Follow-Up on NJ Wal-Mart Incident, and Pathetic AP Journalism on Display

Earlier this week I posted about an incident that took place at a New Jersey Wal-Mart. During the incident, someone used the Wal-Mart intercom system to announce, "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now."

Today The Associated Press is reporting a 16-year-old boy was arrested Friday on charges of harassment and bias intimidation. Authorities said he was released to the custody of his parents; they did not know whether he had a lawyer.

From The Associated Press, via yahoo.com:

"This was an extremely disturbing event on many levels," Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton said at a news conference. "Any statements like these that can cause harm or grave concern must be addressed as quickly we possibly can."

Dalton said the case would be handled in juvenile court in neighboring Atlantic County, where the boy lives. He would not say whether the boy has a criminal record, citing the teen's age, and would not disclose the teen's race, saying that did not factor into the investigation.

Authorities would not say whether the announcement was planned or made impulsively. Police said they were also investigating a teenage boy who accompanied the suspect to the store, but they had not charged the other boy.

Although a manager quickly went on the intercom system and apologized for the remark, many customers expressed their anger to store management. Some community members said Saturday that they've heard reports of similar incidents happening at the store in recent months that were not reported to police.

"We are concerned about that, and we're looking into these incidents. We want to work with the community to make sure these types of incidents don't happen," said Loretta Winters, president of the Gloucester County chapter of the NAACP.

Winters said she hopes the boy will get counseling and be educated about sensitivity so he can understand the consequences of his actions.

"I'm assuming this person didn't realize how hurtful his comments were," she said.

I said it before and I'll say it again - Although I understand why, I disagree with all the fuss. This was a prank. The overreaction to this event is quite simply liberal victim-hood run amok.

This was a 16-year-old kid, for Heaven's sake. 16-year-old kids do really stupid stuff - just ask my parents! They had two of us, and I know the elder (me) certainly was guilty of his fair share of stupidity.

I credit Loretta Winters of the local NAACP for her statement of the fact that she assumes the teen didn't understand how hurtful his comments might have been, but I then must wonder why she and others seem hell-bent on prosecuting this situation. As I said before, this is certainly no hate crime. This was kids being kids; no more, no less.

Furthermore, as Hack Wilson points out in his post on the subject, a simple YouTube search of walmart intercom pranks shows that this is not a first of it's kind event.

Later in the article, The Associated Press tried to associate this prank with real possible discrimination:

The incident was the latest in a series of problems the retailer has had in its dealings with minorities and women.

There have been several past instances of black customers claiming they were treated unfairly at Walmart stores, and the company faced lawsuits alleging that women were passed over in favor of men for pay raises and promotions.

In February 2009, the retailer paid $17.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in its hiring of truck drivers.

And the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the company in May 2009, claiming some Hispanic employees at a Sam's Club subsidiary in California were subjected to a hostile work environment. That suit alleges managers failed to stop repeated verbal harassment, including the use of derogatory words, against employees of Mexican descent.

Really, Associated Press? This is your standard of journalism? This was a teenager pulling a prank, and you somehow believe you can equate this situation to possible instances of real discrimination?

Trashy journalism, to say the least.