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I sincerely hate the attitude "it can happen to anyone, anywhere". It just does not happen anywhere to anyone. There are counties in Pennsylvania that you never heard of where there are no police and absolutely no crime.
That's becasuse those counties have low populations. Anything can happen anywhere. You have to be living in a dream world to have that mentallity. Many crimes happen in small town rural areas.
The majority of people live in small towns, and so the "whole country" does not live in the city. Yet, the cities post the highest crime with the most concentrated areas of criminal behavior. Shuman detention center is over populated with criminal youth, yet only a few miles down the road Westmoreland country only maintains a very small, one sixth the size juvenile detention center. From reports they dont have the violent youth we are seeing in the city. It's all about culture, parenting, and what is considered acceptable behavior.
These children should all be banned from the mall. They should be fined, required to do community service and placed on house arrest. My guess is they have other areas that they are having problems, including home, the community (obviously in the mall), and school.
The majority of people live in small towns, and so the "whole country" does not live in the city. Yet, the cities post the highest crime with the most concentrated areas of criminal behavior. Shuman detention center is over populated with criminal youth, yet only a few miles down the road Westmoreland country only maintains a very small, one sixth the size juvenile detention center. From reports they dont have the violent youth we are seeing in the city. It's all about culture, parenting, and what is considered acceptable behavior.
These children should all be banned from the mall. They should be fined, required to do community service and placed on house arrest. My guess is they have other areas that they are having problems, including home, the community (obviously in the mall), and school.
You start with some fictional dream world, then sprinkle in facts that no one would ever dispute to justify your dream world...
Of course fighting is bad (in or outside the mall), of course ghetto culture is morally corrosive, and of course bad parenting is responsible for 90% of all problems everywhere... Of course they should be fined, banned, and made to do community service (which is pretty much exactly what happens to all youth who get caught fighting)... all of this is true
What's not true is that a single fight in a mall signifies some horrible end to all thats decent and good in this world. That some how most of the crime is committed by the small number of people who happen to live in metro areas, while the majority of people, (who all live out in the rural counties) commit no crime... That's all just your overactive imagination... The reality is that more than 7 out of 10 Pennsylvanians are Urban. So I have no idea how you can compare Allegheny and Westmoreland county detention centers when allegheny county has +4x the population, an urban core, and dozens of river towns... There are bad seeds everywhere, and of course the areas with the overwhelming majority of the population will have the overwhelming majority of the bad seeds. Add in poor parenting due to poverty and it's not hard to understand why Shuman is more crowded that other detention centers.... this isn't rocked science here.
If fights start occuring on a weekly basis, then there is a trend and trends are problems. Here we have an isolated incident not a trend. Isolated incidents happen everywhere, and there is no where one can go to escape them. Furthermore, in the grand scheme of isolated incidents a fist fight is about as minor as you get.
There are lots of small towns that have crime issues, particularly drugs, which can lead to other potential problems such as burglaries and robberies, usually to fuel their drug habits. The reason you don't hear much about these crimes (and perhaps your perception that there aren't any crimes in small towns) is because the powerhouse television media usually doesn't cover those issues, although the local newspaper might, depending on the circumstances. Same thing with a car break-in at the local Walmart or a slashed tire on some quiet residential street. Typically, these areas aren't what you would classify as "ghetto" in any way. Lots of small towns (and I'm not talking about Greensburg or New Kensington, but SMALL towns) in Westmoreland County fall under that category.
I still think Monroeville needs to get its act together, because it is slowly but surely on the decline. The mall (and the area for that matter) needs GOOD stores and GOOD jobs, that's the truth. Also, if Westinghouse leaving isn't a sign, then I don't know what is. And I don't want to hear that they're getting a new hospital because that's going to help their bottom line, because it's not.
Last edited by neurodistortion; 05-15-2010 at 02:47 PM..
Funny, I grew up in a small town and never had that kinda crime. The fiction is that there was "just one fight in the mall". You mean to say, "you've only heard of one fight". How many fights do you hear about in schools? It's a trend, a pattern, and it's increaing. You can minimize the whole thing, but that does not negate what is happening. Your attitude, "just a little fight", only works to increase the problem. If more people stood up, were outraged, then these so called "parents" would not feel so impowered showing up on TV protesting the system, community, and police for not doing their job.
What the post gazette and othe media needs to do is what CNN is doing, and allowed commentary online for each news story. Then you would see the majority of people, when free to speak their minds, would have to say. I dont think the majority finds that behavior acceptable.
Small towns do have a lot of crime and such as well...just not the population. I mean, most don't even have the populations to warrant a mall to begin with.
I went to high school in a little town in MI...graduating class of about 30 people. There use to be fights after school...just leave the school property, and go after it. Usually these people in small towns would gravitate to slightly bigger small towns to 'hang out'. Then get into it over there just the same.
I'm actually a little suprised that Pennsylvanians are claiming that a fight never occurs in any small town across PA, except for the two big cities there.
Meanwhile, throughout the other 49 states...guns and drugs are everywhere throughout the public school systems....small towns are being ravished by meth...always been filled with tons pot, shooms, acid, etc. Kids are more likely to shoot each other with guns in a insta-moment.
But, here, on the Pittsburgh thread, people are shocked that 5 kids got in a fight at the mall
Well Tiger, the reason I brought this thread up in the first place was because Monroeville Mall and the area is gradually on the decline, and this fight is just one example, although not the main reason why it's declining. A fist fight isn't really the end of the world as zip95 would put it, but multiple robberies are a cause for concern, and the mall has had three armed robberies in the past several months alone. Fortunately, these people involved are usually caught, but I think it's a matter of time before something worse happens around there. Why else would there be a police substation in the mall, you don't see those very often. Still, I think the area is relatively safe, but it's not a place I would want to walk down the streets during the nighttime hours.
Population density is not a determinant of crime, but that aside, there is a qualitative difference in the types and intensity of crime that take place in the city. It's almost like the crime, or pioneering of crimes, originates there and moves out. When have you heard of a murder in Potter County? Not to say there can not be, and really I dont know, but as Obama said, "guns and religion" are prominent in these regions.
Staying on topic, Monroeville is going the way of Penn Hills, which I commented on. The unspoken truth is people do not want to be around that craziness and so will avoid areas if there is a hint or chance of violence. If people choose to merely discount stuff like this then it will happen again. Sadly, cultures and parenting, which are at fault, and hard to impact.
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