Neighbors call 911 on Black North Carolina teen who was performing ROTC exercises

[DonViejo]

[Pisces]

1. This is a tough one. I wouldn't like it if I saw anyone with a gun marching in front of my house.

[Biophilic]

2. Geezel pete. Did they even think to ask what was going on before calling police on their neighbor?

Good grief. I almost feel sorry for people who are this afraid, but than I figure they have created their own fear. Perhaps they deserve it, but too bad their neighbors have to live with it. Couldn't we just find them a 'safe' island to live on amongst themselves? This is just f**king wrong and it really makes me angry.

[Phoenix61]

3. It's 9:00 o'clock at night. If I saw someone

marching up and down the street with a gun at that hour, or any hour for that matter, I’d call the cops. I think this is more about how 16 year olds don’t always think things through. So glad it ended with everyone safe.

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. If it had been MY neighborhood...

I might have gone out and said
"Hey, Jathan, what ya doing? Practicing for ROTC? Oh, cool. Congratulations. But, and I hate to say this, some people might not understand what you're doing out here marching up and down with a drill rifle, so maybe you wanna practice inside, just to be safe?"

And, having grown up in a mostly Black neighborhood in the 60's, I would NOT be calling the cops first thing.

(I also know most all of my current neighbors in my neighborhood for several blocks around, and their kids.)

[SeattleVet]

5. A cop stopped me while I was walking home from drill practice one evening.

I was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol in the late-60's. We'd had our drill team practice sessions on the roof of the hospital parking garage, a block or so from the police station. The patients used to gather at the windows to watch us.

Walking home with the 'drill rifle' one evening - a wood and metal mockup, not as realistic or detailed as this young man's - slung over my shoulder. About a block from home a cop car pulled alongside me and asked what I had there. I explained, and handed the 'rifle' to him, holding it by the barrel and sticking the butt end through his car window (he never even got out of the car). He checked it out, determined that it was totally inert. He made two recommendations. The first was that I carry it with the 'bolt' open, which exposed a non-removable gold-painted dummy 'bullet'. The second was to stick it into a paper grocery bag. Neither of these seemed like good suggestions - for instance, did he want the barrel or the 'muzzle' sticking out of the bag, and would that make other cops stop me (or worse) for a 'concealed weapon'?

I wondered what would have happened if it was one of our black cadets, who had a much longer walk home, that got stopped. Fortunately none of them ever did.

[3Hotdogs]

6. I don't fault the neighbors. Is he known to all the neighbors?

Is he pumping up to be the next nut I will read about in tomorrows D.U.?

Kinda reminds me of the saying, "See sum'thn, say sum'thn."

[magicguido]

7. well he is damn lucky to be alive.