.

Marsupialized wrote:I'm sure they had their reasons

well they certainly had no reason to hit me. other than an offensive haircut.