RIOT or melee in NE - you decide
I’m reading the news this morning and come accross a story from The O about a “teen melee” outside Hollywood bowl last night. As the article states, a group of teens were asked to leave Hollywood Bowl and ended up fighting outside. The O writes it up as just another summer event - kids being kids.
About eight officers responded to the initial report, though more arrived later. “By the time the rest of them got there it was pretty much over,” said Detective Paul Dolbey, a police spokesman.
But wait….Over at KATU, I get a different story:
Police Confront ‘Near Riot’ in NE Portland - Dozens of police, some in riot gear, confronted a group of hundreds of young people outside a northeast Portland bowling alley Monday night. Police reported some of the crowd were armed. Almost 50 officers converged on the scene. Police estimated the crowd at around 300 people, mostly teens.
So, which news organization is reporting the news and which is making the news? hmmmmm. While obviously something happened last night with teens fighting outside of Hollywood Bowl, can’t it be argued that by sensationalizing it, that is just another way KATU is determining the perception of a neighborhood? North and NE have always been vilified by the press and some of it for cause, but this is outrageous. Once again, it if had happened in another area of town, would be be such news?
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Agreed - I have a regular debate with a co-worker who has recently moved here and is convinced that “every other house in SE Division & 33rd area is a meth lab, driving down Alberta is like going through Compton, cars parked in Hollywood get broken into on a monthly basis and there have been nearly 100 shootings in Portland since she moved here - all of them in NE.”
Sometimes it just amuses me and I almost don’t mind because if they’re all afraid I don’t have to worry about people with that sort of closed mind moving to my neighborhood or hanging out at my favorite local places, yet I can’t help but get angry at such blatant sensationalism and prejudice.
I have a hard time believing ANYTHING I see on the nightly local news. It feels so overblown and sensationalized and so full of murders and rapes and kidnapping and meth-ed out freaks attacking neighbors and high school softball coaches running off with 10th graders every single day of the week… right outside my door… and they’re coming to get me… I swear it’s as if they are trying to keep us all indoors shaking and scared!
When I read the KATU report vs the O report I can’t help but laugh it off, even though it does kind of burn me up at the same time. I’m with divebarwife on this one - it’s amusing, but only to a point. What’s sad is that the local news is wrapped up in the slick, legitimate looking package & people actually believe what they see.
The last thing I’m likely to do is defend mainstream media… but I watched an interview on TV with the police spokesman, and the police spokesman used the term “riot” at least a couple times to describe the situation…