Chances are, in whatever Louisiana town or city you live in, some people have hot tempers and low impulse control, so they raise their fists and beat the holy hell out of one another.
We all know this is barbaric. And it’s generally a problem with young people in underclass neighborhoods, although one can argue it also happens to a lesser extent in middle-class and wealthy neighborhoods. But come on. You’ve seen enough episodes of COPS to know this is an underclass problem.
Apologies for my lack of tact and my lack of political correctness.
Until now, you never heard much about it for various reasons. Sometimes, people involved, whether witnesses or participants, don’t call the cops. Or they don’t want to rat out anybody. In other instances, law enforcement is called. The incident is documented in the local newspaper and may appear as a small blurb on the bottom of page B-7.
Very few people read page B-7.
Sometimes, per my own experience working in that industry, newspaper management doesn’t want to report it. A newspaper is a business, and if the town or city starts to look too trashy then new businesses won’t invest. Or existing businesses will lose money and shut down and leave…and, thus, won’t advertise.
These fights, however, are harder and harder to hide. Firstly, almost everybody has a camcorder in their pocket and, on top of that, they have forums to broadcast that material to many thousands of people.
Secondly, these wannabe fight clubbers have expanded their turf and now fight in public places usually frequented by middle-class folks. People who otherwise never get exposed to this stuff now see it up close and personal, as reported, at malls, restaurants, and department stores.
And, for a lot of people, it’s eye-opening.
Take what happened this past weekend in Ruston.
As reported by the Ruston Police Department, one person was shot after an altercation at the local Raising Cane’s, where members of a large crowd fought one another outside. The shooting victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The Lincoln Parish Journal reported a second incident that night involving several young women downtown.
“A large crowd gathered with several recording the incident,” the website reported.
Ruston is also where the first Buc-ee’s is due to open.
Attracting a business of Buc-ee’s caliber is hard enough due to Louisiana’s unfriendly tort laws.
Surely the people who run Buc-Cee’s are watching last weekend’s events.
But there’s only so much a community can do to police and or prevent this sorry behavior.
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Parents must learn how to raise their damn children correctly. This isn’t just an emerging problem in Ruston. This crap is going on statewide. It’s going on nationwide.
The breakup of the traditional nuclear family unit has a lot to do with it. Fathers run off, and they leave taxpayers and overworked and overwrought mothers to feed and raise their children. Fathers are a more stabilizing influence than mothers are. But since you’re reading The Hayride then you’re likely conservative, and you already know this.
But let’s examine the consequences of this savage behavior, which carries over into the public domain and puts a dent in the local economy.
Stressed-out teachers develop life-threatening health problems trying to babysit these misbegotten children. As I said over on RVIVR last week, children who attend public school and want to learn can’t because kids from dysfunctional families create an inhospitable learning environment. This system is more or less enabled and protected by woke idiot bureaucrats who see themselves more as social workers instead of educators.
Teachers who try to break up these fights are too terrified to do so. And they and the law enforcement officers who have to deal with the long-term consequences of what we all know are President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs are frustrated and burned out.
Honest, hardworking business owners who had nothing to do with any of these fights lose their livelihoods because no one wants to patronize their stores. Their town or city gets a bad reputation.
Ultimately, everybody suffers.
Folks, we can do better than this.
Warhammer is a journalist with more than 20 years or professional experience. Follow Warhammer on Twitter @Real_Warhammer.
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