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When i was a teenager hanging out was part of the lifestyle of being a teenager, we didnt hang out 24/7 but there were always places you could hang out if thats what you wanted to do,mostly it was a particular shopping plaza,restaurant or park. If we were banned from one place we'd just go to another place.
When i was a teenager hanging out was part of the lifestyle of being a teenager, we didnt hang out 24/7 but there were always places you could hang out if thats what you wanted to do,mostly it was a particular shopping plaza,restaurant or park. If we were banned from one place we'd just go to another place.
Teenagers have hung out since there were teenagers. The act of them hanging out itself isn't the problem - it's when lowlife teenagers hang out and cause trouble that becomes the problem.
When I was a teenager in the late 90s-early 2000s, there wasn't much to do in my hometown. Other than high school football/basketball games, there were no sports of note. The internet was the domain of a few geeks like myself - probably 80% of my classmates at the time had never used it seriously. We'd go to the mall and hang out, and sometimes you'd see two people get in a fight over something stupid, but you didn't have these massive brawls involving mostly black teenagers.
We didn't have the tools of today to keep us busy, which should have kept us occupied and out of trouble, yet there were never these mass brawls. While individuals would sometimes fight, it was never among dozens of of people. We were taught that this kind of brawling was wrong, and that while sometimes a public fight may occur, it was not something to be proud of.
is a mall brawl really that bad?
When I was in high school the pedo history teacher would invite the boy's sports teams to his house for 'keggers' and some mild sandusky action. One of the rich kids would have drug parties and at one of them a dude blew his head off playing russian roulette. At other parties there's always be someone almost dead from alcohol poisoning.
It seems like the mall could be used as a public "containment zone" where teens could blow off steam with wholesome brawling instead of getting into the more sinister stuff that goes down in private get togethers.
Look at the number of malls that increased violence has killed. Read about Bannister Mall in Kansas City, once a nice mall but with the increased violence, tenants left and it eventually closed altogether. Windsor Park Mall in San Antonio also had a problem with thugs, it too closed. Crossroad in Omaha, a mall I knew well experienced the same things, it too closed. There are others as well, and you ask if a brawl is really that bad? To the tenants paying high rates to lease there and seeing mall traffic and sales decrease, it is indeed a big deal.
It's sad really, but as usual a few ruin it for everyone and most of the time people put up with it with too little done to curb the thugs and violence before it gets to be too much with a decrease in traffic and tenants leaving. Kids have been hanging out in malls for decades and there is really no problem as long as the youngsters are spending money and behaving themselves. I was never a "mall rat" but did used to enjoy a pizza and the video games, but we were no trouble to anyone. It's kind of sad to see people commenting on the now dead malls they used to hang out in. You see genuine sadness and despair for a better a time in their lives. It's too bad a few punks have to try to ruin it for the good kids. If these kids can't behave then they need adult supervision on their weekend visits.
People complain there kids have nothing to do after school yet music and art programs go underfunded, Science and Technology clubs are non existent in many places, and Schools kick kids out on the curb 10 minutes after school is over....
Nope. Malls are private businesses. No one has a Constitutional right to be there unless they are a protected class. Just as a restaurant can ban people without ties, a movie can be rated "adults only," or a casino can escort you out because they think you might be counting cards, a mall can say unaccompanied teens can't come in. They couldn't say teens in wheelchairs can't come in or Latino teens can't come in, but they can set curfews on teens. In fact, it's a given unaccompanied children aren't allowed. If an eight-year-old went to a mall to hang out at the Orange Julius the mall would call the police even without a curfew on other age groups.
Not to mention, if teens ONLY went to malls to spend money in stores (or an eight-year-old went there solely to buy a birthday gift for Mom, that wouldn't be a problem either. It's loitering that's the issue.
Okay, then seniors that go there for exercise have to go, too.
So what if 18-24 year olds are also a demographic that is "at-risk" for causing problems? Are they eventually going to be banned too (unless accompanied by someone 25 or older)? Why not ban people over 80 from the mall since they are more likely to drive their cars through the mall and run over some people (Oh yeah....that's right, they're a "protected class"). When does it end?
Honestly, I know there are a minority of troublesome teens who are a catalyst for this ban, but there's getting to be way too much of a nanny state with just about everything these days. And it's no wonder younger people are taking longer to establish themselves as full adults (aside from the more challenging economic times compared to years ago) with absurd situations like this in their face telling them that they're not expected to be able to conduct themselves appropriately out in public, so they're going to be banned unless they're with someone older. Unfortunately, sometimes when someone is told they're an idiot for long enough, they begin to internalize it and act out on it.
I guess it will get them used to dealing with all the new absurd nanny rules to save them from their purported stupidity when they get to be adults that their parents and grandparents didn't face (like Bloomberg's "big gulp" soda ban in NYC).
Look at mom and/or dads "parenting" skills and there's your answer. The kids actions in the vast majority of cases are a result of mom and dads "work".
Look at mom and/or dads "parenting" skills and there's your answer. The kids actions in the vast majority of cases are a result of mom and dads "work".
I don't buy that. While there were no malls around to hang out in when I was growing up in Chicago, my parents both worked and so did many of my friends' parents. We didn't get into fights in public places or private ones for that matter. Are there statistics you can provide that show the vast majority of mall fights and the cause and effect in relation to working parents?
I mean, if one or the other parent were home, what would there be to stop the kid from going to the mall and getting into trouble after school regardless of who was at home? Is the stay at home parent supposed to sit on the kid and watch him/her to make sure he/she doesn't got to the mall and start a fight?
I don't think that's my answer. I think plenty of teens with working parents go to the mall and behave themselves just fine.
Referring to poverty in white Appalachia, and drug abuse, is just a liberal ploy to be politically correct and avoid speaking the truth, as usual.....and this is Just my opinion and my view,...but I agree with the ban, anytime you get a large group of African American teenagers, strolling around, there is the greater risk that they will wreak some type of havoc possibly, not saying every time, or only them....but most likely them...... be it a mall, or a park, and wherever......just my opinion and my view....so bans are necessary as a result....
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(Oh yeah....that's right, they're a "protected class"). When does it end?
