Slate.com columnist Mickey Kaus related in his column on Tuesday a second-hand report of “a large gang fight on Halloween in the lush heart of L.A.’s affluent suburban West Side.” From The Kausfiles:
Dozens of teenagers, some wielding bats and chains, from rival black and Hispanic outfits battled each other around 26th Street and San Vicente, on the border between Santa Monica and Brentwood, the latter probably the most expensive neighborhood in Los Angeles. Police were called to the scene in force … Did you learn about this incident in the Los Angeles Times? Of course not. Too interesting! Readers would just want to know more. What’s the point?
Kevin Roderick at LA Observed looked into Kaus’s claim and found it to be … well, a little dubious:
So far it’s not just the Times: no one I can find has reported such an incident, including any of the three main Santa Monica news outlets.
This morning, Roderick updates the story, reporting that a senior L.A. Times editor checked out Kaus’s second-hand claim and was told by police that no such gang rumble happened. No media reports either. But that doesn’t stop Kaus from insisting this morning that the story is still true:
I’ve now reinterviewed my source–an eyewitness who fled the scene for safety reasons–and while I don’t have a complete picture I believe there was a gang rumble of some sort, involving dozens of people. The part in the above item that is wrong is the asumption that police were “called to the scene in force.” Police were already heavy in the area, as you’d expect on Halloween. But there was apparently no mobilization of additional police or riot cops, no lights flashing, etc. … I don’t know what the police saw and what they didn’t see.
Kaus goes on to assert, unbelievably, that “just because the police don’t respond doesn’t mean nothing happened.” Yes, Mickey, but your source apparently recanted on the bit about police arriving “in force” so what’re the odds you’re on the receiving end of the birth of an urban myth?
If a gang rumbles in the forest and there’s no one there to see it …
UPDATE: Martini Republic weighs in with Mickey Kaus Meltdown:
Kaus obviously single-sourced and can?t quite recant here. Kaus?s ?semi-correction?, in fact, reads like a stretch, in which he backpedals by embellishing.
And at Blogging L.A., Sean Bonner wryly steps up to the urban myth mound with this pitch:
There’s nothing more exciting than covering events that may or may not have even taken place … I wonder if the unfriendly neighborhood gangbanger part of our reader demographic can confirm or deny if suckas were in fact stepped to on the mean streets of Brentwood that cold October night that will live on in infamy.
See also: Flashpoint: San Vicente and 26th and Dennis Romero Weighs In On Kaus Gang Rumble Tale
That does sound maybe a bit off. Actually, maybe a lot off. Actually, just off.
Pertty lousy “journalism” when you consider that Kaus used to write for Newsweek and, I believe, The Washington Post.
A few things threw me off: First off, do gangs “rumble” anymore? Sounds straight out of “West Side Story” or “The Outsiders.” And gang members “wielding bats and chains”? Sounds positively retro. Is 1950s gang chic hitting L.A. gang members? Now that’s a story!
Methinks Kaus’ friend got freaked out by the sight of some roughhousing Latino teens in Brentwood and that somehow turned into a “gang rumble.” Boo!
Over excitable drama queen comes to mind…
Mike, per your gang chic observation, have you considered that they might have been Zoot Suiters?
I live about 4 blocks away and was trick-or-treating with my daughter in the area until about 7:30, so I may have missed the “gang war”, but I find it incredibly dubious in general.
A far more likely scenario is that advanced above– some blue hair saw some non-white youths (probably Persians) joking around and freaked out.
Why Kaus wants to advance this story so much, even if there is a grain of truth to it, is a very interesting look into his pysche. Some combination of wealth-envy mixed with fear of a Brown planet?
A lot of Kaus’s material runs toward the counterintuitive, Ted. But his tit is really caught in the wringer on this one and something I haven’t even commented on yet is the fact that he thought he had a great swipe at the L.A. Times here because they “missed” the story.
(I’m really getting weary of the L.A. Times bashing that so many bloggers have picked up like a cigarette habit. It’s a sure shot at an easy target, folks. We’re not impressed.)
Reminds me of the time I caught Matt Drudge making up a story about a Courtney Love suicide. I’m not saying Mickey invented anything here but he might have wanted to find a corroborating source before he ran with something that’s just so goddamn silly.
Consider Sean B. whines every time the police dont’ leap to his beck and call whenever a old car is parked on his block (or worse–grip trucks!), I’d say his posts on this subject aren’t relevent. And considering the Times just gave us an up-close and personal with MS-13–in Virgina–who’s trusting that they actually report the truth about report gang warfare?
Let me see if I can help you here a little bit, Rachel. Assuming for the sake of argument, as you do, that a major metropolitan daily is not reporting about this alleged incident. Why, then, has no one else stepped forward?
Surely there would have been many more witnesses aside from Mickey’s lone source. It was Halloween eve and here were (quoting Kaus now)”Dozens of teenagers, some wielding bats and chains, from rival black and Hispanic outfits (battling) each other around 26th Street and San Vicente.”
[...] Adding fuel to the fire (as always), Roger Jacobs of 8763 Wonderland also recapped the story and also tracked down a few additional commenters. [...]
Photos don’t lie. And we’ve got the photos on this story:
Brentwood Rumble Story
Pretty brave of you guys to venture into that neighborhood in broad daylight, Insider.
[...] Previously: Phantom Gang Rumble in Brentwood and Flashpoint: San Vicente and 26th [...]
I’ve reported on Westside gangs, and I’ve seen a few “rumbles” on the Westside, and this report always seemed dubious. First, when’s the last time gangs fought with bats and chains? Second, the rival “Hispanic” gangs in the area — West L.A.’s Sotel and Santa Monica’s SM13 — have rarely been known to venture to that corner of their turf, let alone battle on it. Their worlds are more likely to collide along Pico and Olympic near Bundy and the freeway, where their turfs meet. Third, when they collide, it’s almost always with guns blazing. Forth, I’ve seen a few rumbles in the area involving minority college kids, and this is the scenario, if any, most plausible to me — that if anything was seen, it was a simple college-boy throw-down misinterpreted as a gang fight.
[...] (5) Phantom Gang Rumble in Brentwood 242 hits 150 visits [...]
[...] Either this is Kaus or we have finally smoked out his elusive source for the Halloween gang rumble tale. [...]
[...] “This is most peculiar,” I thought and I puzzled on it all the way home (Insert joke here about encountering gangbangers in Brentwood). [...]
um..this shit is very real. my father died representing sotel 13…and i know something all you gentrificators don’t. so, yeah…gangs do exist in wla and your high rentpaying midwestern ass isnt stopping them.