Trenchcoat mafia

[Darth Jade]

I just noticed that some users are using Jedinet trenchcoat mafia in their sigs. This is not only disrespectful to the kids that died in Columbine but it is rather moronic. I'll give anyone that is using it till tomorrow to take it out of the sig then the bans begin. There has to be a more intelligent fun group name to be using.
Welcome to the new world of Darth Jade
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[Mike the Hutt]

Yeah I saw that a while back but didn't say anything. Try using some tact when you post stuff on here guys and gals.
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[BLCKCLONE]

I never even though of that. If we censor something like that, then we need to censor other things too...
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[Associate of the Illinois Mafia since November 2001.]
Member of the Four Horsemen
The League of Shadows

[Darth Jade]

Really, it isn't even something that should have been thought to be used. Very tactless. Your Illinois Mafia works fine. Why anyone would use something as horrible as Trechcoat is beyond me.
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[Piccolo]

Does it actually have anything to do with the Columbine massacre? I know at least one person that had it, and that doesn't seem like them at all.
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"Only one rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So, of course, we killed him."

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

[Darth Jade]

The kids that shot up the school were part of something gay called the trenchcoat mafia.
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[Gen_X_Accord]

Trench Coat Mafia was something that the other kids called them, I'm not sure if they ever referred to themselves as that, because they always wore dark trench coats.

And I bet being called gay was part of what set them off.
I used to get teased about certian things in junior high, and the only reason I never went on a killing spree was because I was too locked away in a shell. My step mom used to wonder if I would do that in high school. Which if I had gone on a killing spree, it would have just been the Asst. Principal who I woul d have mowed down, not other kids or teachers.

And I bet it was that freaking Jaster who did that with the sigs. That guy is a lunatic.
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http://www.notreligion.com/
My version of "Zerospace"

[Darth Jade]

So getting picked on explains shooting up a school? Yet another problem with the world today. People have been picked on forever and yet we haven't had many machine gun massacres to speak of. Walking around calling yourself the "trenchcoat Mafia" is not cool whatsoever and if they got made fun of it so freakin what. I got made fun of for things in school too and never entertained the thought of getting an Uzi and going Rambo on someone. maybe parents need to step up and let kids know it is not ok to act like that.
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[Goodwood]

[Diavek]

Does it really matter where the term "Trenchcoat Mafia" originated? In this case the name makes a few people think of Columbine. Considering the age base on this board, it doesn't fit well and that is where the matter of taste comes in. I wouldn't hang around a hospice cracking jokes about death. Though the analogy is a bit off center, you have to realize that certain comments, images, and sigs have a time and place.

On the other hand ... it was not overt and subtle enough to be forgivable, just a bit out of place.
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GO EAGLES!!!!! CITY OF ONE.

[Darth Jade]

Throughout American history weapons like say shotguns were in alot of American homes. And you didn't see kids running around blowing eachother up cause someone said they were gay or ugly.
As for effective parenting. If parents instill in children when they are young that it is not ok to emulate tv and video games (and this is not a new thing, my dad watching things like the Three Stooges and didn't go around poking people in the eye) then maybe kids today would be better adjusted.
As for mental illness, sure that is something else entirely. And it can be attributed to some violence. But there are alot more mentally ill people then there are people that commit violence. If it were hte mental illnesses then I'd think we'd see moe of it.
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[Goodwood]

Mike, I didn't say that it was just one of the four or five factors that caused it. In the case of the Columbine massacre, I would be willing to bet that it was a combination of all of them. Lots of automatic weapons, two working parents away a lot of the time, being picked on, the possibility of mental illness, and the trigger: I don't care who you are or when and where you live, that set of (possible) circomstances will drive anyone to acts of violence.

Except that, in earlier history, the weapons weren't there, or the facts were just not reported. You can't say that this never happened, because there is no real way to confirm or deny it. Not to mention the zeitgeist of the different time periods -- we're talking about a time when just about everyone supposedly carried guns of some variety.

But in the end, I think we shoudl think about what Diavek said. He (she?) has got a good head on the situation.
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[Sir Drinks Alot]

[Almira]

The human spirit can only handle so much though, I don't condone what they did, but after you get picked on day in and day out and live your life with harassment for 8 hours a day for 5 days or more a week, and typically coming home to a family life of the same kind, you unfortunately break down. Some people become violent, some people never leave their house and start missing school all together, others commit suicide.

And if a whole school is mocking you think about it an entire student body probably of 1k or more giving you grief, for not being popular or into sports or participating in the same things they are, and making your life a living hell for almost 4 years, and you come out of it with a happy "I had a perfect high school experience" then more power to you. I'm just saying, these kids had problems and about 90 percent of them were caused by the kids giving them nonstop ridicule everyday. Think about it, what would you do if your kid came home and told you that he was being beat up day in and day out by half the school. Tell me what you'd do about that.

It's sad that it happened, and extremely awful that people had to die in a case where if someone would just shut up and leave someone else alone more than likely this would not have happened.

But, on topic of the title of the group The Trench Coat Mafia, if you find it offending that's your opinion, I could state a few things I find offending in peoples signatures that have to do with something that is clearly stated I have no right to talk about on this forum without the risk of getting banned, yet their statements on this particular subject that are very negative and mocking are not taken out of their signature, why? Thousands of people over this lifetime have died for that name.

[Mike the Hutt]

I believe the point of this post is get trenchcoat mafia out of your sig. Not to debate why those people did what they did.
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[John Skywalker]

I apologize for the whole incident, as it was my idea in the first place. Something thought up in the early hours of the morning without much reason. We just never went back on the thought until you brought it up.

I should have considered this a while back, but never really thought of it.

Again, I am sorry and if you wish to take any form of action, I understand and will take full responsibility for it.

I just hope we can all move on about this.

-Mark
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Heathen Master of the Lords of Hate
KR: I'm like the freakin' Martha Stewart of Chaos.

[Flexomickey]

Those stupid kids were just petty little (edited, come one dude, DJ) who couldn't take the way the world works. Everyone gets picked on at school, it is the nature of kids to pick on others. Some get picked on more than others, but it happens to everybody, and you just have to take it. If you are such a baby you can't take it like that, and you think you have no other alternative but to commit suicide, then I guess that's up to you. But if you're going to take other kids with you, than you are a lunatic who deserves to rot in the fowlest pits of Hell for the rest of eternity.

I get picked on too, and I hate it. I hate how kids judge other kids so unmercifully, but you have to be mature enough to handle it, and dish it back when the time is right. Even though I'm not religious, it's good to know that those kids are suffering horriblyin Hell somewhere.

<-- At the kids' agony.
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[Jareth]

I was picked on constantly until my senior year in high school. I never had the slightest inclination to do something like that. The thought never crossed my mind.

[Filthy Jawa]

Kids aren't allowed to fight, or even show aggression toward one another anymore. You can get suspended just for shoving somebody nowadays, and the result is that a lot of young people only understand violence as an abstract idea.
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No Quarter

[Flexomickey]

[Jareth]

I think that's a big reason why I went to private school from k-4th grade.

There, it was more fair. If you were getting picked on and you hauled off and socked someone, you never got in trouble. They, on the other hand got both socked by you and punished by the school for picking on you in the first place.

If my parents hadn't got divorced, and my mom could afford it, I probably would have stayed in private school till graduation.

[Flexomickey]

I envy your K-4th former self, Jareth.
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[Goodwood]

[Flexomickey]

They're not the only people who are ridiculed, they're just immature little kids who don't deserve to be called humans.
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[Jareth]

[Bittersweet Sophisticate]

[Goodwood]

[Raven Nyquist]

[Jareth]

I think that up to the point where they start shooting people, they deserve compassion for being picked on and ridiculed. Once the first shot is fired, they no longer deserve my compassion or sympathy.

If you mass murder people for picking on you in high school, then you're not worthy of being called a human being.

Sorry Sean, you're just wrong on this one.

In response to Raven's post: I completely relate to being picked on and singled out by what seems like EVERYONE. It is horrible, but my name was never on the news for going DOOM 2 style on everyone. In retrospect, those years of torment only helped me become who I am today. It is because of those people, that I am fair and respectful, and don't make fun of people for any reason.

What really IRKS me is people trying to take responsibility off of the people who actually did the shooting. They did it. Nobody else did. They had a choice, and they made the wrong one. Don't say they were forced into it or that they had no other option. I'm living proof that there are different ways of dealing with it. As are half the kids in America NOT shooting up their schools today.

[Diavek]

To Goodwood: Its natural for someone to consider a murderer less that human. It's a practical standard that helps define limits in society. Comments like that tend to make me smile because even though it's extremely subjective, it shows that we still have a distaste for murder no matter what the reason is.

I personally prefer a little subjectivety when discuss hot button topics, like internet message board signatures.
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GO EAGLES!!!!! CITY OF ONE.

[Filthy Jawa]

[Lawrence]

I think the majority of kids get riduculed at some point, you just have to stand up for yourself. Most bullies are pansies that will back down if you just get in their face. Most people don't have a great high school experience, but when you go to school and murder classmates, .....well....if you want sympathy from me you can look it up in the dictionary between s**t and syphallis.
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Bei zweihundert Grad für fünfzehn Minuten backen und
Keine Eier ..

[Sir Drinks Alot]

Ok, let me stop the debate here everyone. This announcement was not an invitation for debate. The fact is DJ finds this tasteless, and I am inclined to agree with him, might I add. Please respect our wishes and remove this from your signatures.
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The Corporation: Laying the smack down since 1999.]