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10/5/04

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Infra

Infra

La Crosse, WI
November 2003

OCT 04, 2004 02:36 PM

Six disgruntled patrons at a Beijing cyber cafe came into the building looking for the security guard who had argued with them on a previous night. They couldn't find him, so they did the next best thing: they started slashing the patrons.

The suspects, some of them teenagers, were arrested by Beijing police on Wednesday, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

Earlier reports said a group of young men in black burst into cybercafe Broadband Experience on the south-eastern outskirts of Beijing on Sept 20 and hacked terrified patrons at random for about 20 minutes.

Some of their accomplices blocked the entrance during the slashing.

[...]

Frustrated that they could not find the guard, the young men 'lost their senses' and started stabbing the customers indiscriminately, the report said.


The reports made a point of noting that all of the attackers were either 17 or 18-years old, and most came from "broken homes or single-parent families" -- suggesting that the stereotype of the black-clothed, violent kid with computer obsessions and a troubled home life has not yet breathed its last.

PerilSensitive

PerilSensitive

Houston, TX
March 2003

OCT 04, 2004 02:42 PM

Stereotypes do get that way for a reason though.

B57913

B57913

I'm lost
May 2004

OCT 04, 2004 04:35 PM

Where the fuck were the superheroes?

Vestril

Vestril

Coronado, CA
February 2003

OCT 04, 2004 04:59 PM

B57913 said:
Where the fuck were the superheroes?



best comment ever...

SomethingStupid

SomethingStupid

North Hollywood, CA
March 2004

OCT 04, 2004 05:10 PM

PerilSensitive said:
Stereotypes do get that way for a reason though.


Yeah, because it's shocking when that happens. Look, every time some quiet person who seems to be normal and adjusted goes and kills a couple people, the news media eats it up and we are bombarded with it. We get the neighbor who says, "He was always so quiet" and people who knew them who say the same thing. Why are we bombarded with these stories? Because the media loves this Richard Corey shit. No other reason. When something people can't explain happens, they tell us about it.

And why, you might ask, are we more frequently told about these stories than we used to be? Well, one, the internet. We're writing on a tool that gives us information at a speed impossible even fifteen years ago. Two, there are now over six billion people on the planet, and with more people, more of these incidents occur. With all these people and all these stories, it's easy to forget that incidents like this are the anomolies that "Richard Corey" described. Just freak occurences. Overall, violence in school has decreased steadily since about 1990ish, but you wouldn't know it from watching TV. Thus, stereotypes actually can come about without reason. It's the same as the stereotype that blacks are stupid. No one has the facts.

[Edited on Oct 04, 2004 by TedKoppel]

sadisticmika

sadisticmika

I'm lost
July 2004

OCT 04, 2004 05:56 PM

This sounds like the movie Kung Fu Master is my Grandma, except in the cyber cafe there are kick ass tough girls with obviously Kung Fu mastering Grannies in tow.

royaljack

royaljack

Brooklyn, NY
OLD SKOOL

OCT 04, 2004 07:34 PM

Internet cafes are hot-spots for gamers. You know those kids who love to frag, but their parents "lock down" their machines? They go there. Or if they can't afford a computer at home. Or if they're skipping school entirely.

So basically, people are going their for their fix. They play games. And while there is a detached nature to fragging people online, when you team up with other players next to you, you form your own "clan", posse or even gang.

The violence makes sense if you compare their behavior to people in a pool hall or bowling alley getting worked up over trivial sports. Fragging is the new social sport for these kids, and guess what? The violence in the games doesn't cause the violence as much as the mob mentality of being in a game based world.

Or whatever. But I don't think the gamers should be blamed any more or less than any other group of people at a bowling alley or pool hall.

Erica

Erica

SUICIDEGIRL

I'm lost

OCT 04, 2004 07:36 PM

Eek!

crushjunkie

crushjunkie

Vancouver, BC
October 2003

OCT 04, 2004 09:21 PM

Nice.

6underground

6underground

United Kingdom
December 2003

OCT 05, 2004 03:58 AM

too much gaming and coffee for those guys...

bean

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

OCT 05, 2004 06:35 AM

PRockG said:
I'm writing a business plan so I can open a gaming/internet cafe here. Now I am all paranoid. Although, we will be using ID's to establish different levels of membership for different-aged patrons. I wonder if that will be enough.



Well, if this story is any indication of the hazards you'll be facing, I think every employee should have some chain mail armor. You can rent it out to patrons. smile

TheRealTexaSGuy

TheRealTexaSGuy

Tacoma, WA
December 2003

OCT 05, 2004 08:22 AM

Stereotype or not, we're perpetuating it by talking about it. Just by making this an issue, we're feeding further media stories of this nature - they don't care what kind of attention they get, so long as people pay attention.

On another note, as a former security guard, this is EXACTLY why security guards are no where to be found unless there's
A) fresh coffee
B) hot girls
C) doughnuts

Otherwise, we're in the back room calling radio stations and downloading por....er....op-ed pieces on the current state of political turmoil the world over. (whew, good save!). wink