Teen killers and disparaging the younger generation

Roxxsmom · Sep 22, 2019

This story broke last week, and it's one I think many of us have heard before: teenager kills or does something horrible to another and friends stand around and record it to share on social media. The latest case involves and 18-year old who stabbed another teen, Khaseen Morris, to death in a parking lot in New York.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/7625...tudent-that-dozens-filmed-shared-on-social-me

It's not the crime itself that caught my attention, though, but the narrative surrounding it. The situation is horrific and screwed up. The perpetrator has the "dead eyes" and slack face you see in much older killers, but does it really exemplify a generation?

As Morris lay in the parking lot of a strip mall pizzeria in Oceanside, N.Y. — hemorrhaging blood from a stab wound in the chest — police estimate somewhere between 50 and 70 kids stood by and failed to call for help. Many filmed the violent scene, uploading videos to social media sites.

"Kids stood here and didn't help Khaseen. They'd rather video this event," Detective Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. "They videoed his death instead of helping. So anyone who has video, come forward, [and] do the right thing for Khaseen."

Looking perplexed and exasperated, Fitzpatrick added, "I don't know what to make of it, my generation vs. this generation. This can't go on. Your friends are dying while you stand there and video it. That's egregious."

emphasis mine
.

Sorry Fitzpatrick, but I call BS on this. There were plenty of incidents like this before social media. An infamous case, which inspired the movie River's Edge, happened in the town of Milpitas, CA when I was a young adult. A guy murdered his girlfriend and bragged about it at school, and his friends came to check out the body. No one reported the murder for two days. This was the 80s--well before social media.

There are plenty of other well-publicized cases over the years where bystanders (and not always so young) witness a hideous crime (or see someone in trouble) and fail to respond appropriately. There's even a word for it--the bystander effect. It is most emphatically not limited to a generation or age group. Social media may put a new spin on it, but I don't think today's young people are any worse overall than any generation.

Blame the individuals involved, blame their families, blame their community or whatever you like, but don't pin it on an entire generation.

And anyway, what about the young people who are doing this sort of thing? Or the kids doing this?

frimble3 · Sep 22, 2019

Kitty Genovese was killed in 1964. And no adults tried to help her, either. They were the grandparents of this generation, so I think it's just part of human nature.

Balance that out against the number of young people who take photos and videos of crimes and wrongdoings, etc, on their little phones, and I think this generation is, at least, breaking even. Maybe coming out a little ahead.

mccardey · Sep 22, 2019

frimble3 said:
Kitty Genovese was killed in 1964. And no adults tried to help her, either. They were the grandparents of this generation, so I think it's just part of human nature.

I think the Genovese story went through a bit of clarification in later times, though.

While there was no question that the attack occurred, and that some neighbors ignored cries for help, the portrayal of 38 witnesses as fully aware and unresponsive was erroneous. The article grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived. None saw the attack in its entirety. Only a few had glimpsed parts of it, or recognized the cries for help. Many thought they had heard lovers or drunks quarreling. There were two attacks, not three. And afterward, two people did call the police. A 70-year-old woman ventured out and cradled the dying victim in her arms until they arrived. Ms. Genovese died on the way to a hospital.

Another link

Here it’s worth noting that the New York Times coverage instrumental in enshrining Genovese’s murder in legend was less than completely accurate: There may have been just three eyewitnesses to the attack; most neighbors only heard portions of it; it’s possible none saw the final assault and murder. But the irony of Krueger’s analysis is that had there really been 38 people who watched Genovese get attacked, they would have been more likely to come to her aid, not less so.

kayellbee · Sep 22, 2019

Thank you, Roxxsmom. Nothing bothers me more than people painting my generation like we're all lazy, immoral dimwits angry at the world.

Albedo · Sep 22, 2019

At least he didn’t call them Millennials. I’m a Millennial, and I’ve got (a few) grey hairs.

Whatever you call the generation after us, I’m willing to give the cop the benefit of the doubt that his tarring of them is an emotional response to a horrible incident. Because surely he can see that Gen Z, the one currently marching to save the world, the ones more accepting of gender and racial diversity than any previous generation, are actually a pretty empathetic bunch?

mccardey · Sep 22, 2019

Albedo said:
Gen Z, the one currently marching to save the world

Gen Greta?

Roxxsmom · Sep 23, 2019

kayellbee said:
Thank you, Roxxsmom. Nothing bothers me more than people painting my generation like we're all lazy, immoral dimwits angry at the world.

There are immoral dimwits in every generation but also plenty of decent people and a smaller number of exceptional people. It's an age-old habit of older folks to focus on the immoral dimwits who happen to be young and to assume they exemplify the entire generation.

I suppose that's because of the human tendency to attend to bad news more than to good news and have confirmation bias and all that.

Albedo said:
At least he didn’t call them Millennials. I’m a Millennial, and I’ve got (a few) grey hairs.

I think the author of the article I linked mislabeled the post-Millennial generation as Gen y (gen Y is the Millenials) instead of Gen Z. Gen Z are the kids of Gen X, and they are now in college! My brother and sister-in-law just drove up here to Northern CA with my oldest niece to drop her off at her dorms (she is attending my undergrad alma mater).

My husband's "kid" sister is a millenial, and she is in her mid thirties and has a house, a career, a kid with another on the way.

Will the generation after Gen Z be called "Generation AA"?

Teen killers and disparaging the younger generation

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

mccardey

kayellbee

Albedo

Alex

mccardey

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido