Tag Archives: thugs

State news

Biker thugs' mugs getting shown

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Do you recall in recent days the notion what some folks had suggested about the use of the term “thugs” to describe the looters and rioters in Baltimore?

They contended the term contained racist intent, given that the rioters were reacting to the death of a black man who was being arrested by police officers.

Well, it didn’t … at least as far as I am concerned.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/crime/article/Faces-of-Twin-Peaks-biker-shooting-in-Waco-begin-6271042.php

Check out the pictures of the thugs being identified in the wake of the Waco biker gang shootout. Thugs are thugs, no matter the color of their skin.

Yes, the bikers — all of whom are white guys — are every bit the thugs that the Baltimore looters are thugs.

Heck, the biker gang members likely are more thuggish than the rioters, if you consider that the biker gang members spend many of their waking hours committing acts of thuggery. Many of the looters in Baltimore might lead otherwise normal lives. Maybe their behavior was an anomaly. Their behavior was thuggish nevertheless.

Not these guys. The Bandidos, the Hell’s Angels, the Outsiders and a whole host of other gangs conduct themselves quite badly — all the time.

You didn’t see it here first. However, I’m happy to call these guys what they are — garden-variety thugs.

 

national news, political news

Let's not quibble over use of 'thug'

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Allow me this request.

How about stopping the quibbling and quarreling over the use of the term “thugs” to describe individuals who loot, pillage, burn and otherwise destroy other people’s property — not to mention injure or kill others — while rioting?

Dennis Prager, writing for RealClearPolitics.com, seems to think liberals have gotten thin-skinned about using the term. Liberals, according to Prager, seem to think it connotes someone’s race.

I consider myself a liberal thinker. I know other liberals, friends of mine. I’m unafraid to use the term. I mean nothing other than to describe the activity of the individual doing the misdeed. A thug is a thug. Period.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/05/05/why_the_left_wont_call_rioters_thugs_126496.html

It doesn’t. Honest. The term covers many aspects of misbehavior. If you mug someone on the street, you’re a thug. If you like to fight others just to prove your manhood, you’re a thug. When I was growing up, if you “TP’d” someone’s house with toilet paper, you were a thug; these days, such activity is considered a compliment if you’re a teenager.

This notion that the rioters who destroyed businesses in Baltimore and other communities of late were labeled “thugs” because of their race is ridiculous on its face.

A team wins the World Series or the Super Bowl or the NBA championship. Fans who live in the city of the winning team are so delirious they storm the streets, turn over cars, light them on fire. Last time I witnessed one of these events on TV, I noticed a lot of white folks among them. They’re thugs, too.

Thuggish behavior knows no racial boundary.

 

national news

'Thugs' is not a racist term

Let’s try to dispel some chatter out there about a term that’s been tossed around to describe the individuals who’ve destroyed businesses, burned buildings, injured police officers and created a whole lot of mayhem in a great American city.

They’ve been called “thugs.” Some folks now are bristling at the term because they contend it carries a racist connotation.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/baltimore-riots-maryland-officials-117473.html?hp=r2_4

The violent outburst in Baltimore came after an African-American man, Freddie Gray, died while in police custody of a severed spine.

How did some individuals react to that death? By attacking individuals who had nothing to do with it.

Does that sound like thuggery to you? It does to me.

Oh, and who has used the term “thugs” to describe what’s gone on? President Barack Obama has called the perps “thugs.” Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said it, too. What do these folks have in common? You know what it is: They’re both African-American. Other civic leaders have chimed in with the term as well. Many of them have been black.

Granted, the mayor hasn’t done a good job of taking control of the situation, but that’s another story.

A single word need not become the focus of the discussion that should be occurring with regard to the violence that has exploded in Baltimore. It diverts attention away from the bigger problem, which — as I see it — relates to the hideous behavior of some individuals who have hogged all the attention from those in Baltimore who’ve sought to maintain order and protest in a civil manner.

Of course, there’s the issue of police relations in the African-American community, which also must be discussed. That discussion cannot occur, however, when thugs are tearing up the city.