American Exceptionalism.
It exists, right?
Right?
A free day at the Kansas City Zoo? Blacks turn it into just another night at the downtown Country Club Plaza
Doesn't it?
There's something great about America, right? [Crickets]
Isn't there?
We're a "shining city on a hill" right?
"Hope for all mankind," or something like that....
Right?
Well, in the heartland of the nation, "freedom" continues to ring quite loud.
Whether it's the Country Club Plaza in downtown Kansas City or the Kansas City Zoo, black people continue to erode whatever was exceptional about America... wherever they congregate. [Shots fired, large fights terrorize Kansas City Zoo goers, KCTV5 Kansas City, 3-18-14]:
As police continue on Wednesday to investigate Tuesday's violence at the Kansas City Zoo, city leaders are looking at changes to the zoo's free admission days for residents of Jackson and Clay counties.
Kansas City Zoo goers described Tuesday afternoon running for their lives after hundreds of teens were involved in fights inside the zoo and shots were fired in a zoo parking lot.
"It was very scary," Liberty resident Jaimi Heckadon said. "All hell broke loose."
As she and her group bolted for the exit, Heckadon said she heard people screaming about officers using pepper spray.
"The problem was these teenagers. None of them were escorted by an adult," she said.
Extra security was already on hand, but dozens of Kansas City police officers responded to the zoo after the issues erupted about 3:30 p.m. The zoo closed at 4 p.m. as scheduled.
No serious injuries were reported because of the issues. Authorities said Tuesday that 10 arrests were made and gun was found on top of a fire pit in Swope Park, which surrounds the zoo.
On Wednesday, police said "numerous arrests were made for fighting in public and assault."
Marc Hoefer said Tuesday that the zoo and police response "was outstanding." But he like many other zoo goers said Tuesday that they would not return for a free zoo day.
Zoo and park officials said they will immediately look at what changes need to be made in response to Tuesday's problems.
Mayor Sly James emphatically said Wednesday that "we had young people who were misbehaving badly." However, he does not believe violence at the Country Club Plaza involving large groups of youth and Tuesday's events at the Kansas City Zoo are connected.
"It's not my job to take separate incidents that happen in one part of town and one that happened in another part of town and try to create something. Those are separate incidents. They weren't the same people involved. It wasn't the same place or the same time or circumstances," he said.
However, some of innocent patrons caught up in the violence say they believe the Plaza violence and Tuesday's violence at the zoo are connected and the city must do more to ensure families can be safe when going to Kansas City's top attractions.
Residents of Jackson and Clay counties could get into free to the zoo on Tuesday because of voter support for a zoo tax. The day coincided with mild weather and spring break for many area districts.
One zoo goer told KCTV5 that he saw 20 police cars. He said he was at the zoo with his toddler and felt unsafe. He said he saw multiple fights involving individuals and large groups break out inside the zoo and in the parking lots.
Heckadon, who is a season ticket holder, said she had gone to the zoo with her 9-year-old son, a friend and her friend's 10-year-old son. They were in the Africa section about 3:30 p.m. headed toward the tram when they saw four teen girls get into an argument.
"They were screaming. They were yelling. One threw a punch," she recalled. "Their boyfriends came around and ended up in it. Then there was about 20 kids."
She said the closest worker sprinted to the area and yelled into her walkie talkie for help.
"That's when all hell broke loose," Heckadon said. "A stampede of teens came storming toward us. We had to shield the boys with our own bodies. It was that tense. Hundreds of teens were flying down there."
As they were fleeing, they saw three Kansas City Police Department officers rushing to the melee.
She had parked on the grass near Starlight Theatre. She said as they were heading to their vehicle that they heard shots ring out. They got to the vehicle as quickly as they could and got ready to leave.
"My 9-year-old said, 'We were just in a riot.' And my friend and I were still speechless at that point," Heckadon said.
She said she immediately thought of the issues at the Country Club Plaza where large groups of unsupervised teens and young adults have been involved in fights and shootings.
"There were hundreds of teens and they were coming in groups with no adult presence. It's exactly like the Plaza," Heckadon said. "They have no adult presence and it's a free-for-all. The zoo is a place for families and small children."
Jimmie Todd was leaving the zoo amidst the gunfire and screaming.
"Everybody got scared when they started firing shots," he said. "A bunch of fights and a lot of arguing and the cops tackling the kids. They tackled them on the ground. They sprayed mace."
Marc Hoefer was at the zoo with his wife and 11- and 8-year-old children. An 11-year-old friend joined them.
"It was crowded. It was a different crowd. There was not a lot of courtesy. It was very packed and very tense," he said. "There was a strong police presence. There were a lot of pockets of youth. You could see there was a lot of tension. I didn't expect to walk about and see what I saw but I wasn't surprised."
As he was leaving, zoo employees directed him and his group to use a different exit. As he was moving toward his car in the parking lot, he could see a large group of youth gathering and bickering occurring. That's when he heard the shots fired from about 100 yards away.
"There was a lot of chaos. The zoo response and police response was outstanding," he said.
American Exceptionalism.
Kansas City, just another American metropolis with a very unexceptional black population. [Kansas City homicides in 2013 followed a tragic pattern, KansasCity.com, 1-1-14]:
As Kansas City homicide detective Alane Booth stood over the body of an innocent 3-year-old girl in August, she thought the killing would be solved within 24 hours.
“People will be so outraged,” she thought at the time. “Witnesses will be knocking down my door.”
But that didn’t happen. The shooting deaths of Damiah White and her mother, Myeisha Turner, remain unsolved, like roughly half of the 106 killings Kansas City recorded in 2013.
“I’m just completely taken aback,” Booth said.
Witnesses sitting on their hands encourage more violence, she said, by emboldening killers.
Homicides declined slightly last year compared to the 108 the city logged in 2012.
But Kansas City didn’t see drastic drops like many large cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. In fact, eight of the 10 largest U.S. cities had lower murder numbers for 2013 than the previous year, with an average reduction of 15.9 percent, according to an ABC News analysis.
Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forté, who implemented several programs to combat homicides and boost community cooperation, said he is not satisfied with the city’s homicide rate.
“That’s why every day I look at the homicides and ask, ‘Is there anything else we can be doing that I’m not doing?’ ” he said.
Kansas City’s killings in 2013 looked a lot like ones from previous years. Most involved guns. Seventy percent of the victims were black. Arguments were the top motive.
And the topics that kicked off many arguments seemed trivial.
In January, a driver fatally shot another driver on Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard during rush hour because she reportedly cut him off. Police said it was fortunate no one else was hit.
“There were bullets flying around with all those other drivers just trying to drive home from work,” said Detective Leland Blank, who still is looking for witnesses.
A man beat another man to death in September because the victim made a comment about another man’s girlfriend. The next month, a man allegedly killed his roommate because the roommate called him lazy and said he needed to do more chores.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/01/4724890/kansas-city-homicides-in-2013.html#storylink=cpy
American Exceptionalism.
A "Shining City on a Hill."
Our Constitution and rights came from God... oh, just stop it.
Just stop.
Cue up your Lee Greenwood.
Go ahead.
I'll just remember one simple quote from Starship Troopers. Cue up the History and Moral Philosophy Class lecture:
“These juvenile criminals hit a low level. Born with only the instinct for survival, the highest morality they achieved was a shaky loyalty to a peer group, a street gang. But the do-gooders attempted to ‘appeal to their better natures,’ to ‘reach them,’ to ‘spark their moral sense.’ Tosh! They had no ‘better natures’; experience taught them that what they were doing was the way to survive. The puppy never got his spanking; therefore what he did with pleasure and success must be ‘moral.’
“The basis of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual. Nobody preached duty to these kids in a way they could understand — that is, with a spanking. But the society they were in told them endlessly about their ‘rights.’
“The results should have been predictable, since a human being has no natural rights of any nature. …
When the animals in cages are better behaved and more domesticated than the black "juveniles" freely walking throughout the zoo, well, you have to question everything you've ever read about American Exceptionalism.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/01/4724890/kansas-city-homicides-in-2013.html#storylink=cpy
KCTV5