DoJ Tells White Male Bulling Victims "Tough luck"

[CSM Kersh]

Goes along with the rest of Holder and Obama's biases.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2011/mar/18/doj-white-male-bullying-victims-tough-luck/

[Monkeyleg]

Well, I guess the only way for a bullied white kid (or a black kid being bullied by another black kid) to get help is to start walking with a swish. That or learn to hit back.

[dogmush]

You know, I'm actually OK with the position DOJ takes in that article.

“We can only take action where we have legal authority,” wrote DOJ spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa in a December 2010 e-mail to The Washington Times Water Cooler. She continues:

“As stated in the website below, we are statutorily authorized to initiate suits under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, and under Title III of the American with Disabilities Act.

At least someone in fed.gov thinks that there is a limit on their authority.

I think the real problem with this article is:

Here in the United States, the Obama administration has made school bullying a federal issue.

There's no reason, absent a pattern of school supported bullying against a specific group, that the fed.gov need to concern itself with the administration of local schools.

DOJ's right.  Unless this falls under one of the laws they're charged with enforcing, a kid stealing lunch money is none of their business.

[CSM Kersh]

IMNSHO, DoJ is wrong. Oh, I don't mind them not stepping in when it's a white, I object to them stepping in at all.  NOTFB!

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

very true.  they got their nose into the tent when various states engaged in egregious conduct beyond the pale and now we need them far less but they are reluctant to give up any part of their fief.  its about power and money

[Seenterman]

Holy crap on a cracker. The DOJ is going to start investigating bullying? School Bullying? WTF!? Don't they have more important things to do?  Isn't this what principal are for? Anyone starting to feel like our gov wants to turn everyone into felons. Once again I must turn to comedians to make a point about our government's laws.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/151849/the-free-eric-cartman-now-committee

I swear I'd feel better at night if Matt Stone and Trey Parker where elected POTUS and First Lady. They can fight over who's the first lady. 

[longeyes]

I'd like to see statistics on who most of the school bullies are, but we know that's not going to happen, the results might be unpalatable.

[Tallpine]

I'd like to see statistics on who most of the school bullies are, but we know that's not going to happen, the results might be unpalatable.

Faculty..?   

[Boomhauer]

Faculty..?   

I remember being screamed at by a substitute teacher because I didn't answer her question soon enough (I tend to think about something before answering, and what she had written on the board was hard to read)

[longeyes]

Not "faculty."

Maybe you haven't watched the videos of schoolbus beat-downs, fast-food restaurant fights, flash mobs/wildings in department stores, et al.?  We have a serious "cultural" problem here, folks.

[MicroBalrog]

No, we don't.

Neither 'we' Westerners neither 'We' Americans.

Violent crime is in freefall in practically every Western state.


You might have had a point in the early 90's.

[longeyes]

Violent crime is in freefall in Western states?  Yeah, it is, if you stay on "the reservation," in the proper enclaves.  Stray outside, at the wrong hours, and see who's in freefall.  

I'm not betting my life on "official" crime statistics that we know serve established political interests.  Why do you think more and more people in America are carrying concealed?  Because they're paranoid?  Or because they know where and when "safe" is?  There are "no-go zones" everywhere in the Western societies.

[MicroBalrog]

People carry guns because it is now legal for them to carry guns. They would have been carrying guns in the 1980's too, except it was illegal.

The total murder rate of the United States has declined by two thirds over the last fifteen years (at least in part because of people carrying firearms).

If we believe that crime statistics are all fake, we have no basis of discussion. If the official murder stats are fake, then there's no way for us to know how many murders occur and all we have is gut feelings.

[seeker_two]

People carry guns because it is now legal for them to carry guns. They would have been carrying guns in the 1980's too, except it was illegal.

They were carrying guns in the '80's.....they just didn't let anyone know about it.  Gun laws just stop the ones who actually follow the law, remember?..... 

[mtnbkr]

I'd like to see statistics on who most of the school bullies are, but we know that's not going to happen, the results might be unpalatable.

I graduated HS 20 years ago, so I'm sure it has changed, but when I was in school, it was the rich white kids who were the bullies.  The "cultural problem" you refer to didn't bully as much as they'd just outright fight.  There's a difference between a bully and someone who wants to fight (the former being more of a persistent, low level psychological attack).

Chris

[Monkeyleg]

...but when I was in school, it was the rich white kids who were the bullies.

I went to an all-white school (no blacks were in our suburb), but it was almost exclusively the sons of blue collar workers who were the bullies, not the sons of the more affluent. The rich kids were in cliques by themselves.

[CSM Kersh]

My HS was a mixture of Anglos and Hispanics, no blacks.  The bullies were the jocks.

[longeyes]

There are many forms of bullyism, with many different kinds of perps.  Racial division and antagonism in our public schools is a much bigger problem than the eternal adolescent domination and submission rituals, although those may have been exacerbated by a culture that revels in videogame fantasy violence and bores kids to death with curricula that are ill-suited to their natural talents.

***

To Micro: No, I don't trust the official statistics, and you're right, that does make discussions more difficult.  Trust your own perceptions and those of people close to you; in the end they will all you have left.  Bureaucrats have no incentive to tell you the truth.

[roo_ster]

IIRC, there was a bump in the US crime rate after Katrina.  It was usually attributed to New Orleans cooking the crime books, those criminals getting displaced, and the LEOs in their new location reporting their criminality.

So, yes, many LEO shops cook the books.

Oh, I forgot to mention the riots that occur outside Chicago public schools when they let out in particular neighborhoods.  They are not reported as riots, the same way most riots were not reported as riots in big cities during the 1970s and 1980s.

[MicroBalrog]

To Micro: No, I don't trust the official statistics, and you're right, that does make discussions more difficult.  Trust your own perceptions and those of people close to you; in the end they will all you have left.  Bureaucrats have no incentive to tell you the truth.

Very well. In that case, we can have no discussion. I feel pretty safe. :D

[dogmush]

  Racial division and antagonism in our public schools is a much bigger problem than the eternal adolescent domination and submission rituals, although those may have been exacerbated by a culture that revels in videogame fantasy violence and bores kids to death with curricula that are ill-suited to their natural talents.

I call BS.  I've seen no evidence for this claim, either when I was in school in the 90's, or with kids I deal with now who are currentlly in school.

Racial issues do still exist, but are dwarfed by the age old cool/not-cool, pretty/not-pretty dichotamy.  The basics of most school issues are still based in who will be dominate/get laid.

[roo_ster]

I call BS.  I've seen no evidence for this claim, either when I was in school in the 90's, or with kids I deal with now who are currentlly in school.

Racial issues do still exist, but are dwarfed by the age old cool/not-cool, pretty/not-pretty dichotamy.  The basics of most school issues are still based in who will be dominate/get laid.

The greatest proportion of violent encounters at my HS was due to friction between local kids who lived nearby (mostly middle class, some more affluent) and the bussed-in kids from the projects.  Second greatest was project-dweller on project-dweller, usually females vs females.  The last category I can recall multiples of was metal head vs metal head.  I guess the vital importance of Skid Row's oeuvre is worth two pale & skinny guys getting after each other and tearing up their black T-shirts.

Oddly, the most popular kids at my HS were also some of the nicest at the HS.

[makattak]

Oddly, the most popular kids at my HS were also some of the nicest at the HS.

It's not odd. I don't remember the study offhand, but those who have reached the top of the social ladder rarely bully either verbally or physcially. It is striving to get up there that usually do so.

[longeyes]

I call BS.  I've seen no evidence for this claim, either when I was in school in the 90's, or with kids I deal with now who are currentlly in school.

Racial issues do still exist, but are dwarfed by the age old cool/not-cool, pretty/not-pretty dichotamy.  The basics of most school issues are still based in who will be dominate/get laid.

Maybe not in Mayberry, just in large urban centers with complex demographics.  Race isn't the only issue by any means, but it's definitely one of them, particularly in areas where "newly arrived Latinos" are colliding with blacks, in school and out.

[dogmush]

Maybe not in Mayberry, just in large urban centers with complex demographics.  Race isn't the only issue by any means, but it's definitely one of them, particularly in areas where "newly arrived Latinos" are colliding with blacks, in school and out.

I live in Tampa Bay, FL.  Try again.