I just want to go shopping

Today Mayfair mall here in Milwaukee had a test run of their new security measures, as discussed in a prior blog. They are going to start this policy full time come this summer. They are basically not allowing any teenagers in the mall without supervision. Here is an actual account of what occurs currently at the mall: They are checking the i.d. of everyone who enters and not allowing in anyone under 21 in without an adult. (legally isn't anyone over 18 an adult??) They also have a medal detecting wand to search anyone they feel that may pose a threat. They also have security walking around re-checking i.d.s of anyone they think looks under 30. I forgot, am I trying to go shopping or board an international airplane flight?? This is beyond ridiculous. People from other planets and in other countries are laughing at us right now. Individuals in Africa are struggling to survive from genocide and starvation and we have our youth being banned from a mall. Hilarious!!

Pretty soon it is going to be that if you are under 18 you are not allowed in any public place. You either have to roam the streets or stay in your home. What's the sadder story here: that these teenagers don't know how to handle themselves in a mall and other public places or society as a whole doesn't know how to handle them and instead of dealing with them they just ban them from public places. Its a lovely society that we live in that if a problem becomes to severe for us to handle we can just put it out of our mind and ignore it. Lets not go out and teach these kids the skills they need to act properly in public, lets put them out of our mind and ignore them. They can grow up on the streets. They'll probably learn how to act properly by living on the streets, right??? No?? If you're a numbers person, guess what percentage of these kids who can't act properly in a mall are going to end up in jail for at least a little time?? My calculations look something like 100%. In terms of this and many other issues in America (education, health care, global warming, poverty, etc) lets start facing the problem instead of creating quick "solutions" that just sweep the problem under the rug to be cleaned by whoever has the room next.

Where will our children go

Recently Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa has been starting the idea of limiting teenagers access to the mall at certain times and in certain numbers. Let me tell you that this is a terrible idea and starts us down a very slippery slope that will be hard to recover from. Sometime the decisions that people who live on ivory towers behind their white picket fence that don't know anything about what is really happening in the world make em sick. This new plan of their is a covert attempt to get people from the city stay out of Wauwatosa and their malls so they can shop in piece and not have to see "how the other half lives." They don't want to see news stories about the problems and crime and poverty in the inner city and they sure don't want these people shopping in the same place they are.

First high schoolers that live in the city of Milwaukee and attend public school are no longer allowed to attend high school games because of the actions of a handful of idiots. Now they can no longer go to Mayfair when they want, and soon I guarantee other malls will do this, and then bowling alleys, etc. Again you can't punish large groups of people because of the actions of a few idiots. I can still go into a bank and withdraw money even thought some idiots rob banks.

Where are theses teenagers going to go on a Friday night to hang out with their friends and have a good time in a safe environment now? They are left to wander the streets and bounce from one friends house to the others.

They other aspect of this that is going to cause a great deal of problems is the fact of how is this going to be enforced. After a certain time is security going to go around and check the id of those they think are under 18? If this is the case it will get messy quickly. Is security going to check the group of 4 suburban white girls in GAP or the group of 4 urban black males at Sam Goody? This is going to create even more hostility between black people from the city and their white suburban neighbors.
Just check those causing trouble? This should be the on-going policy. You act stupid and like an idiot, you gotta go. I don't care the age. People are stupid and don't knoe how to handle themselves at every age. These are the real people we want to catch and get them out of our high school basketball games and malls. Not the many innocent and nice teenagers that are just trying to live their lives and find a safe environment to hang out with their friends and have a good time.