"The city Parks and Recreation Department did our cops no good deed last Saturday in inviting teens to a movie showing in Festival Park, as candidate Hartzman has pointed out. Police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen’s assertion that the movie had “absolutely no correlation” to fights that night is — how can I put this in a family newspaper? — complete bunk.
It’s not that the city acted with ill intent in showing a movie for teens. It’s that actions have consequences, sometimes unintended consequences. Own your actions, own the consequences. It’s that simple."
For the first time in years we read the truth from the local daily:
"It’s the election.
Yup. The election filing period was set to start Friday, just two days after the council voted 8-1 for the downtown curfew. November, here we come.
We’ve got a hot race for mayor, with Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan challenging incumbent Mayor Robbie Perkins, and the unpredictable gadfly George Hartzman as a possible spoiler.
Methinks the mayor’s race would qualify as an “affray.” That’s the formal legal charge that authorities unshelved against some of the people allegedly involved in last Saturday’s downtown fights, those that sent Robbie and the Frets rushing to make law."
Jeff points out the truth of the matter again:
"If I make fun of our elected officials, and I do, it’s because I sense electioneering at their backs, not because of the issue they sought to address.
It’s not good when a few people of any age in a public place start throwing fists, scratching, pulling hair, perhaps even stabbing and shooting. It’s not good when enjoying an evening out, while strolling along our eclectic Elm Street, that you stumble into a street fight and become an inadvertent victim.
Unfortunately, early descriptions of events that first Saturday were imprecise enough to permit imaginative interpretation. Four hundred youth in the park and along downtown streets? Fighting? A gunshot? Arrests?
In truth, it appears a handful of youth and young adults were fighting. Downtown Greensboro was not a battle scene from the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”
Now the question becomes: is this a new trend for the News & Record or the exception that proves the rule? One can only hope for the first.
Hat tip to George
