North Reading Teens Yelling Obscenities From Car Windows (More Than Average) (Boston: fit in, house)
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I've lived in North Reading my entire life, and never before have I experienced this hugely unprecedented amount of teenage drivers yelling obscenities from out of their car windows. I realize that kids are only going to do what kids do best, and act out impulsively, but I have never known rudeness from young automobile drivers to exceed more than a few unintelligible crows and cat calls once every few months.
I'm young-ish (in my mid-twenties,) and I usually get around by walking or riding my bicycle. I don't usually receive much of the brunt while I'm out doing these things, but sometimes, when I have been out walking downtown with my girlfriend, these muscle-headed runts really make their presence known. Always, they have to shout out homophobic slurs at myself, or some crass, fat-headed, sexist remark at my girlfriend. If I'm not out with my gf, I sometimes encounter some slovenly rump face who proceeds to call me any of your standard four-letter word curse words.
I really only notice these kids (always male and between the ages of sixteen to twenty-one,) yelling out at me, or both me and my girlfriend, and NEVER any other pedestrian within ten feet. I'm dead serious. You may call me whiny for nitpicking about this sort of behavior, but it's really just plain annoying to walk out of one's house and get bombarded with a slew of wife-beater wearing, macho libre pinheads who are too cowardly to sit down and have a civil conversation.
I guess my big question is, whether or not, any other locals (twenty-five and older) have dealt with similar scenarios as pedestrians.
I have not seen this at all, though don't live in your town. I'm in my 40s and have a good friend in N. Reading my age, I'll have to ask him if he has seen this.
They don't call it "the town of no reading" for nothing. And it's not unreasonable to point out that a lot of the perpetrators would identify themselves as Bruins fans and NRA members. (Seriously - I bet few of them have been following the World Cup and are vegetarians. Neither here nor there, but I don't fall into any of those four camps in case you were wondering.) My point is that North Reading has a reputation for being well to the political right of, say, Andover. And in fairness to those doing the name-calling, when you live in a sparsely populated town with scattered subdivisions - and little that's constructively fun to do - what DO you do? It's gotten so that it's not easy to knock down street-side mailboxes any more, even! With gas prices the way they are you think twice about nighttime forays into Lawrence, Lowell, Haverhill, or Lynn to do "drive-by shoutings" at Hispanics and Blacks, or into Boston's South End to mouth off at gay men, too.
To me it sounds like nothing more than bored suburban kids being bored suburban kids. The same stuff goes on in liberal-leaning towns with a higher amount of what I term over-educated citizens. What's different is, the guys in their misspent youth living in Lexington or Sharon - for instance - do it because of the shock value to their "enlightened" parents. ("That word is never to be used in this house!" "G00k, lezbo, reetard, guinea, nyah nyah nyah!") In the more conservative areas they're reflecting how they were brought up. ("How did that f-in' [N-word] get elected in the first place, lettin' all those sp*c illegals in..." "Dad, I'm gonna go out and drive around with the guys for a while.") And nobody said any adolescents anywhere who think they know what defines "normal" are necessarily going to look kindly on people who don't fit into that box. Particularly if their buddies, the most relied-upon source on how to think and behave, aren't.
This does go on in Cambridge too. And this is not to say that plenty of major-league sports fans and gun owners aren't open-minded or at least know how to behave themselves in public. Or that some "sophisticated" left-wing types don't have attitude problems to hide. Being different in this diverse society with its freedom of expression has its consequences.
P.S. There are "other pedestrians," who do nothing? Silence is the voice of complicity.
P.P.S. If your cellphone has audio and/or video recording functions, use them. And memorize license plate numbers to jot them down later. Where homophobic slurs are concerned, it's a civil rights violation when they're directed at someone based on their real or perceived sexual orientation. (My sense is that the OP is male but perhaps has long and/or dyed hair and favors artsy/hipster clothing styles - and maybe carries a shoulder bag, instead of a backpack or gym bag the way "normal, regular guys around here" do.) Should the harassment be as "hugely unprecedented" as is claimed it would probably be worthwhile to take the matter to the MCAD rather than to the police department. Regarding the town's "finest," I know what it does to assume but neither should you be sure they'd take it seriously.
I grew up in Billerica and I experienced the same thing growing up and I experience the same thing whenever I visit home. Even when I was 16 and learning to drive, I had some friends who liked to yell things out the window for no reason. It used to **** me off so much because I could never understand the rational for it. Once when I was visiting home some kids threw a coke bottle at me while I was out jogging. I've even had an old man throw a cigarette at me when I was jogging. Maybe it makes these guys feel tough that they can do harm to someone and not have any repercussions. Even after the teens threw the coke bottle at me, I turned around and challenged the whole car to fight me, but of course they just drove off. When I lived in Queens, NY, or Cambridge, MA, I never saw anything like that. I can only assume that these are bored kids with nothing to do. Also, the kids in Queens and Cambridge are less likely to drive so if they mouth off to someone they wouldn't be able to drive off. They might have to face some street justice.
Just baby trash who are slated to do menial work later on, make lots of uncared for and unfortunate babies, and flood our welfare system. Then they will continue to add to our communal "diversity" by hating everyone else, get arrested and die young from drug or cheap booze. They will consume resources, add nothing to the advancement of humanity, and waste lots of air. Move to a nicer town, or a nicer part of the city.
They don't call it "the town of no reading" for nothing. And it's not unreasonable to point out that a lot of the perpetrators would identify themselves as Bruins fans and NRA members. (Seriously - I bet few of them have been following the World Cup and are vegetarians. Neither here nor there, but I don't fall into any of those four camps in case you were wondering.) My point is that North Reading has a reputation for being well to the political right of, say, Andover. And in fairness to those doing the name-calling, when you live in a sparsely populated town with scattered subdivisions - and little that's constructively fun to do - what DO you do? It's gotten so that it's not easy to knock down street-side mailboxes any more, even! With gas prices the way they are you think twice about nighttime forays into Lawrence, Lowell, Haverhill, or Lynn to do "drive-by shoutings" at Hispanics and Blacks, or into Boston's South End to mouth off at gay men, too.
Nothing in the OP's post indicated the kids were hockey fans. I'm sure this rant comes from somewhere, I'm just not sure where
Quote:
Originally Posted by goyguy
To me it sounds like nothing more than bored suburban kids being bored suburban kids. The same stuff goes on in liberal-leaning towns with a higher amount of what I term over-educated citizens. What's different is, the guys in their misspent youth living in Lexington or Sharon - for instance - do it because of the shock value to their "enlightened" parents. ("That word is never to be used in this house!" "G00k, lezbo, reetard, guinea, nyah nyah nyah!") In the more conservative areas they're reflecting how they were brought up. ("How did that f-in' [N-word] get elected in the first place, lettin' all those sp*c illegals in..." "Dad, I'm gonna go out and drive around with the guys for a while.") And nobody said any adolescents anywhere who think they know what defines "normal" are necessarily going to look kindly on people who don't fit into that box. Particularly if their buddies, the most relied-upon source on how to think and behave, aren't.
North Reading went 53% Romney/46% Obama, which means that it's almost as likely that these kids parents voted for Obama as they did for Romney. What's even more likely is that some of the kids had parents who voted for Obama, some of them who voted for Romney, and some who didn't vote. Not everyone in the suburbs (or everyone right of Elizabeth Warren) burns crosses on the weekend, especially in Massachusetts.
Whatever their parents political leanings, I suspect that this is not behavior their parents would approve if they were aware.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goyguy
This does go on in Cambridge too. And this is not to say that plenty of major-league sports fans and gun owners aren't open-minded or at least know how to behave themselves in public. Or that some "sophisticated" left-wing types don't have attitude problems to hide. Being different in this diverse society with its freedom of expression has its consequences.
People can be mean. Especially popular teenagers. True the world over.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goyguy
P.S. There are "other pedestrians," who do nothing? Silence is the voice of complicity.
P.P.S. If your cellphone has audio and/or video recording functions, use them. And memorize license plate numbers to jot them down later. Where homophobic slurs are concerned, it's a civil rights violation when they're directed at someone based on their real or perceived sexual orientation. (My sense is that the OP is male but perhaps has long and/or dyed hair and favors artsy/hipster clothing styles - and maybe carries a shoulder bag, instead of a backpack or gym bag the way "normal, regular guys around here" do.) Should the harassment be as "hugely unprecedented" as is claimed it would probably be worthwhile to take the matter to the MCAD rather than to the police department. Regarding the town's "finest," I know what it does to assume but neither should you be sure they'd take it seriously.
As someone who's been a victim of this sort of thing, I can say you only have to be a little different. My wife and I would get yelled at by kids walking around Waltham and I exhibit none of the outward signs you mention. I'm a big nerd, though (as is my wife), which as a group probably suffers more torment in high school than the artsy/hipster crowd.
I'm also wondering what it is that you think a concerned bystander can do. As far as I know, simply yelling hateful things isn't illegal unless there's the threat of violence. Perhaps you're aware of a case where someone was convicted only for some form of hate speech, but I am not. I'm sure there's some ancillary driving violation related to the manner in which the hateful words are yelled (i.e. out of a car), but it's not clear what that would be, either.
This kind of thing hasn't happened to me since I moved out of Waltham, but I still wonder if there's anything that can actually be done. I've thought about finding out the driver's name somehow and talking to their parents or school, but I'm not sure if that can be done or would be effective. It was infrequent enough that I could shrug it off and my wife and I could remember how glad we were to be out of high school. If in the OP's situation he's dealing with this more frequently, I suspect that some form of community-based public shaming of the behavior might work. I don't think the behavior is quite illegal, but it's certainly anti-social and shouldn't be tolerated by the people in the town. That requires engaging your neighbors, though, which may not be possible.
I grew up in Sudbury and I saw this happen. I live in Somerville and I still hear this happen. Lots of kids out of school with nothing to do, that could explain hearing it more often or it could just be more of a "thing" right now. Very easy to rip away in daddy's Explorer after saying something dumb and not facing any consequences.
Leaving political, moral and socioeconomic speculation aside I think it is kids being kids. Be careful though, in my experience these kids could be day drinking and willing to escalate or just as likely looking for an excuse to get called out. Last thing you want is some rich (not my child!) type parents going to the cops and getting you caught up for no reason at all. They are bound to be recording your reaction which could come back to haunt you professionally or god forbid legally.
We've all done stupid stuff, I would let it slide if you can and maybe report it to police for extra patrols if there is a particular street or area of concern. That might not help either...
Last edited by wolfgang239; 07-06-2014 at 05:27 AM..
Reason: Spelling
Just baby trash who are slated to do menial work later on, make lots of uncared for and unfortunate babies, and flood our welfare system. Then they will continue to add to our communal "diversity" by hating everyone else, get arrested and die young from drug or cheap booze. They will consume resources, add nothing to the advancement of humanity, and waste lots of air. Move to a nicer town, or a nicer part of the city.
They don't call it "the town of no reading" for nothing. And it's not unreasonable to point out that a lot of the perpetrators would identify themselves as Bruins fans and NRA members.
What kind of idiotic nonsense is this? Something wrong with liking a sport or supporting an organization that fights for our rights? Are you kidding me?
I like hockey and I'm an NRA member, Last time I checked I'm not yelling out windows and I didn't when I was a teen either! Grow up!
Last edited by snatale1; 07-06-2014 at 07:00 AM..
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And it's not unreasonable to point out that a lot of the perpetrators would identify themselves as Bruins fans and NRA members. (Seriously - I bet few of them have been following the World Cup and are vegetarians. Neither here nor there, but I don't fall into any of those four camps in case you were wondering.) My point is that North Reading has a reputation for being well to the political right of, say, Andover. And in fairness to those doing the name-calling, when you live in a sparsely populated town with scattered subdivisions - and little that's constructively fun to do - what DO you do? It's gotten so that it's not easy to knock down street-side mailboxes any more, even! With gas prices the way they are you think twice about nighttime forays into Lawrence, Lowell, Haverhill, or Lynn to do "drive-by shoutings" at Hispanics and Blacks, or into Boston's South End to mouth off at gay men, too. 
What do you really think about hockey?
