Thursday 24 December 2009

"You don't bring a gun to a snowball fight..."

...as chanted by the residents of Washington DC who were amazed to see an off duty detective draw his gun after his Hummer was pelted with snowballs.

However, if you fancy a snowball fight in Crystal Palace Triangle, you better be packing something more than frozen water:
A man was stabbed by a group of youths after he shouted at them for throwing snowballs.

The 20-year-old was stabbed in the leg shortly before 4.30pm on Monday, December 21, after getting involved in an argument with a group of at least four teenagers who had been terrorising the Crystal Palace Triangle, pelting shoppers with snow.
And for once, these aren't YONA:
Two of the suspects are described as black men aged about 18.
'Men' aged about 18. I do love the way the definition of 'men' and 'teenagers' and 'youths' is seemingly interchangable...

But what to make of this statement?
Police said they did not know if the victim was specifically targeted for violence by the gang.
Eh..?

Does it matter?

4 comments:

Letters From A Tory said...

Glad to see that anti-social behaviour is alive and well at this cheery time of year.

banned said...

What is YONA? I expect that I could hazard a guess but I'm not sure.

KenS said...

YONA = Youths of no appearance. Refers to the media's (or authorities') unwillingness to give out descriptions of violent gangs. Generally assumed therefore to be black. So the lack of description is usually description in itself.

Soon "they" are going to have to stop using the terms "knife wielding" and "rapist" and "gang" because we're just going to assume.

banned said...

Thank you KenS, not at all what I had assumed so I'm glad that I asked.

'Gang rape' incidentaly has been replaced with 'multi-perp rape' so I'm not entirely behind the times. Merry Christmas to you.