Plaza riot?

[LenexatoKCMO]

Are you involved in planning one?

No - but what is going to slow this down?  The genie is out of the bottle.  I have a hard time picturing that these events around the country are just going to quickly fade away.  Perhaps it continues on racial lines - but my gut tells me all kinds of wired teens are going to want in on the fun.

[KC Sporting Life]

Several on here have asked for photos or images.  Here's a link to an NBC Video.  I saw some cell-phone footage of a girl being attacked and beat up by a group of others they aired on NBC last night, but it looks like they didn't put it on their site.  Even the Funk chimes in here!

http://videos.kansascity.com/vmix_hoste ... d=12669988

[LenexatoKCMO]

Until those darned kids change next weeks brawl to a Thursday  :o  The KCPD would be stymied!!

Not like they can't shift locations too - there are plenty of other locations around KC that would get plenty of media attention - union station, CC, you name it.  

[voltopt]

Or the Prairie Village Shops!

[LenexatoKCMO]

Or the Prairie Village Shops!

Nah - the cops would get wise as soon as more than two people under the age of 78 showed up on the property. 

[voltopt]

Although I'm more concerned with the successive shots fired at 56th and Troost last night around 9pm, and the subsequent police response (within 5 minutes!) and police helicopter search.  It appeared Troost was blocked off from 55th to 57th, and there was an ambulance onsite and a car turned sideways.  I haven't seen anything in the news yet... although I suppose gunplay on troost is no match for teenagers pushing prom dates into fountains.

[Downtowner]

It'll happen again. 900 kids has nothing to do with the relaxed theatre age restricitions. It's about the fun element of seeing how many people respond to a text. Like "hey we got 900 people to show up!" So either the Plaza, Westport or P & L will be likely get hit again by end of summer.

The gays here did it in their own way (the idea of a gay flash mob will illicit lots of stale jokes I'm sure). They'd text or facebook which strt bar they'd take over on a Friday night. Suddenly Harry's or the Brooksider would be filled with a 100 gay guys to the surprise of ownership and patrons. But gays just spent money and enjoyed the shock value.

If it escalates to violence as it did in Philly the city is in for a long summer. They seem to be periodic there, once every couple months... so the question has to go out to the black community on how they'll control their kids.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Gotta love Funk. Apparently if this happens in Westport, it's totally cool.

[KCMax]

Gotta love Funk. Apparently if this happens in Westport, it's totally cool.

Ha! I thought the same thing. Way to diss Westport Mr. Mayor.

[kcmetro]

Gotta love Funk. Apparently if this happens in Westport, it's totally cool.

Pretty funny stuff.  Even the mayor isn't shy about dissing Westport and its thuggish reputation.

[kcmetro]

Because its apparently the bad ass, "I am a hard son-of-a-bitch", thing to do - since when have high school aged kids needed a better reason than that?  I would wager that there is an element in damn near every high school in the country who would think an organized fight/shit-tearing-up event sounds like a good idea.  Plus there might be chicks there.   I think you are kidding yourself if you think white suburban kids are all immune to this attraction.  

White suburban kids are too afraid to do something on this scale.  Yeah, there's a couple "bad asses" out there who would join in, but organizing 700 white kids from JOCO to create a mob scene on the plaza or the Legends or Oak Park Mall would be nearly impossible without first getting them all high or drunk.  It's just not something white kids tend to do because the repercussions from their parents would be too much.  I could see them having a large gathering perhaps, but the violence just wouldn't be there like it is with black kids from the inner city.  It's not a racist thing to say.  It's just the way it is. A structured family usually tends to prevent this sort of thing from happening.

[NDTeve]

Agree with KCMetro. But not sure if I trust racial opinions of someone who didn't think the Frank Martin t-shirt was racist. 

[mean]

Wow. Just... wow.

If you don't think there are at least 500 or so white kids in the metro with apathetic or absent parents, or white kids who just don't give a shit what their parents say, you're crazy. The incidence of these things may or may not be higher in minority communities versus simply poverty-stricken communities, I don't know, but you're painting with a dangerously broad brush.

Whether it is a "racist thing to say" that, across the board, white kids generally have good parents and black kids generally don't is debatable.

[Joe Smith]

Country Music. Or continued use of tear gas.

I'm sure a lot of folks wished it was tear gas.

If you're an urban black kid with no car where would you go to see a movie...

They used to go to Crown Center and raise hell down there. Now, not so much anymore.  Besides, they've got the Plaza.

[Highlander]

Wow. Just... wow.

If you don't think there are at least 500 or so white kids in the metro with apathetic or absent parents, or white kids who just don't give a shit what their parents say, you're crazy. The incidence of these things may or may not be higher in minority communities versus simply poverty-stricken communities, I don't know, but you're painting with a dangerously broad brush.

Whether it is a "racist thing to say" that, across the board, white kids generally have good parents and black kids generally don't is debatable.

White kids with "bad" parents are spread out all over the metro and they generally are not proximal to the plaza.  Plenty of black kids with "bad" parents are very concentrated and nearby.  Because there are far more white kids than black kids, there probably are as many white kids that are problematic but because most of these kid's parents have long left the urban core, they tend not to be concetrated so I doubt if you ever going to see this phenomena with white kids in KC.  When I was a kid, Center, Hickman, Ruskin and Southwest in south KC and some of the NE schools had plenty of problems with white kids but now these kids live in far more dispersed suburban settings.  I doubt if you would ever see gathering of more than a few at a time.  

Yea, black kids are going have proportionately higher rates of inattentive single parent and deadbeat parent issues, this should not be news to any one nor is stating such remotely racist.  It's a function of the dissolution of family structure in black urban areas, I doubt if you'll find many educated blacks that would even disagree.  Farrakan, Jesse Jackson, and Bill Cosby all say as much albeit in drastically different ways. 

[kcmetro]

Wow. Just... wow.

If you don't think there are at least 500 or so white kids in the metro with apathetic or absent parents, or white kids who just don't give a shit what their parents say, you're crazy. The incidence of these things may or may not be higher in minority communities versus simply poverty-stricken communities, I don't know, but you're painting with a dangerously broad brush.

Whether it is a "racist thing to say" that, across the board, white kids generally have good parents and black kids generally don't is debatable.

Let go of that white guilt, mean, and you'll begin to see things a little more clearly.    I think Highlander made a good point.

[jdubwaldo]

Gotta love Funk. Apparently if this happens in Westport, it's totally cool.

I'm a little late to the party here, but I just watched Funky's interview and am dying - "It was kind of a Westport night at the Plaza and we weren't ready for that."  WTF is that supposed to mean!?!?!

[justin8216]

I spent most of the day at the Legends enjoying the weather. None of this craziness going on there

[justin8216]

 The Mayor said he was reviewing the situation, but called it a Westport-type situation.

Leave it to your dim-wit mayor and you will end up with Westportesque shootings to boot. This idiot is asleep at the switch yet again.

I watched his news interviews. Listening to him talk is like fingernails on the chalkboard. I just can't stand it.

[justin8216]

....Why not show art films or foreign films or "Crazy Heart".  You had to go to Tivoli to see an Oscar winning film.

Yeah, that will turn a profit for Cinemark's shareholders. LOL