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Teen Murdered For "Flogger" Look in Argentina
Floggers tend to look like teen ravers in the US, usually wearing jeans, athletic shoes and colorful T-shirts, with a hairstyle that includes a fringe that tends to cover the eyes completely or partially, listen to electronic music, dance in their own peculiar way, and contact each other via internet social sites.
BUENOS AIRES -- A 16-year-old boy died over the weekend in the central province of Cordoba after being beaten by other youths, police said, adding that the victim was apparently attacked for looking like a "flogger," a popular new fashion in Argentina.
Three suspects, two of them 16 years old and another who is 20, have been arrested for allegedly attacking the teenager, hitting and kicking him as he was leaving a discotheque early Sunday.
Precinct chief Oscar Criado told Argentine media that the victim was wearing "clothes that identify floggers," as Argentines call those who contact each other publishing photos on Internet social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
"Flogger" comes from Fotolog.com, a photoblog social web site that is particularly popular in Argentina.
Floggers usually wear tight jeans, canvas sneakers or skate shoes, colorful T-shirts, with a hairstyle that includes a fringe that tends to cover the eyes completely or partially, and is the same for girls and boys.
Other common characteristics include listening to electronic music and dancing in their own peculiar way. The most popular move, related to the French tecktonik and the Australian shuffle and the Charleston of 100 years ago, consists of rapidly spreading one leg, hitting the floor with the heel, and drawing the other leg backwards, and then quickly changing the position of the legs (spreading the other leg, and shifting backwards the one that was spread).
"After verifying how badly he had been beaten, police arranged for the teen to moved immediately" to the hospital in the town of Villa Dolores, where he arrived "in a desperate state" and died minutes later, Criado said.
The prosecutor in Villa Dolores, Emilio Andruet, said that three young people were being questioned by investigators as suspected perpetrators of the attack that caused the boy's death.
Floggers
Looks can get you seriously hurt here. Just like wearing the wrong soccer team shirt in the wrong neighborhood.
Looking like a “flogger” or “Emo” or whatever cyber fashion appearance is in style that week is NOT what you want when a particular society becomes more violent that usual.
An “Emo”, a disturbed kid that wears all black and is supposedly very emotional, is just ASKING to be bothered and made fun of by others.
Fair? No. But life isn’t fair so get used to it.
In more civilized countries a kid that is an “emo or “dark” or whatever you want to call it, will be bothered by other kids and people around him. Here, it can get you killed.
You see, maybe you can afford to express you peculiar fashion taste in LA or New York, but here you’d just be asking to get in serious trouble.
It’s a violent society, kids are living through the same problems their parents are, most don’t even have much of a family, and young people that have lost hope are looking for someone to blame. The weird looking kids, supposedly more “emotional” is the weakest and therefore the favorite prey.
My nephew is 10 years old and, even though not entirely “flogger”, he has that particular hairstyle.
When my brother came from Europe to spend Christmas with his kids, I had a word with him.
“Look dude, this aint Paris. He’s a little kid an all but the scumbags here wont care. Do yourself a favor, do HIM a favor, and get him a normal looking haircut. I’m telling you you’ve been away too long and things have changed”.
My older brother said “yes, sure, ok”. I knew he wasn’t taking me seriously.
So he took the kids to Mar del Plata ( a popular vacationing city 400 km away) for a few days.
When he came back he said “You were right, I have to change his hair. Have a conversation with his mother about the kind of clothes he wears too”.
Seems that they were just walking around sightseeing when a bunch of guys started shouting insults and threats to him, because he looked like a “flooger”
This kid is a local “Flooger”. Pretty popular kid actually, think he does fashion shots. He got attacked not long ago by 20 guys 2 blocks away from his home in San Bernardo.He was lucky and nothing happened. The father hired security for the kid.
Guys, maybe you can afford a particular sense of fashion today. As things get worse, you wont, specially if it insinuates any kind of physical or emotional weakness.
Metrosexual? That might be ok in NY and maybe in down town Bs As a guy can afford to be a bit “delicate”.
But here in my neigborhood and pretty much all other places in this country that aren’t high society, you are a “fag” and you are just asking to get your butt kicked.
And if you really are homosexual and things do get worse, do yourself a favor a hide it when things start getting rough.
I’d kindly invite any gay association that feels offended by this statement to take a walk around Fuerte Apache or even more civilized places of Buenos Aires like Liniers or Dock Sud and see what happens to them if they make their sexuality obvious in any way.
I once saw a transvestite in my neighborhood. I’m using the word once because I only saw him for a week, almost beaten to death and left for good.
There are places in Buenos Aires where a transvestite can walk around without worrying about a thing, and then there are places where they can’t.
Personal humble opinion ? Avoid trouble as much as you can, avoid drawing attention to yourself.
This has nothing to do with prejudices, these are facts of how things are, and what a smart person should do to avoid trouble. As I said before, it’s got nothing to do with being fair or not.
So parents, have a serious talk with your kids about the way they look, SPECAILY if they belong to these “urban tribes”. Tell them to maybe find other forms to express themselves.
Maybe I have very little style, but I don’t think that looking one way or another is worth getting you ass kicked or killed.
FerFAL
14 comments:
Well, it already is like that in the ghettos. Remember that wearing the wrong color in the wrong neighborhood WILL get you killed.
Well, another good reason to be the "grey man"! It's not for nothing that in recession times you see flashy colors clothes disappear..
Good thing i came back to my old Buzzcut (not that short though) and planning to do a whitewall cut.
Simple, practical/tactical (nobody can hold your hairs) and cheap if done yourself with a trimmer (no little way to save money!).
Thank you again for your blog FerFal.
I live in a mid-sized American city with an average crime rate, and I see emo kids targeted with crime even here. They aren't targeted with physical violence (yet), but they are often marked for pickpockets and muggings.
This is something I've witnessed personally several times. I work in a bad neighborhood, which is next to a large university and neighborhood full of young college students. Thugs from the bad neighborhood will take bus rides from their neighborhood to the college area and pickpocket naive students who are too distracted with their cell phone or iPod to notice. I've seen this happen many times. When it's a male victim, he's almost always "effeminate" or scrawny. The same thing happens when a weak looking student accidentally wanders and gets lost in the bad neighborhood. If he merely looks intimidated and scared, he'll get mugged.
Looking "different" gets you noticed. Getting noticed can make you a target.
This is why the military uses camo uniforms...to NOT stand out. Camo in an urban setting is the same concept.
I still dont get what is the problem with these guys, why do they hit them?
The lowest common denominator is pretty low. :)
That’s why we should aim to excel, the crappy standard is not good enough.
FerFAL
Author Jerzy Kozinski wrote a book about his experiences as an abandoned youth in Poland during WWII. The book, the Painted Bird, spoke of a practice among Polish peasants of capturing a bird, painting it and then letting it go. The bird would happily return to its flock, thinking it was safe and among its family. The flock, not recognizing the bird, would attack and kill it. The bird never knew why it happened. Quite a sport for the cruel, and a fact of nature.
I agree we should attempt to excell WHEN circumstances permit. There is a time to stand out and another to fade. When the politicos are calling for blood FADE! You cannot hold back the mob anymore than you can stop a flood.
FerFAL, another reason people who look different and "weak" are attacked when things go bad is that humans want to feel like they're superior to someone. "I might be living in a shack that doesn't even having running water, but I'm more of a man that YOU, mariposa! SMACK!" It's a sad facet of human nature, that when we feel down, it makes us feel better to make someone else feel worse than we do. We're a sick species, mate.
as the majority of us voted for Barack Hussein Obama ;)
Eh, only 30 percent of eligible voters voted for Dear Leader. Hardly a mandate.
It already is like origanal hairstyle and colour dangerous for hair.
Crustyrusty, as President Obama said, "I won." He did. Get over it. Do soemthing to improve the country that doesn't include complaining.
I lived in Rosario in my teens and never suffered any problems with violence, but people were very judgemental! They just couldn't keep their opinions to themselves!
Well, if they wear their hair like that...
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