I can not beleive this. We try to make the game better with new cards, so what happens, some 10 year old robs a six year old.
To be honest that news story didn't look that real.
To be honest that news story didn't look that real.
Tuesday, 2/12, Kid Attempts Robbery of Pokemon Cards at Gun Point
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
- Start date
It was in a newspaper, so it's real. But what's surprising is that a newspaper in Kansas printed about something in California.
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shaymingiratina8717 said:
It was an Associated Press thing... Our paper where I live in Iowa prints stories from other states even other countries every day... (Well, I'm sure every paper does)
This is like some early april fools joke.But seriously,..
Lets be glad he wasn't able to get hold of a real gun.
Yeah...hopefully, he learned his lesson, but honestly and sadly, I doubt he did.
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im sorry, but that made me laugh.... it prolly scared the skittles out of that kid, but i still think it's funny, and just bcause..
guns don't kill people.. Chuck Norris kills people...
guns don't kill people.. Chuck Norris kills people...
But, that's the intention of guns. To kill.
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This article struck pretty close to home with me. Thus, this shall be my first post here.
Based on the responses to the incident, I take it that most of you were never in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). It's one of the school districts to have banned Pokémon cards, and it's still banned today. A lot of you seem surprised, shocked, and appalled that a 10-year-old threatens to shoot a six-year-old with an Airsoft as a means of extortion; while I am appalled, I am neither surprised nor shocked.
The reason is because this happened all the time based on what I've seen, except more dire. The LAUSD didn't ban Pokémon cards to get kids to concentrate, as a reactionary movement against a then-popular franchise, or because it was equated to gambling. It was put in place to protect the students. While I was in middle school when Pokémon was popular, Pokémon cards were essentially money, and those holographic Charizards and Chanseys were paper gold. Airsoft guns were the milder cases--there were fist fights, knife fights, psychological warfare, swirlies (where you dunk another kid's head in a toilet bowl, then flush), blackmail, and all sorts of other unscrupulous acts done to take Pokémon cards away from somebody else. I am not kidding. Middle school life for me was that rough, and because I was one of the early people to obtain Pokémon cards, I was a target.
While I didn't get any physical violence put upon me, the day following the one where I introduced Pokémon cards to my friends, somebody had obtained the combination to my hall locker, where I would have to put my backpack for P.E. class. Luckily, I chose not to bring the cards that day, but I noticed something was wrong when my hall locker was ajar and unlocked having come back from P.E. (which means whoever it was also found out when I had P.E. class). I opened it to see my backpack had disappeared, and it wasn't until the next day that it was recovered, apparently in a puddle in the boy's restroom by the cafeteria. (Take a guess as to what the puddle was made of.) Everything in the backpack was ruined. The textbooks were ripped, the metal framework for the binders were bent and largely rendered unusable, and the emergency money I had kept was gone. I would guess that the thief had opened my backpack, couldn't find my cards, and repeatedly bashed my backpack against a wall in frustration.
Basically, middle school (and high school) were constantly a mass school shooting waiting to happen. The LAUSD was and still is a powder keg, and banning the cards (which so far is the only TCG banned) was the people in charge snuffing the match. (I didn't like that it was banned, but looking at it as an adult, I would have done the same thing were I the superintendent.) Even without Pokémon cards, I've seen people carry weapons to school to extort even the tiniest things from other people. Basically, you're dealing with people too young to have a conscience and have learned, from watching other people, that the best and most impressive way to obtain something is to take it from someone else by force (the motivation behind most bullies). It takes a certain age and intellectual capacity to know how other people feel and how your actions can affect the actions of other people, and before the age of 15, for a lot of people, kids will most likely act only within their own interests or others' misfortune without a milligram of regret. This is also a group of people too young to tell what is truly valuable from what is simply popular, and Pokémon cards, back in the day, was essentially currency and helped establish social rank. The kid with the complete Base Set and the twenty Charizards was at the top, the big boss, for instance, a spot that everybody strived to reach. As most kids could not afford to buy all those packs to get up there, they had to do the alternative, which is to take them from other people. If it sounds ridiculous, believe me, it's hard to exaggerate the conditions I went through.
You can say that this is much like Mafia rule (the Hollywood portrayal of the Mafia, at least): You have to eliminate your competition and any potential threats to reach the top, treat everyone as a potential backstabber even worse than you, and acquire resources by any means necessary.
I mean...even the adults felt threatened at my middle school. Maybe my childhood was just rougher than most. Los Angeles is the county with the highest gang population in the world, and based on my observations, it comes from the glamorization of gang culture. In this news story, if you replace the binder of Pokémon cards with a briefcase of Benjamin Franklins and the kid with an Airsoft as a street punk with a pistol, it shouldn't sound too far-fetched.
Based on the responses to the incident, I take it that most of you were never in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). It's one of the school districts to have banned Pokémon cards, and it's still banned today. A lot of you seem surprised, shocked, and appalled that a 10-year-old threatens to shoot a six-year-old with an Airsoft as a means of extortion; while I am appalled, I am neither surprised nor shocked.
The reason is because this happened all the time based on what I've seen, except more dire. The LAUSD didn't ban Pokémon cards to get kids to concentrate, as a reactionary movement against a then-popular franchise, or because it was equated to gambling. It was put in place to protect the students. While I was in middle school when Pokémon was popular, Pokémon cards were essentially money, and those holographic Charizards and Chanseys were paper gold. Airsoft guns were the milder cases--there were fist fights, knife fights, psychological warfare, swirlies (where you dunk another kid's head in a toilet bowl, then flush), blackmail, and all sorts of other unscrupulous acts done to take Pokémon cards away from somebody else. I am not kidding. Middle school life for me was that rough, and because I was one of the early people to obtain Pokémon cards, I was a target.
While I didn't get any physical violence put upon me, the day following the one where I introduced Pokémon cards to my friends, somebody had obtained the combination to my hall locker, where I would have to put my backpack for P.E. class. Luckily, I chose not to bring the cards that day, but I noticed something was wrong when my hall locker was ajar and unlocked having come back from P.E. (which means whoever it was also found out when I had P.E. class). I opened it to see my backpack had disappeared, and it wasn't until the next day that it was recovered, apparently in a puddle in the boy's restroom by the cafeteria. (Take a guess as to what the puddle was made of.) Everything in the backpack was ruined. The textbooks were ripped, the metal framework for the binders were bent and largely rendered unusable, and the emergency money I had kept was gone. I would guess that the thief had opened my backpack, couldn't find my cards, and repeatedly bashed my backpack against a wall in frustration.
Basically, middle school (and high school) were constantly a mass school shooting waiting to happen. The LAUSD was and still is a powder keg, and banning the cards (which so far is the only TCG banned) was the people in charge snuffing the match. (I didn't like that it was banned, but looking at it as an adult, I would have done the same thing were I the superintendent.) Even without Pokémon cards, I've seen people carry weapons to school to extort even the tiniest things from other people. Basically, you're dealing with people too young to have a conscience and have learned, from watching other people, that the best and most impressive way to obtain something is to take it from someone else by force (the motivation behind most bullies). It takes a certain age and intellectual capacity to know how other people feel and how your actions can affect the actions of other people, and before the age of 15, for a lot of people, kids will most likely act only within their own interests or others' misfortune without a milligram of regret. This is also a group of people too young to tell what is truly valuable from what is simply popular, and Pokémon cards, back in the day, was essentially currency and helped establish social rank. The kid with the complete Base Set and the twenty Charizards was at the top, the big boss, for instance, a spot that everybody strived to reach. As most kids could not afford to buy all those packs to get up there, they had to do the alternative, which is to take them from other people. If it sounds ridiculous, believe me, it's hard to exaggerate the conditions I went through.
You can say that this is much like Mafia rule (the Hollywood portrayal of the Mafia, at least): You have to eliminate your competition and any potential threats to reach the top, treat everyone as a potential backstabber even worse than you, and acquire resources by any means necessary.
I mean...even the adults felt threatened at my middle school. Maybe my childhood was just rougher than most. Los Angeles is the county with the highest gang population in the world, and based on my observations, it comes from the glamorization of gang culture. In this news story, if you replace the binder of Pokémon cards with a briefcase of Benjamin Franklins and the kid with an Airsoft as a street punk with a pistol, it shouldn't sound too far-fetched.
Wow, I think someone above me is mod material!
I live in Orange County, which is right next to LA, and I have heard of such stories as you described above. It's extremely scary to think about what kids will do for things they highly value. It's even scarier to think about what they will do when they are older and move on to other things.
Also, what was that puddle made of?
I live in Orange County, which is right next to LA, and I have heard of such stories as you described above. It's extremely scary to think about what kids will do for things they highly value. It's even scarier to think about what they will do when they are older and move on to other things.
Also, what was that puddle made of?
That was fast. I just signed up. I hate responsibility though, so I'm happiest where I am.
I guess the school district at Orange shouldn't be too different from the one in LA, since I hear about gang problems there too. I often wonder what becomes of these kids when they grow older. I think the largest quantity drop out of school entirely and, having run into unfavorable encounters with the police, choose to settle down and work in a low-paying job or the family business for much of the rest of their lives. Most of the meanest kids I've seen when I was in school were in or near poverty and were taught, if not by other poor students then by their family, to steal in order to survive. I would bet that this ten-year-old kid is at most lower middle class and used an Airsoft to take the six-year-old's cards not because of any innate psychopathic personality disorders but because he's grown accustomed to taking things by force, Pokémon cards being no different from, say, somebody's lunch (or lunch money) or backpack.
As for what the puddle is made of, the boy's restrooms always smell like urine, and the ground is wet. Thus, my backpack was lying in a pool of pee. The boy's restrooms were always the most revolting spot in the school. The girls only play with toilet paper and keep the floor dry. The boys literally fling poop at the walls and pee on the floor. (That's also where the crack-dealing kids conducted their business.)
I guess the school district at Orange shouldn't be too different from the one in LA, since I hear about gang problems there too. I often wonder what becomes of these kids when they grow older. I think the largest quantity drop out of school entirely and, having run into unfavorable encounters with the police, choose to settle down and work in a low-paying job or the family business for much of the rest of their lives. Most of the meanest kids I've seen when I was in school were in or near poverty and were taught, if not by other poor students then by their family, to steal in order to survive. I would bet that this ten-year-old kid is at most lower middle class and used an Airsoft to take the six-year-old's cards not because of any innate psychopathic personality disorders but because he's grown accustomed to taking things by force, Pokémon cards being no different from, say, somebody's lunch (or lunch money) or backpack.
As for what the puddle is made of, the boy's restrooms always smell like urine, and the ground is wet. Thus, my backpack was lying in a pool of pee. The boy's restrooms were always the most revolting spot in the school. The girls only play with toilet paper and keep the floor dry. The boys literally fling poop at the walls and pee on the floor. (That's also where the crack-dealing kids conducted their business.)