Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Russia Mexico coverage

More on emos in Mexico:

Experts point to intolerance when violence against teens jumps ...
Houston Chronicle, United States 6 Apr 2008

Meanwhile in Russia violence flares when Anti fascist punks organise a demonstration about being targeted by neo Nazis (check out numerous earlier posts about Russian Neo Nazis):

Anti-Fascists Chased by Police

Friday, March 28, 2008

Sergey Chernov / The St. Petersburg Times

Anti-fascist protestors participating in an unsanctioned march along Nevsky Prospekt on Tuesday evening.

A large group of anti-Nazi youth activists walked down Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg’s main street, in an unsanctioned march protesting neo-Nazi violence in memory of a murdered activist this week. Twenty six were detained by the police soon afterwards.

More than 150 young men and women belonging to unaffiliated the Antifa (militant “anti-fascism”) movement, most with faces covered with scarves and carrying flares and banners, marched 1.5 kilometers from Alexander Nevsky Ploshchad to Ploshchad Vosstaniya during a heavy snowstorm at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

The protesters carried two large red banners reading “Make Nazism History” and “Trash Nationalism” and chanted slogans, such as “Antifa,” “Go into the Street and Take the City Back,” “The World is Multi-Colored, Not Brown” and “No to Nazis of Any Kind — from the Street to the Authorities.”

The march was held to mark nine days since the death of Alexei Krylov, a 21-year-old anti-Nazi activist who was stabbed to death by an estimated 15 neo-Nazis on March 16 as he was heading to a punk concert near the club Art Garbage in Moscow.

It was reported that the attack was planned using a website for fans of the Moscow Premier League soccer team Spartak. Three days later an anti-Nazi march that reportedly drew 300 activists was held in the center of Moscow.

Anti-Nazi activist and punk musician Timur Kacharava, 20, was killed in a similar attack in St. Petersburg in November 2005.

In St. Petersburg, the marchers distributed leaflets about Krylov’s murder and asking for financial help for his mother and two younger sisters. Another leaflet described the ideology of “Autonomous Antifascism” and called for street-level resistance against neo-Nazism.

“Antifascists went down to the demonstration to state that they are not going to tolerate neo-Nazi violence, which has become an acute problem in Russia. Reports about attacks on foreign students and killings of migrants have ceased to shock anyone. They have become routine,” said the Antifa group in a statement on website www.piter.indymedia.ru.

“Attacks are also committed on representatives of countercultural youths who try to resist neo-Nazis. Over the past 2 1/2 years, five anti-fascists from different cities were killed for their convictions, St. Petersburg musician Timur Kacharava among them.

“The whole history of the anti-fascist movement shows that it can only be a success if it uses all available tactics of resistance (not excluding direct physical counteraction).”

The police, which has disrupted most demonstrations with no official permission issued by the authorities in recent years — even though the Russian Constitution guarantees freedom of assembly — were not aware of the march, which had been organized in secret, and only reacted when the march was almost finished, as protesters reached Ploshchad Vosstaniya.

Apparently taken by surprise, several policemen tried to stop the marchers from crossing Ligovsky Prospekt, and when they failed, blocked the entrance to Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro, so the group went down Ulitsa Vosstaniya and then turned in the direction of Ulitsa Mayakovskogo.

Arrests started near the Novotel hotel where a policeman attacked a straggler, pushing him to the ground. The protesters’ leader, who gave commands through a megaphone during the march, was detained soon after, along with other activists who tried to run away through courtyards but found themselves trapped.

After reaching Ulitsa Zhukovskogo, the main group ran away in an organized fashion. The police failed to catch them.

“Twenty six citizens were detained, but five of them turned out to be minors and were immediately released and turned over to their parents,” said Vyacheslav Stepchenko, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry in St. Petersburg, by phone on Thursday. According to Antifa’s statement, the minors were only released after 11 p.m.

According to Stepchenko, the activists were detained according to two clauses of the Administrative Code, Article 19.3 Part I (“Failure to Follow a Policeman’s Lawful Orders”) and Article 20.2 (“Violation of the Regulations of Conducting Meetings, Marches, Demonstrations and Pickets”).

The rest of the detained activists were released on Wednesday afternoon, when the court ruled to send their cases to their local courts. Failure to follow a policeman’s lawful orders is the gravest offence of the two and can lead to up to 15 days in custody.

“We didn’t inform the authorities about the march because they wouldn’t have permitted it anyway,” said a participant, who asked that his name be withheld, by phone on Thursday.

“We also didn’t need to advertize it because we can gather that many people without any publicity.”

This year has seen a rise in racially-motivated violence in Russia, with St. Petersburg following Moscow in the rate of incidents reported.

An Uzbek man and a woman either from Yakutia or Buryatiya, were reported to have been stabbed to death in St. Petersburg this week, in addition to three other racially-motivated killings and a number of beatings this month.


For a change someone is doing something positive in the States:
Students talk acceptance and friendship at summit
Greeley Tribune, CO - 4 Apr 2008
But I see people in school going, 'oh, they're emos,' or 'they're gangsters' and stuff."

a:


Monday, April 7, 2008

Academic study says dress codes in schools don't work

S-burg considers tougher dress code- The Pocono Record

April 03, 2008

Similar arguments are often made in favor of school uniforms, but their impact may be neither so dramatic nor positive, said David Brunsma, associate professor of sociology at University of Missouri-Columbia, who has studied the issue.

Brunsma, author of "The School Uniform Movement and What it Tells Us About American Education: A Symbolic Crusade," said efforts to standardize dress over the past decade often were surface attempts to solve deeper problems in schools.

"They kind of resonate with the public," Brunsma said. "After all, if our differences are perceived as the core cause of the problems we see, then trying to eradicate that difference makes sense."

But his research found that uniforms have no direct impact on behavioral problems or attendance, and negatively affect academic success in public schools.

"The simple fact," he wrote in the Journal of Educational Research, "is that policymakers who are interested in raising academic achievement should not count on school uniforms to deliver an academic miracle."

Sunday, April 6, 2008

More on Mexico

Beatings and abuse give Mexico's emo teens plenty to feel ...
The Observer, UK - 21 hours ago
Burgeoning anti-emo sentiment exploded here last month when hundreds of young people in the central city of Querétaro heeded a call to rid the central ...
Why Are Emo Kids Getting Attacked In Mexico?
MTV.com - Apr 4, 2008
They shoved the three against a wall and began kicking and punching, shouting, "Kill the emos!" and filming the incident on their cell phones.

This article tells the usual unfounded lies about goth/emo. How about considering whether the parent in this case bears any responsibilty for the actions of his children rather blaming music.

Knowing what teens are into helps parents stay step ahead
Winston-Salem Journal, NC - Apr 2, 2008

“Unlike the Goth subculture of teen angst and disenchantment with society, emo is a cult of self-loathing,” he wrote in a recent e-mail, referring to kids who favor the forbidding “Goth” look of black clothing and dyed black hair. “Emo turns the malcontent a Goth may have towards the world unto the self. A disturbing aspect of emo is the use of self-mutilation to extract revenge for perceived slights from family and friends.”

Palmer Edwards, a Winston-Salem psychiatrist who works with adolescents, is familiar with emo and the acts described by Gene.

“The term has been around for several years,” Edwards said. “Basically it means emotional.… Emo kids are thought to be very emotional and down on themselves.”

Calling every kid who wears dark clothing and combs his (or her) hair down over the eyes “emo” would be a vast overgeneralization, but any sudden change in a kid’s behavior is certainly worthy of parental inquiry and investigation.

“Goth is so common that there’s a store in Hanes Mall that caters to the look,” Edwards said. “I’m not sure how rebellious something is if it has its own store in the mall. However, there could be some depression going on. It can range from the mild end that would require a period of adjustment to super severe in which a psychiatrist may be needed.”

Gene and Edwards agree that not every kid in dark clothes is considering suicide or self-mutilation.

“Parents should be leery and may want to speak with their kids about it,” Gene said.

More Sophie Events

Rock band's gig for Sophie
This Is Lancashire, UK - 22 minutes ago
By Helen Korn AN ACCLAIMED rock band have decided to end their UK tour with a tribute concert to Sophie Lancaster. Dear Superstar are hoping to raise cash

The number of events dedicated to Sophie continues to grow on her website with the next Whitby and MatStock III, a WOLFPACK FESTIVAL in NORTH SOMERSET, a three day festival, plus this event in Dudley.

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Plus there are a number of smaller events in Spalding, Sheffield, Ipswich, Accrington, and Burnley

18 Apr 2008 17:00
MATSTOCK METAL FESTIVAL @ HIGHBRIDGE
25 Apr 2008 16:00
WHITBY GOTH WEEKEND INCLUDING SOPHIE LANCASTER’S MEMORIAL BENCH DEDICATIO @ WHITBY
25 Apr 2008 20:00
SPALDING S.O.P.H.I.E FUNDRAISER age 14+ @ SPALDING FOOTBALL CLUB
9 May 2008 19:00
NEW YORK ALCOHOLIC ANXIETY ATTACK @ THE CORPORATION
20 May 2008 20:00
IPSWICH S.O.P.H.I,.E FUNDRAISER @ SPREAD EAGLE PUB
25 May 2008 16:00
S.O.P.H.I.E FUNDRAISER @ THE SANCTURY BAR
25 May 2008 20:00
S.O.P.H.I.E NIGHT AT DUDLEY @ J.B.’s
7 Jun 2008 19:00
ACCRINGTON S.O.P.H.I.E. FUNDRAISER @ brooks club