There's a Riot Going On!

I wanted to wait until the dust settled before I commented on the "riots" that took place in downtown Louisville. I think the media may have blown this out of proportion a little bit, but this still underscores a societal problem.

For the record I wasn't there. Everything about the event I learned from news reports, listening to Mark Gunn and Russ Parr on the radio and from some of my friends and neighborhood kids that did attend the event. Based on all of that i have come to some conclusions.

I think the media may have blown it our of proportion a little bit. There were several arrest and there were thousands of kids block several streets, but there wasn't the chaos and mayhem that you would have thought went on if you watched the news.

I think the promoters and sponsors of the event should have had more security on hand. Especially, since they have had problems in the past. 12 cops was nowhere near enough for the amount of kids that attended the event.

I'm not downplaying what happened. I just don't think it was the menacing situation the media made it out to be. However, I wanted an eyewitness report so I talked to some of the kids that attended the event. They couldn't understand why the cops got so physical, the media portrayed it as a near riot, and the general amount of negative press the event had gotten. Where was the positive press about the event ( a point Mark Gunn had also brought up)?

I told them that you have understand how things work. As young black kids you are not going to get the benefit of the doubt. When you have thousands of kids leaving an event the police and everybody else will be nervous. They are waiting for a fight to break out or for you guys to act like little thugs, and you didn't disappoint. You did exactly what people expected young black kids to do.

They shot back that it was just a handful kids that got into a fight. So. You are held to a different standard than other kids. If one of you guys do wrong then the entire group is wrong. If one of you guys act up and are bad then the entire group is bad. If one thing at an event where it is a majority of blacks kids there goes bad the whole event is bad. I told them that I know that isn't fair, but that's just the way it is.

Why do you think that in the Civil Rights movement Dr. king advocated a non-violent approach? If we had fought back, even if it might have seemed the right thing to do, the media would have branded the whole movement as violent and not worth a damn. the movement would have died a slow and painful death.

I then went on to explain to them just how much damage was done. B96.5 will loose some advertisers over this. Those majority white businesses that would have never considered advertising on an Urban station wont now. The ones that have just signed up to advertise on the station in the past 2-3 years might stop, and you can't blame them. Would want kids that are going to start fights patronize your business.

I told them I know it's just a small number of bad apples, but you all will be painted with the same brush. It's not fair, but life isn't fair. I also told them don't be surprised if Russ doesn't come back to Louisville, and if he does it wont be downtown.

The kids were a little hurt, but they understood. I told them to keep their chins up. I went through the same-thing as kid myself. They should join a neighborhood youth board or work with neighborhood association. There are others to get events in Louisville that you want. You just have to work it.

All in all it was an unfortunate event. I would like to see the Russ Bus comeback to Louisville, we shall see what happens.