Just imagine if it had been chipmunks and squirrels who went on a drunken shooting spree instead of local anti-environmentalists. Think that the cops would throw the book at them? Every newspaper in the country would run stories about it. Where’s the justice?
***
Yeah, this story is a silly trifle, but we live to serve. Treat this as another open thread.
Jake
How does shooting at campers make them “anti-environmentalists?” Seems a rather grand term for Scary Drunk Assholes.
Tim F.
from the article:
Punchy
WTF is THIS?
“Terroristic” is now an adjective? Is it even a fucking word?
Salmon of Trout
Punchy, I’ve had about enough of your terroristic questioning of our glorious English language. You can go back to speaking French-Islamic and leave us be!
Fe E
A lot of this has to do with resentment of the Twin Cities. Close to thiry percent on MN’s population lives in Hennepin County (the one with Minneapolis in it) alone, the rest of the counties in the Metro area acount for something like two-thirds. Outstate MInnesota pretty much feels overlooked and unloved most of the time. You might go so far as to say they’ve got quite a chip on their shoulder about it.
Rightly or wrongly many residents of the BWCAW view it as a playground for meddling wealthy Minneapolis tree huggers. Another collective term they use is “citiots.” This is a surprisngly ugly example of a not very surprising phenomenon.
Fe E
That should read “residents in the vicinity of the BWCAW”
Too much caffeine to think completely straight. My bad.
The Other Steve
If you want to understand Minnesota read Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.
It’s a century old, but it is so true to this day.
The Other Steve
Free the Ely Six!
chopper
it’s a perfectly cromulent word.
bernarda
Why haven’t any of these heroes joined the army to go to Iraq?
Apparently they are a new generation of chickenhawks.
Zifnab
What are they going to get charged with? Because if its nothing worse than Assault With A Deadly Weapon, I think they are still eligible for service.
Davebo
On CNN.Com right now.
How many people are actually carrying remote controlled toys on the plane with them? Is this a new thing?
Wilfred
Make it stop, please:
Gus
This is why whenever someone attacks the South as being full of rednecks, I disagree. Everyplace is full of rednecks. My brother lives in outstate MN, and he calls me a citiot. I just call him a bumpkin, and we both laugh about it, but those feelings are definitely out there.
RSA
Drunken shooting spree? I think Blackwater has openings for guys with those qualifications.
mere mortal
Ely Six, Jena Six.
The same case.
A group of people who perceive themselves to be the victims of injustice perpetrated by a broader society decide to express their victimhood through violence against innocent persons not responsible for their original grievance.
Throw them in jail, all 12 of them.
Peter VE
They were just protecting the borders against them Socialist Canadians who were sneaking into our country to empty our Walmarts with their overvalued Loonies.
rachel
“Your Honor, my client is only thuggish to outsiders, so please let him off with a warning this time.”
Bemidji
I just realized yesterday that one of the Ely six was in a class of mine at Bemidji State. He seemed like a nice enough guy, reading that he was one of the six caught me off guard.
Zifnab
The Jena Six were actually retaliating for a retaliation of a previous retaliation that can be traced back to the beginning of the year when a bunch of fuckwits hung nooses from – if I am to believe the reports – the only fucking tree on campus. That said, they were going to get slapped with up to 80 years in prison for a street fight. Meanwhile, gangs of white students who committed the same kinds of violence were routinely let off with warnings and maybe a few days in suspension.
I’m not saying the idiot camera-whore reverends who swarmed the place aren’t idiot camera-whore reverends, or that the Jena Six should have had the opportunity to beat people up just cause white kids did it too. But I’d like to believe that 80 years in prison would be a rather obscene sentence given the context.
informed elyite
“enox” is actually not the right spelling. they spell it “enok” or “enoks go home” would be plural. it also has nothing to do with the “environmentally obnoxious” believe me, these boys are not that smart. the word actually comes from “Enoch” which is the name of the 16 year old boy’s great grandfather. look it up. swear to God his brother told us all that in math class in tenth grade. i’m ashamed to say i know all five of the younger sorts. and as for barney lockner… what the hell is he doing hanging out with a bunch of kids with beer and AK47s?? these males are sick. lock them up.
outdoors_mum
I live near the twin cities and just recently visited the BWCA this last labor day. It makes me sick that the residents could act this way. I am majoring in Environmental Studies and I have actually done some readings about the anti-environmental vein that runs near the BWCA because most of their jobs come from tourism and exploitation of the area and environmental laws and regulations restrict some of that activity decreasing their ability to make money.
It makes it easier for me to see their perspective given this knowledge yet it is still really difficult not to get extremely angry at the idiots. Here we have one of the largest wilderness areas in the country, untamed and beautiful.. surrounded by a bunch of gun toting hicks that do everything in their power to degrade it. *shakes head*