Another shooting near the National Zoo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not have metal detectors and aggressive police frisking

Well, that makes for a real family fun day!

Cancel the event, take everything down a notch. If the event is resurrected in three years, make it for elementary school only. Any older kids skipping school should get picked up by the truancy police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you go about canceling a tradition that is held in a public space? This is a ridiculous idea. What do you all suggest the zoo do? Put up a big sign on Easter Monday that says "no African Americans allowed today at the zoo"

No. The zoo would just be closed. DCPS would be open for school. Problem solved.

So you want the zoo to close on

1. Christmas
2. Easter Monday?

Right.

For the next couple of years, that might be the prescription.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you go about canceling a tradition that is held in a public space? This is a ridiculous idea. What do you all suggest the zoo do? Put up a big sign on Easter Monday that says "no African Americans allowed today at the zoo"

No. The zoo would just be closed. DCPS would be open for school. Problem solved.

So you want the zoo to close on

1. Christmas
2. Easter Monday?

Right.

Well, you could put some sort of religious spin on it: the National Zoo closes for religious holidays such as Christmas Day and Easter Monday (but we're open Easter Sunday!).

Or you could put a safety spin on it. The National Zoo closes for Christmas Day. And also, in light of the violence that has become a tradition on Easter Monday, the Zoo is also closed on that day. But we're open on Easter Sunday!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you cancel the event I promise you there will be people on this site and in the city that will claim racism.

Who gives a f*&#. It should be shelved and re-vamped. Being against violent thuggery is not racism.

Time for leaders in the AA community to step up and clean this growing mess. Where are they?

Why is this an AA problem??? This is a DC problem genius. When a white person commits a crime, where are the calls for "leaders of the white community to clean up the mess?" There aren't, because no one believes one white man to represent the entire community, criminal or leader.

Are you half-stupid? Do you know today was AA family day, and that somehow is this becoming a tradition, to stan or shoot someone by the zoo on AA family day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not have metal detectors and aggressive police frisking

Well, that makes for a real family fun day!

Cancel the event, take everything down a notch. If the event is resurrected in three years, make it for elementary school only. Any older kids skipping school should get picked up by the truancy police.

+100000000000000000000000000000000000000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you go about canceling a tradition that is held in a public space? This is a ridiculous idea. What do you all suggest the zoo do? Put up a big sign on Easter Monday that says "no African Americans allowed today at the zoo"

No. The zoo would just be closed. DCPS would be open for school. Problem solved.

So you want the zoo to close on

1. Christmas
2. Easter Monday?

Right.

For the next couple of years, that might be the prescription.

Exactly.
Or if folks are adamantly opposed to closing it, then the Zoo could be open, but could treat it as a special event like Boo at the Zoo. Charge an outrageous ticket price like BATZ. Or have it run like the Easter Egg Roll: free tickets, but you have to enter a lottery and are given assigned times to enter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in my car on Connecticut right after the shooting. It's odd how none of the new sources report on the almost riot atmosphere that occurred afterwards. People flooded the streets stopping all traffic, banging on car windows, climbing on car hoods. They were not scared either but in party mode. It was terrifying.

Last year my cousins were from Indiana were visiting DC at Easter. The next day, they did the tourist thing and visited the zoo. They said that the whole atmosphere was scary, and vowed they would never go back. I tried to convince them that the zoo is normally very safe. And last year, there was no shooting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you go about canceling a tradition that is held in a public space? This is a ridiculous idea. What do you all suggest the zoo do? Put up a big sign on Easter Monday that says "no African Americans allowed today at the zoo"

No. The zoo would just be closed. DCPS would be open for school. Problem solved.

So you want the zoo to close on

1. Christmas
2. Easter Monday?

Right.

For the next couple of years, that might be the prescription.

Exactly.
Or if folks are adamantly opposed to closing it, then the Zoo could be open, but could treat it as a special event like Boo at the Zoo. Charge an outrageous ticket price like BATZ. Or have it run like the Easter Egg Roll: free tickets, but you have to enter a lottery and are given assigned times to enter.

Play classical or country music. That ought to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you go about canceling a tradition that is held in a public space? This is a ridiculous idea. What do you all suggest the zoo do? Put up a big sign on Easter Monday that says "no African Americans allowed today at the zoo"

No. The zoo would just be closed. DCPS would be open for school. Problem solved.

So you want the zoo to close on

1. Christmas
2. Easter Monday?

Right.

For the next couple of years, that might be the prescription.

Exactly.
Or if folks are adamantly opposed to closing it, then the Zoo could be open, but could treat it as a special event like Boo at the Zoo. Charge an outrageous ticket price like BATZ. Or have it run like the Easter Egg Roll: free tickets, but you have to enter a lottery and are given assigned times to enter.

Play classical or country music. That ought to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Washington post coverage of this is bizarre. First, it didn't cover last week's shooting and problems at all. Now, the article is very sparse and just says the zoo was having special events that had been a tradition for decades. No mention that it's African American day. No mention of past history of violence on African American day. No mention of the fact that part if the problem is that people from all different neighborhoods and crews come to the day and that causes tension. It's just bizarre. I would really love to know the decision making behind their lack of more extensive coverage.

Good questions. Washington Post?

I know! It was SO vague! I've only seen one article that reference AA day. Every other article made vague references to Family Day. If it's generic Family Day (which seems like every day I've ever visited the zoo), how come neither I nor none of my friends knew about it?

[jsteele]

Might I suggest that we tone things down a bit until more information is available? There is almost a sense of glee in some of these posts and a disconcerting desire to rub black people's faces in it. How about everyone take a deep breath and let the dust settle a bit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in my car on Connecticut right after the shooting. It's odd how none of the new sources report on the almost riot atmosphere that occurred afterwards. People flooded the streets stopping all traffic, banging on car windows, climbing on car hoods. They were not scared either but in party mode. It was terrifying.

Last year my cousins were from Indiana were visiting DC at Easter. The next day, they did the tourist thing and visited the zoo. They said that the whole atmosphere was scary, and vowed they would never go back. I tried to convince them that the zoo is normally very safe. And last year, there was no shooting.

Scary - code for full of black people.

God this thread is disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in my car on Connecticut right after the shooting. It's odd how none of the new sources report on the almost riot atmosphere that occurred afterwards. People flooded the streets stopping all traffic, banging on car windows, climbing on car hoods. They were not scared either but in party mode. It was terrifying.

Last year my cousins were from Indiana were visiting DC at Easter. The next day, they did the tourist thing and visited the zoo. They said that the whole atmosphere was scary, and vowed they would never go back. I tried to convince them that the zoo is normally very safe. And last year, there was no shooting.

Why was the atmosphere scary? Thugs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in my car on Connecticut right after the shooting. It's odd how none of the new sources report on the almost riot atmosphere that occurred afterwards. People flooded the streets stopping all traffic, banging on car windows, climbing on car hoods. They were not scared either but in party mode. It was terrifying.

Last year my cousins were from Indiana were visiting DC at Easter. The next day, they did the tourist thing and visited the zoo. They said that the whole atmosphere was scary, and vowed they would never go back. I tried to convince them that the zoo is normally very safe. And last year, there was no shooting.

Scary - code for full of black people.

God this thread is disgusting.

Why? Because we don't want to get shot while visiting the zoo? I'm sure the majority of the AA families visiting today didn't want to get shot either. Yet they were in harm's way. Intelligent people will look at the trends and decide that Easter Monday is not the day to visit the zoo. I just hope the police figure out how to prevent this in the future before people stop visiting the zoo and surrounding areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you go about canceling a tradition that is held in a public space? This is a ridiculous idea. What do you all suggest the zoo do? Put up a big sign on Easter Monday that says "no African Americans allowed today at the zoo"

No. The zoo would just be closed. DCPS would be open for school. Problem solved.

So you want the zoo to close on

1. Christmas
2. Easter Monday?

Right.

Well, you could put some sort of religious spin on it: the National Zoo closes for religious holidays such as Christmas Day and Easter Monday (but we're open Easter Sunday!).

Or you could put a safety spin on it. The National Zoo closes for Christmas Day. And also, in light of the violence that has become a tradition on Easter Monday, the Zoo is also closed on that day. But we're open on Easter Sunday!

A simple sign saying "closed for repairs" would do. Or make it annual cage-cleaning day.