Trumpland in Wallingford and wandering in Social Media thickets

No RantWoman, you do NOT need to wade into this Twitter spat.

Iljeoma Oluo on Incident in Wallingoford and police response

No, you do not. The last time you waded into a Twitter storm involving ... you got harassed for days by a parade of (pathetic guys who might have a better chance of getting laid if they would dial back...). No You do NOT need to wade in, and furthermore you just being another mouthy white person might or might not help..

Tough. RantWoman is already there, in guise of generalized Sensible Auntie on behalf of many current and former teenagers. In a nutshell

--Youths of color walking from school to the Boys and Girls club in their neighborhood.

---sidewalk turf spat with one grumpy white guy who is suspicious of what is in backpacks and calls police about "8 black suspects"

--different white guy driving a work vehicle accused of assaulting on youth and hurling racial epithets

--police show up

--police at first claim youth just ran away and claim interviews with witnesses do not corroborate youth's story."

--one of youths is charged for damage to van driver's vehicle. Police also release other "known to police" commentary including multiple references to other events involving same youth in same neighborhood. (RantWoman points out that "known to police" could refer to a variety of circumstances)

--conversations erupt in social media. RantWoman's contributions:
    --LOTS of Trumpishness about in the city. By Trumpishness, RantWoman means:
         --more than one Muslim woman either being violently assaulted or threatened
         --a blind friend walking her dogs on a Saturday evening who encountered drunk guys yelling about "defectives like you"
         --a jump from every once in awhile to about every day or so hearing some kind of blatantly racist comment on the bus, way past the number easily handled just with RantWoman's well-honed just time to pray reflex.

    --Would be entirely appropriate for cops to interview the youths actually involved not just other witnesses who may or may not have been in a position to see or hear all that went on.

   --Youth who are willing to talk to police but cannot rely on parents migthwant to ask for help from another trusted adult, a theme that MIGHT have been topical around the RantFamily for sure

--cell phone video surfaces in social media. youths do cellphone video of police interviews;
Cellphone videos posted to Facebook

--police department tweets that further investigation is occurring and then...crickets...

--This evening RantWoman logs into facebook. The employee in the company van has been suspended pending investigation. Employee is a union member. RantWoman does not read all 113 comments but there is much frothing at the keyboard about how the guy should be summarily fired. Ummmm, folks, we WANT unions. We WANT process. RantWoman is glad the employer is engaged and RantWoman does NOT want to give the guy a pass. But RantWoman thinks lots of process needs to play out yet.

The longer version
After finally reading the latest of the Twitter thread and looking at cellphone video posted through Facebook mobile and therefore invisible until one is on a platform where one signs in to facebook, a few thoughts:

Grumpy white guy gets into sidewalk turf spat with group of African American youth headed from school to Boys and Girls club.

Grumpy White guy yells at youth to "Move!" Youth laugh.

Grumpy white guy probably feels severely dissed. He  calls cops and complains about 8 black youths ganging up on him.

(Editorial comment: this probably could have gone better from both sides. Maybe grumpy white guy is just being grumpy. Maybe grumpy white guy for instance sees badly and cannot see room. Maybe grumpy white guy feels entitled to his path just because, but...   Okay okay one OF COURSE could certainly scream #whitesupremacy but MAYBE it would be helpful to put combinations of people in rooms and see what could be talked through.)

Grumpy white guy worries about what is in backpacks. NEWS FLASH: they are coming from school. What do you THINK is likely and quite appropriately in their backpacks?

Artisan Electric van guy is driving by slowly because of school traffic. He thinks youths are ganging up on grumpy white guy so that is his point of engagement. In context I tend to believe the youth about language and attitude.

Police show up. There is cellphone video of interview BUT at first police say the youths ran away and "independent witnesses" do not corroborate story."

See above.... RantWoman is glad actually that employer and union are engaged and doesrecommend seeking Light and Lessons well seasoned.