High school 'bouncer' reacts violently to cake crumbs on the floor

I'm always a bit skeptical when people toss around accusations of brutality ... like a lot of Americans, I've always believed that if you walked the straight and narrow, you didn't have anything to worry about.

However ...

It may just be a coincidence, but it seems we are hearing more and more stories about security guards, police officers and other law enforcement personnel abusing their power, especially in situations where it seems completely unnecessary.

This story here -- about a high school girl in Palmdale, Calif., who was basically assaulted by a huge school security guard for not properly cleaning up cake that she had spilled when someone bumped into her -- seems especially grievous. The picture above tells the story.

The girl wound up with a broken wrist and an arrest for battery. Her mom was arrested, too, for supposedly pushing the guard and an assistant principal when she went to protest her daughter's treatment. As was the guy who videotaped the whole scene, which you can view here from the Fox television station in LA.

In other words, what started out as crumbs on the floor has turned into a giant mess of accusations and counter-claims, with a young girl injured and lots of lives tossed upside down. One thing is clear, however ... the guy above needs to find a new line of work, and the school needs to do a better job of protecting its students from the people hired to keep the peace.

More than one pundit has connected this apparent surge in brutality with the government's obsession with the war on terror and a general decay of individual rights. I don't know if that's the case ... it could just be that we are seeing more of these stories because cameras are so prevalent.

What do you think?

Skip the public tantrums and solve this stuff the old-fashioned way

Two recent incidents from the sports world remind us how convoluted and confused we are as a society.

In the first example, Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy went off at a post-game news conference on a local sports columnist who had questioned the toughness and commitment of one of his players.

The column was over the top, but Gundy's tirade was just as bad, accusing the columnist -- a woman -- of not understanding what it was like to have a child who might have his feelings hurt by such prose.

Gundy's reaction was filled with references about how these "kids" aren't "professional athletes" who can handle criticism. Of course, he didn't mention how even programs such as Oklahoma State have football budgets in the millions of dollars and give "kids" like the player in question scholarships and benefits that are no doubt worth six figures in today's over-inflated tuition grab.


Bizarro world of college sports

The sight of Gundy stalking back and forth behind the podium and waving around a newspaper was -- as you might expect -- perfect YouTube fodder. The 3 1/2-minute video is bizarre, filled with non-sequiters and confusing sentence structure as he shouts, stomps, calls the editor "garbage" and says he hopes the columnist has a child someday who is "downgraded" and "belittled."

Gundy -- like everyone involved in big-time college athletics these days -- is living a lie. When it's convenient, they act like their charges are Pop Warner players who need to be protected from the big bad world.

The rest of the time, they are managing major operations that rival the set-ups of professional teams with players who are far more "athlete" than "student"-- all the while raking in huge dollars in salary and perks to ensure they win more than they lose for ol' State U.

Here's a thought for Gundy and other major college coaches ... you want your "kids" to be treated as such? Then how about you play on Friday nights in front of a couple of hundred people rather than on Saturday in front of hundreds of thousands in the stands and on TV?

With the money and the spotlight comes criticism, and if a player is man enough to sign a letter of intent with a major university, well ...

The other situation involves someone who isn't a man at all. Hope Solo (pictured in an AP photo) made headlines this past week when she gave a 30-second interview that completely unraveled her years of work to make the U.S. women's national soccer team as the starting goalkeeper.

Pulled from the starting lineup in the pivotal World Cup semi-final elimination match against Brazil -- for the back-up who had a history of success against the Brazilians -- Solo watched in anguish as her team went down in flames.

On the way to the bus after the loss, Solo was approached by a Canadian TV reporter who asked if she wanted to talk. When a PR person for the U.S. team tried to stop the interview, Solo cut him off and then launched into a brief -- but damaging -- riff on her coach and made some comments that appeared to denigrate her fellow keeper.


If only the team had been as decisive on the field

The response was swift and harsh. Solo was basically banished from the team for the third-place match against Norway and wasn't allowed to take part in any final activities -- even though she apologized personally to her teammates. And she also lost the support of many fans back home in the U.S., who originally had sympathized with her for being placed in such an awkward position by her coach.

Teammates had apparently warned Solo not to share her feelings with the media but perhaps the intrusion of the PR person trying to stop her from commenting pushed her over the edge. We may never know. But her career as the U.S. women's keeper is probably over, as long as Greg Ryan remains the coach.

The bottom line in both of these cases is that there was a better way of handling the frustration and hurt that resulted from others' actions. In our "always on" world, any outburst or extreme reaction is going to get lots of play and it will create an even deeper rift between individuals as people hunker down to defend their position and their actions.

So the question is, if Gundy doesn't like what a columnist writes, why not address those concerns with the journalist directly? Why do it publicly? A phone call to the editor might work, too ... rather than calling him "garbage" in front of the world.

The reality is that his outburst created far more awareness of the article and its criticism. He basically told the world, "hey, everybody, read this column that slams my player!"

At the same time, why didn't Solo take her friends' advice and just say nothing? And why didn't Ryan seek out Solo that next day and make peace in private rather than scapegoating her for the team's fall from grace? In trying to sidestep his own culpability for a poor coaching decision, he hung Solo out to dry twice in a two-day span.

Perhaps what we all need to remember is that being thin-skinned is particularly unbecoming these days. It would be nice to see someone in the public eye manuever these potential pitfalls with aplomb and realize that not every negative comment requires a thermo-nuclear response.

After all, it may be new technology, but we've seen enough to know that diplomacy by YouTube doesn't work too well.

The biggest problem in education today? Parents

I write about education a lot here ... for a number of reasons.

No. 1, it's a topic I'm interested in. No. 2, I think our country's economic competitiveness is being severely damaged by a growing underclass of uneducated citizens living in a generational, seemingly unbreakable cycle of poverty.

Think I'm exaggerating? Check out the drop-out rates in cities like Los Angeles, Houston, etc.

And No. 3, I don't think most people care -- or care enough about the right things. Too many people misplace the blame for our vast educational shortcomings on money or buildings or teachers.

Truth is, most schools have enough resources -- including good teachers -- to ensure that students learn. The real key to educational success resides in the home, and it starts with the parents. If the parents make education a priority, the student can be successful.

Of course, who in America today makes education a priority? Well, it's primarily educated people ... those who are well-off financially. The New York Times reported yesterday that of all students nationwide who score more than 1300 on the SAT, two-thirds come from the top socioeconomic quartile -- just 3 percent come from the bottom quartile.

In another recent story, on the New Orleans Recovery School District, the Times reported that by the end of last year, nearly half of all registered students were missing each day. On the first day of school this year, nearly a third failed to show up.

And people talk about "fixing" New Orleans' broken schools? It's not the schools that are broken -- 90 percent of the students live in abject poverty, most in single-parent homes, many raised by someone other than their biological parents.

And today, on the 50th anniversary of the famous desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School (pictured above) by nine brave African-American students, HBO is airing a documentary (8 p.m. eastern) that shows the modern CHS and its re-segregated reality -- white students in honors classes, earning high marks, moving on to college; black students struggling just to get by.

As the filmmaker, Craig Renaud, says:

"One of the repeated issues that we heard from a lot of people in Little Rock is that they feel Central High School is still segregated, and that it is really two schools in one.

"One school having mostly white students in advanced placement classes that sends its graduates to the best colleges in America, and the other school with regular and remedial classes with mostly African American students, which many people claim suffers the same ills as any inner city school in America. And that despite 50 years since school integration, the achievement gap between white and black students doesn't seem to be closing, and for young black males it is actually getting worse."

Of course, not everyone agrees on the reasons why the above is true at Central High School, and so many other schools across this country. Like all socio-economic ills, it's a complex issue that can't be solved by a hour-long documentary or a blog post like this one.

But I know one thing. If there is to be a change -- if we are to sever the linkage between race, class and educational success -- it has to start in the home. It is the parents who make the difference, as painful a truth as that may be.

On a lighter, related note ... someone sent me the following answering machine message designed specifically for today's problem parents:

"Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:

"To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1

"To make excuses for why your child did not do his work- Press 2

"To complain about what we do - Press 3

"To swear at staff members - Press 4

"To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5

"If you want us to raise your child - Press 6

"If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7

"To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8

"To complain about bus transportation - Press 9

"To complain about school lunches - Press 0

"If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behavior, class work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!"

Jena newspaper provides timeline, context

The local Jena, La., newspaper has an interesting timeline of events related to the "Jena 6 case."

It provides a great deal of context that is missing in so many reports of the incidents that took place there.

You can read it here.

Are Jena 6 protestors really interested in justice?

The Jena 6 protest today is a perfect example of sound and fury but little substance.

I've been hearing and reading about this case for months now, with increasingly strident tones. Thousands converged on the small Louisiana town today to march and protest for "justice."

But no one ever says what they mean by that.

Does justice mean these six black teen-agers -- who brutally sucker-punched a white teen as he left a gymnasium, rendering him unconscious, then followed up by kicking and striking him as he lay on the ground -- deserve to be set free?

Remember that four of the six were adults under Louisiana law at the time of the attack and one of the juveniles, Mychal Bell, the main defendant, had an extensive violent criminal record already. That's why he was tried as an adult, not a juvenile (and his conviction was overturned because of that technicality).

They knew exactly what they were doing, and what they wanted to accomplish. This wasn't a simple schoolyard fight that broke out -- a flash of anger between two teen-agers. This was a six-on-one gang attack.

Does justice mean reducing their charges? That's already happened. From attempted murder to aggravated battery, even though the six very easily could have killed the unconscious victim.

Does justice mean arresting the white teens who hung nooses over a tree on the high school campus? As despicable as that is -- and it was as low-class and hateful a move as one can imagine -- it is not a crime. Nor did the white teens put anyone's life at jeopardy through violence.

I saw a news clip featuring an interview with celebrity Tyler Perry, who was there today to lend support to the Jena 6. The interviewer asked him several times what he was seeking, and he kept saying he just wanted the boys to receive a "fair shake." When asked what would constitute a "fair shake," he couldn't really answer.

Exactly. I understand why Perry was caught off guard by the question -- these six aren't really the kind of "victims" that most reasonably thinking people can excuse. They did the crime ... now they want others to look the other way and let them off the hook for their "schoolyard tussle."

Some bloggers and activists are going so far as calling the Jena 6 "heroes."

Please.

Unfortunately, you don't have to look very far to find examples of racial disparity and unfair treatment toward blacks in the American legal system, which begs the question -- why this case?

Surely Tyler Perry and the thousands of others marching today would be seeking a different kind of "fair shake" if it were their son brutally attacked by a gang of six toughs outside school.

Is it that the protesters in Jena, La., today are more interested in riding the wave of publicity than they are in actual justice? You tell me.

Right to free speech, or right to be disruptive?

Following up on my post here ...

Below is an interesting discussion from "Hardball with Chris Matthews" about free speech in America and the apparent efforts by politicians and candidates to restrict it.

Before you watch the video, let me just say this ... no one should be denied their right to free speech, and any member of Congress or candidate for president who regularly suppresses alternate viewpoints should be called on the carpet publicly.

But there is a big difference between wearing a shirt that says "Bring home the troops" or holding up a sign at a rally, and being vocally disruptive or using profanity.

In that regard, Sally Fields played right into Fox's hands at the Emmy Awards by using a profanity in her anti-war remark. Had she spoken plainly but without offensive language, her message would not have been so easy to delete.

And the young man at the University of Florida? He wasn't Tasered because of his views. He was Tasered because he refused to leave quietly after being asked to by event organizers, and he continued to fight back against the campus police who were escorting him.

Was that an overreaction? Perhaps. But he got what he came to get ...

And now, the "Hardball" discussion.

Don't Taze me, bro ... I'm just looking for a little Internet celebrity

The curious case of Andrew Meyer -- Tasered by cops when he refused to leave a question and answer session with Sen. John Kerry at the University of Florida this week -- should give all of us pause.

Meyer has become yet another unworthy YouTube celebrity for his now-famous shouts of "Don't Taze me, bro"... yet the whole sordid affair just reeks of publicity seeking.

Hijacking the event with an obvious diatribe designed to get attention, Meyer actually tells security personnel who suggest he ask his question and sit down that "he's (Kerry) been talking for two hours; I can have two minutes."

Except that the folks in attendance didn't come to see Meyer, did they?

Of course, this story IS a story only because Meyer wanted it to be one. He pushed the cops until there was a confrontation, and made sure there was an explosive videotape to seal the deal. Now you have all sorts of Internet wiseacres calling America a "police state" and students at UF marching for "justice."

Meyer's act played right into the seemingly growing number of people who worship rule-breakers and celebrate anarchy. In their eyes, the individual is always right regardless of his/her actions; societal mores and authority figures are always wrong .. and especially so if they attempt to keep the peace.

These are the same folks who are quick to jump on the "save so-and-so" bandwagon that's become so popular, because it's easier than actually making an intelligent, well reasoned decision about guilt or innocence.

How did we get so mixed up?

Another culture clash -- the growing popularity of old-time backyard clotheslines

The Wall Street Journal reports today on a hot topic that' s bound to get people's knickers in a bunch ... the resurgence of backyard clotheslines.

Back in the day, everyone had a clothesline where they hung wet clothes to dry. Dryers were for rich folk.

Today, the opposite is true. Everyone has a clothes dryer, except for poor people, right?

Except that some environmentally conscious families have begun eschewing energy-intensive dryers in favor of nature's sunlight and gentle breezes.

That, of course, has created problems since many homeowners' communities have specific rules against "letting it all hang out." I mean, who wants to see their neighbors' drawers flapping in the breeze?

The federal Energy Information Administration says that dryers consume as much as 6 percent of total U.S. electricity usage. But there are at least 60 million Americans who live in communities that ban outdoor clotheslines.

Talk about your culture clash. Free-spirited environmentalists versus rules-oriented, property-valued homeowners associations. Both sides can make fundamentally sound arguments that their position is best.

Who do you think will win?