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Department of WOW. I’ve seen many things and lived in several countries (India, Spain under Franco and right after the dictator died, briefly Bangladesh) and done stories from many (Cypress, Mexico) but never have seen anything like this. Crooks & Liars’ John Amato has a post about a video that seems to show police drawing guns on black youths who prompted a call to police about a snowball fight.. There is a video. I don’t like mere “pointer posts” any more on The Moderate Voice but just GO TO THE POST. It has also now been posted on Live Leak as well.
I’m almost speechless over this one. And I’m speaking as someone from Connecticut who as a short kid in New Haven was in and was a victim of many snowball fights. Even if a kid threw a snowball, since when is that a lethal weapon, unless you argue that it MUST have a rock in it. Or perhaps it’s now considered full-fledged assault.
Snowballing has long been considered a typical non-lethal fight among kids or teens, broken up by some adult yelling, not with an apparent threat of death. I wonder if Charlie Brown ever got arrested — or Calvin and Hobbes had guns drawn on them?
The story is gaining a lot of traction on Google. Hits are one thing. Lessons learned are another. I suspect this video now going viral will produce an explanation from the Police Department but, honestly, folks, I look younger than I am (on most days) and I’ve never hear of police drawing guns on snowballers. Perhaps I don’t completely understand the life-and-death issue here, or how much some folks can’t stand snow. And perhaps there will be an explanation of what appeared to have occurred.
graphic via shutterstock.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.