Wave of crime hits USA - may we discuss this?

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In a recently closed post on .22 Magnums, someone asked if "flash mobs" were really a matter relevant to personal self-defense, and noted that he may have missed some relevant news.

I replied by linking to an article by John T. Bennett of Accuracy in Media noting that the media had, in fact, suppressed information on the "flash mob" crime wave. Bennett argued extensively that the reason the media had largely ignored the stories was because of certain demographic features of the groups of perpetrators and victim.

This post was deleted, although posts asking about flash mobs, and posts that opined that they were not a big deal, remained. So I question the notion that my post was deleted because it was off topic.

Furthermore, though I myself added no personal opinions about any racial group, the Bennett article did note the races of the attackers and the victims. However, there are several other threads mentioning race on The Firing Line that weren't closed, so I'm not sure if race per se was the reason my post was deleted (or, for that matter, the reason the thread was closed).

So my question is: what exactly are we permitted to discuss here? If the races of the perpetrators and the victims had been reversed, would it be permissible to discuss that? Posts sympathizing with blacks, when they are victimized, are left open.
 
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Who knows. I'm new to this board but I'd imagine mods would PM posters whatever their reasoning was for deleting a post in an effort to decrease the same issue arising again.
 
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Gotcha. Mods can move this thread but I don't think I can.
 
As to the PM issue - for some reason I had my PM preference turned off. The mods could still email me though; haven't received anything.
 
I didn't see your post, but having read the thread, I suspect that it was pulled for being off topic - yes there were follow-on posts that were also off topic, but yours apparently introduced an entirely new question about the reality of the prevalence of flash mobs. The mods tend to be pretty lenient, but will nip posts that are too OT. There have been other flash mob threads, in which race was addressed, and those weren't locked - e.g. http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=460628&highlight=flash+mob
 
I'm going to take a wild guess and say this thread may be ruled inappropriate for TFL.

General Discussion Forum
A place for general discussion and Member hob-nobbing. Posts must be Firearms related.


From the main TFL rules page.

1. All Topics and Posts must be related to firearms, accessories or civil liberties issues. Multiple registrations are prohibited. (Emphasis mine.)

Also, discussing race, religion or politics is absolutely off limits.

Maybe if you framed in in a different way, it might work in Tactics and Training. If you stuck to just how one might protect them selfs, in the event of mob violence. Personally, I would look for the quickest way to retreat if I was confronted with such a mob.
 
Race can be discussed when it concerns civil rights. This is pertinent to a firearms forum because powerful American political groups have historically tried and often succeeded at stripping disfavored racial and ethnic groups of their 2A rights. This is clearly discussed in the "several other threads" linked in the first post.

Most discussions of media bias in crime reporting- whatever the reason for the bias- are only tangentially related to firearms issues. I don't see how the racial identity of "flash mob" perpetrators relates to the 2A or RKBA at all, allegations of media bias notwithstanding.

Regarding the frequent closure of flash mob threads, as someone in another recent thread snidely put it, "flash mobs are the new zombies." These threads display an alarming tendency to degenerate into meaningless macho chest-thumping. :rolleyes:
 
I don't see how the racial identity of "flash mob" perpetrators relates to the 2A or RKBA at all, allegations of media bias notwithstanding.
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The people who were victimized were of a certain race, and they couldn't defend themselves in several cases because they had been disarmed. Would we perceive the situation the same way if the races had been reversed?

I really don't see how the civil liberties angle can be taken out of this one.
 
Just a thought from past experiences here. If you feel there is a problem and you are troubled by the mods and posts deleted its best to clear it up through the PM's and not in the open forum.
 
Maybe if you framed in in a different way, it might work in Tactics and Training. If you stuck to just how one might protect them selfs, in the event of mob violence.
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That's an interesting point, because that's exactly what I did just before I gave up on the High Road. A poster opined, basically, the "flash mob" phenomenon only exists in Frankenstein movies. Because mobs always have guns? He didn't really explain, but of course the thread got closed.

It's odd to consider what his comments imply about the "situational awareness" of the people who made the mistake of going to the State Fair while being of a certain race. ... And to think that some of us might not consider this a civil rights issue!

I am just trying to figure out if The Firing Line's policies are the same as the High Road.
 
NO. TFL's policies are most definitely not those of THR. I'll go so far as to say (and tick off a few folks for saying it) that TFL always maintains the High Road. While we didn't coin the phrase, it was our ideal from the start of this forum (THR is a spin-off).

Now, as to (part of) the subject matter.

First, if you think a post of yours was wrongfully deleted, PM one of the mods you think most responsible and discuss the issue in an adult manner. We have been known to reopen entire threads when a reasonable defense was made. Undeleting a single post is just as easy.

If you think that this issue is truly a civil rights issue, we have a forum for that. Law and Civil Rights (L&CR). It's just below this forum in the line-up. The only caveat, is that you will have to trouble yourself enough to make the case, in your post, that it is in fact a civil rights issue. L&CR is the only forum on TFL, wherein discussion does not have to be related to guns.

As suggested, this could also be a tactics discussion. But if it bled over to the civil rights angle, and away from gun or self defense tactics, it might be closed or moved.

Having explained all of this, I will now close this thread, as it is off topic for the General Discussion forum.
 
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