Take the time to actually read this if you're from the Newburyport area.
"Toy Gun Leads To Quick Police Response"
Please, do yourselves a favor and read this article on page B7 of today's Daily News. It's absolutely insane. The jist of the article is that, "A boy around the age of 14 or 15 was taken into custody after he shot a toy gun with plastic pellets at a very low velocity at another youth." This gun is believed to have been purchased from a vender set up downtown as part of Yankee Homecoming. City Marshall Thomas Howard told all venders to stop selling the toy guns downtown.
The article goes on to say that after the incident, "A crowd of around 100 teenagers was told to leave the downtown area." It is also stated that, "Police have been keeping an especially close eye on the large number of teens who spend their evenings downtown during Yankee Homecoming."
UH, NO SHIT. No, let me rephrase that, YEAT. This is our town, our parents pay taxes here, and we are being unfairly excluded from this festival because the police are afraid that a bunch of teenages might "reek havoc."
Don't get me wrong, in these times of terrorism and school shootings, I don't think there is anything funny about a gun going off in a crowd but considering it turned out to be a toy, was it really necessary to "clear the downtown of youths?" I'm not saying that we're perfect. Fights have broken out in the past, kids down there are drunk/high, but it seems to me that the police are trying to rid the downtown of youths because they are simply don't want to do their jobs. Where do they expect us all to go? Would they prefer that we gather at peoples houses and have parties that they would just bust anyway? I'm sorry, is there another place we can all gather to hang out? We're lucky enough to have a beautiful downtown and we have as much right as anyone else to enjoy it. I think this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard, and this article demonstrates just how biased our local police force is against the youth of this city.
Wouldn't you like to see how our police department would deal with "really out of control kids" from a bigger city? I think it would be comical. Now, any of you who know me know that I am a person who gets hyper, for lack of better word, being in social situations. Anyone seen me at those soccer games? And those socials in middle school? Enough said. I, personally, was taken aside by a police officer and accused of being drunk, and was almost made to take a breathalyzer. Another time, Nick Swartz and I were lectured and repremanded for "running on the Waterfront." Can you imagine that, kids running in wide open grassy spaces! How dare they! I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that we were breaking any laws. Is there a no running rule on the Waterfront that I missed?
In conclusion, we're being treated unfairly. We have as much right to be downtown during this festival as anybody else. And clearing the downtown of youths because a teen shot a toy gun with plastic pellets seems ludacris to me.
Just venting... looking for your thoughts on the subject. Please, enlighten me. Am I wrong in thinking this way?
Stay Classy, you badass Newburyport youths!