Anti-Emo Riots in Mexico

[H2O Bunnys]

Well no one has posted anything about this yet but im sure most of you have heard about the Anti-Emo Riots raging through out Mexico hitting most of the major cities. Well ive been reading quite a few articles about this matter and in my personal opinion the one posted on Wired.com is by far the best. Here are several sources and the source to what im about to post. Also yes i know i dont have alot of sources for the goth killings but they all were sourcing BBC News.

Source(s):
Anti-Emo Riots:
Wired.com
boingboing.net
Thedailyswarm.com
statesman.com

Goth Killings:
news.bbc.co.uk


Videos (tried to embed but that didnt work):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJPeffMSzVA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEQshjri6P8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzRKnScNH6w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kcYt-AYRXg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMStV1Yum2o

Wired.com - Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico - By Alexis Madrigal

Riot police have taken to the streets of several cities in Mexico to ... defend emo kids?

A series of attacks on dyed-hair, eye-makeup-wearing emo kids began in early March when several hundred people went on an emo-beating rampage in Querétaro, a town of 1.5 million about 160 miles north of Mexico City.

The next week, shaggy-haired emo teenagers were harassed again by punks and rockabillys in the capital, prompting police protection and a segment on the TV news. Most recently, a Mexican newspaper reported that metal heads and gangsters have warned Tijuana's emo kids to stay away from the town's fair next month.

But the so-called emos are organizing, too. Last week, they demonstrated against the violence, pictured above, and Wednesday some met with police in Mexico City.

"They're organizing to defend their right to be emo," wrote Daniel Hernandez of LA Weekly on his personal blog, which has provided stellar coverage of the whole affair.

Music-based subcultures have permeated Mexico's major cities for decades, fueled by constant migration from rural cities. But only in the past year have emos begun to make their presence felt in the streets. In response, many of the established so-called tribus urbanas like punks and metalheads are responding with violence. The emo-punk battles are reminiscent of earlier subculture fights among various factions, like the Hell's Angels fighting hippies at the Altamont Music Festival or the Mods taking on the Rockers.

But while videos of Mexican teenagers with pompadours advancing on equally baby-faced emo rockers seem like scenes from a south-of-the-border version of John Waters' Crybaby, there are ugly undercurrents to the story.

First, by some accounts, the emo subculture is identified with homosexuality in Mexico. As Mexico City youth worker Victor Mendoza told Time.com: "At the core of this is the homophobic issue. The other arguments are just window dressing for that."

Gustavo Arellano, the author of Ask a Mexican and an editor at OC Weekly, said that the sexual ambiguities cultivated by emo fashion helped set the group up for targeting by more macho groups.

"What do you do when you are confronted with a question mark about sexuality in Mexico?" Arellano said. "You beat it up."

Forum posts show similar sentiments. One person wrote on a government youth-website forum, "detesto a los emosexuales," which translates as "I hate emosexuals." Emosexual is an obvious play on homosexual, especially in Spanish, where the H is silent.

Many of the attacks have been planned, or at least fomented, on violently anti-emo websites like Movimiento Anti Emosexual, which features videos of physical violence sprinkled liberally with anti-gay sentiment. Last.fm's Anti Emo Death Squad group has almost 4,000 members.

But Arellano said he thought the riots could have a positive impact here in the US.

"It's a great clusterfuck for the American mind's idea of Mexico," Arellano said. "This teaches the rest of the world that Mexico is not just a bunch of cactuses and sombreros."


TheDailySwarm.com - Mexico's Emo War Escalates: Government calls for unity as massive attacks are threatened in Tijuana - by Daniel Hernandez

There are brand new developments to the Mexican Emo Witch Hunt story. The national government of Mexico stepped in to try and quell the violent attacks and riots erupting over the past several weeks in cities across the country. But the violence threatens to spread. Excelsior reports (English Google translation):

With support from the Government of the Federal District, different tribes as urban darketos, emos, Gothic, punketos, indies and gays began on Wednesday a campaign against discrimination.

After meeting for more than three hours with government authorities capital members of the various expressions urban went to the roundabout of Insurgentes subway station announced that the campaign will have as its slogan “For the freedom of being young, live and let live.”

Detallaron the plan, which aims to counter the acts of violence and discrimination against these groups in urban areas, will be launched over the Internet and through volanteo.

But according to La Jordana (English Google translation), massive attacks and ambushes against Emos in Tiajuana have been threatened for next month’s city Fair:

With calls on the Internet to mobilize against the emos and direct warnings on the street, these groups of adolescents are under harassment in Tijuana and Aguascalientes, locality, the latter, which feared being attacked during the Feria de San Marcos.

Alejandro Anaya Richter, spokesman for the movement of emos in Aguascalientes, claimed that groups cholos, and metal rockers, have warned that they do not want to see their sad faces at the Fair of San Marcos.

“The threats we make them reach youth who represent those groups, we say they are preparing massive attacks against us, as ambushes, as has already happened in other states,” he said.

In an interview, Richter, a 23-year law student and explained that there is fear among young emos, as in Aguascalientes are two thousand people who identify with this new culture in society and so far, but you can see so strange they are not attacked.

Yesterday’s story really touched a nerve, and not just on this site. Check out the comments on the original post, and Reddit, Absolutepunk.net, and Current. Similar conversations are happening on message boards in countries as far away as Norway, Germany, New Zealand, and Japan. The reactions really do run the gamut: from true shock and amazement, to sarcasm and racist jokes, to real horror and pain. But the You Tube videos and limited English-language reporting only give the outlines of a much more interesting and complex story that is just beginning to emerge. And one Daily Swarm comment late last night may be particularly prescient:

remember when emo was about listening to sunny day real estate and the gloria record? and cool **** like making shitloads of music with yr pals and pining over chicks and stuff like that? and not a ******* fashionable culture co-opted by those cunts at mtv and fuse and victory records and all this other bullshit? i ******* do. you all should be fighting rupert ******* murdoch and the rest of these assholes that own the goddamn media. they’re the ones to blame for all of this.

He has a point.

As David Hernandez noted earlier, many people in Mexico point to the on-air rant of Televisa television personality Krisoff as the tipping point that incited the violence.

The gravity of this should not be underestimated: The broadcaster, Televisa, is a massive entertainment conglomerate that’s the Mexican equivalent of Viacom and Clear Channel and Live Nation combined. Kristoff’s provocation was not just the equivalent of an MTV VJ stirring kids up, but more like Jay Leno calling for blood. While Kristoff did finally broadcast an anti-violence speech following last week’s incidents, some in Mexico are suggesting that he may take the fall if the government blames the company for stirring up trouble.

Also, Last.fm Anti-Emo group member Harry24’s lengthy treatise on the anti-Emo philosophy include this section about music:

Music: there are great music (rock and metal) bands here in Mexico, lot of them are from a wave here in Mexico called “the birth of mexican rock” or something like that, and most of them still active this days, but are ignored because nowadays is something called “the new wave of mexican rock”, which is supported by the media, and 90% of the bands from that wave are totally crap. So guess what??? lot of that bands are emo
Fortunately some of the old bands like Victimas Del Doctor Cerebro or Cuca are calling the new wave “crap”, “****”, “unoriginal” and things like that, and make fun of emos in their shows, but this is not enough to stop this “emo-wave”

For all Harry24’s government conspiracy theories, here he’s actually making the same point. In addition to its television stations, Televisa has a near stranglehold on the music business in Mexico: among the company’s holdings are EMI Music, Cablevision, a CD/DVD distributor, radio stations, a merch company, several arenas, concert promoters, and many other layers of the live and recorded music industries. The mainstreaming of “Emo” as a fashion and lifestyle in Mexico has been partially orchestrated and sold primarily by this far reaching culture monopoly. The same one, ironically, that may have pushed the heated situation to a boil.

This story is still developing. Rumors about the violence spreading to other Latin American countries have been circulating on the Internet, while the situation in Mexico remains tense. The Daily Swarm will have a follow-up report from Mexico early next week.

news.bbc.co.uk - Goth killing in England echoes Mexican Emo violence...

A 15-year-old boy kicked and stamped to death a woman because she was dressed as a Goth, a court heard.

The drunk teenager was among a gang of five who "savagely and mercilessly" attacked Sophie Lancaster, 20, and her boyfriend, Preston Crown Court heard.

Miss Lancaster was begging the gang to stop beating Robert Maltby, 21, when they turned on her in Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, the jury was told.

The 15-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, denies murder.

At an earlier hearing a 16-year-old boy, who was aged 15 at the time of the attack, admitted Miss Lancaster's murder and admitted attacking Mr Maltby.

The accused, and four other youths, two aged 17 and one 16, have already pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm to Mr Maltby.

The court heard Miss Lancaster's facial injuries were so severe, paramedics did not know what sex she was.

Tests indicated she had been kicked and stamped to death, with the pattern of some footwear still on her head.

Miss Lancaster, a gap-year student, died two weeks after the attack.

Prosecuting, Michael Shorrock QC told the court the young couple, from Bacup, were walking home from a friend's house when they "fell into conversation" with a group of teenagers.

The talk was friendly and good-natured, the court heard, but five of a group of youths "turned" on Mr Maltby.

The accused had started the violence, with a flying kick to the head of Mr Maltby, the jury was told.

The gang, "encouraging each other and laughing" punched, stamped and jumped on his head until he was unconscious, Mr Shorrock said.

As Miss Lancaster kneeled down, cradling her boyfriend's head on her lap and calling for help, the accused and the then 15-year-old youth who has already pleaded guilty to murder, turned on her.

The second boy kicked her in the head, with the accused joining in, the court heard.

Paramedics found the couple lying side by side, covered in blood and unconscious.

Mr Shorrock said the gang had turned on the young couple simply because they were Goths or "moshers" and dressed differently to them.

Mr Maltby survived the attack in August last year but has not made a full recovery. He has no memory of the incident.

Mr Shorrock said the five, none of whom can be named, were "acting like a pack of wild animals".

"The attack was totally unprovoked.

"It would appear that Mr Maltby and Miss Lancaster were singled out, not for anything they had said or done, but because they dressed differently to the defendant and his friend," he said.

The case continues.

End of Articles

I know this is a rather large thread but this is a pretty serious problem, people are being killed and injured just because they dont look the same as everyone else, and this has nothing to do with race just what the person is wearing.

Id like this to be a serious thread...

[VampireAbby DSO]

that's pretty messed up i used to dress all goth myself befor i had kids and all. i live in a small backwoods farming comunity so i got called out alot cause i dressed different. just cause people are different don't mean they're not people.

[H2O Sonik]

emo died in the 80s.
none of those kids even know what emo is or the bands that played the music

[TR]

Originally Posted by Viral

I think this whole rioting against emo's is gonna move upwards to US and Canada.

It's gonna get messy.

Like it hasnt already.

[Bone]

Originally Posted by TR

Like it hasnt already.

agreed

[H2O Galang]

real emo stuff is actually just indie rock, really good indie rock mostly from the late 80's and early 90's

[Megasoft Office 2001]

At first, I thought this was an April Fools' joke...

[H2O Bunnys]

Originally Posted by Megasoft Office 2001

At first, I thought this was an April Fools' joke...

ya wish it was ... o **** it is april 1st isnt it o.o sh** i almost forgot but ya this isnt a joke this is really happening.

[H2O Crank]

Wow..that's terrible.

People are getting really idiotic and ignorant as time goes on.

[Dameon H2O]

Dinosaur Jr. ,,,Jesus and Mary Chain,,,,,10000 ft. jesus,,,,Fugazi,,,,,,Pixies,,,,Sonic Youth,,,L7 ,,,,,come on, the list goes on and on. this whole "emo" thing is what? What everyone is? Emotional? Well yeah you were born to have emotions right? Maybe Im just old and confused ...but 15 years ago was when i got my first piercing ,and it wasnt my ear ,Shaving my eyebrows off to color them back on, and dying my hair, was a regular thing for me...oh I dont know maybe the anti conformist thing had me ...Do you really see yourself as a 45 year old MAN dying your hair and wearing make up?

[Sapphire]

Originally Posted by Dameon H2O

Dinosaur Jr. ,,,Jesus and Mary Chain,,,,,10000 ft. jesus,,,,Fugazi,,,,,,Pixies,,,,Sonic Youth,,,L7 ,,,,,come on, the list goes on and on. this whole "emo" thing is what? What everyone is? Emotional? Well yeah you were born to have emotions right? Maybe Im just old and confused ...but 15 years ago was when i got my first piercing ,and it wasnt my ear ,Shaving my eyebrows off to color them back on, and dying my hair, was a regular thing for me...oh I dont know maybe the anti conformist thing had me ...Do you really see yourself as a 45 year old MAN dying your hair and wearing make up?

I think i called you Emo the other night and you were like WTF is that! XD!...at least...I'm pretty sure it was you and sorry i just bailed last nightzors, should play more! *huggles*


Anyways, as much as i think the whole "emo/scene/labelism" crap is totally lame, killing people because they conform to some type of group isn't right. It's like Jack Thompson pulling together a bunch of people and anyone seen with an MLG or game shirt gets savagely beaten.

[Dameon H2O]

yeah it was me...i guess the "new" definition of just being you changes over time and this is still kinda new to me Eh...To look at me now i look like one of those "normal" people. Still being me...still listen to Manson , zombie , smashing (old stuff) , Trying to break labels just ends up getting a new one created

[Sapphire]

Why doesn't everyone just think like that, honestly lmao. I mean i've gone through every label, the prep, the goth, the punk, the metalhead, etc. And i mean at first when your young having a label seemed so cool, but then carrying that label determines how people around you react to you and it's dumb

I am not a soup can!...okay i'm done eek!

[Dameon H2O]

They do or will once the have the "Self-realization" that they are having a "Self-Realization" k im done 2
Without labels how would we ever know what something or Someone is about? Yeah the whole get to know somone bit..And with labels How do we know it's not false advertising?

[ShadowWolf9]

If we gather all offenders in a big group and airlift soap and water from the sky... all could be solved.