Carytown & Museum District News Events in Richmond Virginia, West of the Boulevard

August 27, 2007

17 Comments.

1. and they met at church…

   Eric @ August 27th, 2007 at 3:38 pm

2. This whole mess is ridiculous. I am acquainted with some of the students involved- this was handled from the beginning in the most ham-handed method imaginable.

   If they get anything other than suspended sentences, community service, or better yet, nothing, it will be too much.

   These are good kids, seriously. (okay- the tagging is a problem, but the rest is hooey)

   Mrs. R @ August 27th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

3. This will be read by people in Chesterfield County as just one more reason not to cross the river. Everyone there is already terrified of being murdered “downtown” … as if there is no difference between the Fan and Mosby court.

   RCU Kensington @ August 28th, 2007 at 10:35 pm

4. What gets me is that people seem to think gangs are new in Richmond. They’re not.

   According to various accounts between four large and 33 splinter gangs “and some of them downright tough” flourished in Richmond during the mid- to late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was good old-fashioned, bare-fisted, prank-pulling, fence-busting, brick-throwing hooliganism.

   Each neighborhood had groups of kids who thought of themselves as tough, sometimes even portions or blocks of the communities. Most times they weren’t armed and dangerous, they were just mischievous, others could get violent. This was a ritualized behavior, a way for “yoots” to prove their manhood.

   You can go to the downtown public library and get ahold of a small memoir by Charles M. Wallace published in 1938 by , titled “The Boy Gangs of Richmond In The Dear Old Days: A page of the city’s lesser history,” that vividly recalls pitched rock battles and the whelps, bruises and bloody noses. But he also tells of impromptu circuses and parades organized to please girls.

   The formation of these gangs grew out of Richmond’s physical and economic geography and roads that didn’t bridge deep ravines separating various communities. Fairly prosperous Richmonders resided on the city’s vaunted hills while the workers and laborers tended to live in the valleys and along the river, the canal and near the Rocketts docks.

   They also went by the name of “cats.” Some of them were jokes, others were almost institutions.

   One veteran street warrior described the most contemptuous expression a boy could hurl at another as “cat.” Through use, it may have come to mean “boys.”

   They were called the Butchertown Cats, the Oregon Hill Cats, the Gully Nation Cats, the Fourth Street Horribles, the Clyde Row Gang, the Hobo Gang, the Lulu Gang, the Bumtowners and the Sparrows of Monroe Park.

   Whether any of them were involved in “tagging,” I can’t tell you. I don’t know how that nasty habit developed.

   Harry @ August 30th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

5. to respond to the mrs,,, they beat people with bats. They are not good kids.

   James @ September 7th, 2007 at 1:22 am

6. Apparently the poster above me “James” Believes everything he reads in the papers.

   The problem isn’t with these kids, the problem is with VCU fraternity members picking fights.

   frank @ October 21st, 2007 at 5:38 pm

7. Nah the problem is with these kids. And I’d think twice to claim that some kids who gather well over thirty people to fight 7 are “good kids.” Especially since they had two liters of urine to poor on them.

   And Frank, the frats wouldn’t care if these kids didn’t beat up the frat guys when they were alone. Once the frats even the fight and retaliate these kids try to play the victims.

   Also, if you were trying to say the papers were wrong about the bats, I saw most of them carrying bats that night when they had the urine

   Sam 2 @ December 5th, 2007 at 2:38 am

8. Frank-people who beat other people with bats=bad. I know way more about this crap then you do.

   James @ December 7th, 2007 at 9:56 pm

9. Oh and Frank I dont read the times disgrace

   James @ December 7th, 2007 at 10:01 pm

10. I am a parent who reported these thugs. I know for a fact they are not good kids – my sons face, bruises and broken hand could attest to that. I have also, unbeknownst to these hoodlums, been a witness to their wrath with other kids – vandalizing vehicles and beating the heck out of another youth simply because he was friends with someone they didn’t like. Beause of their ages, they will not get what they truly deserve! JAIL!!!!!!!!

    Parent @ January 16th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

11. you guys have no idea what you are talking about. Please don’t make up things about people you don’t know.

    WWC @ February 2nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm

12. forget good people/bad people. this wouldnt happen to kids if they werent stupid frat boys or just retards with big mouths

    noe1 @ February 3rd, 2008 at 9:05 pm

13. Being from Richmond myself and having a far greater understanding of gangs than any of you stupid cats (i was in one) and also having spent time in Beaumont (there were numerous cats in there for assault and they didn;t even use bats or piss!!!) i can tell by the acts of violence these “nice young men” have commited they have a problem. There are people in Beaumont who are “bad people.” This term is used for cold hard cats. Obviously these kids aren’t because they cry like lil’ b’s when they get caught. But they are kids who need to be taught that just because they feel like it they can beat people up at their own will. That is a “prison mentality.” You don’t carry a bat unless you mean business. This BS community service, and report card crap really gets to me. If those kids were black do you honestly believe they would be doing community service? They would be in jail. And it wouldn’t have taken close to a year to bust them.

    Ryan @ February 6th, 2008 at 2:25 am

14. i love wwc! you guys are hot.

    allie @ December 14th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

15. On that last comment, I find my reaction to be somewhere between a modest “Not Funny” and a slightly nauseated “Comments like that contribute to the problem”. Any time kids decide it is OK to take to the streets with bats, their parents and community have failed them, and the kids are forever marked by the stupidity of their own choices. I would be interested to know how this whole mess shook out in the end. Hopefully some of these kids at least now understand the seriousness of the “games” they play and have since chosen another path besides the one from juvie to the big house.

    Fiona @ December 15th, 2008 at 8:39 am

16. It was Guilty till proven innocent , what a sad state of affairs ….now if the police could just find the I pods and the computers and the clothing and the music they took out of the homes of these families it would be all over …but alas they cannot find it, its gone missing .

    Sam @ December 31st, 2008 at 9:57 am

17. They’re just a bunch of hardcore kids…. What do you expect from a bunch of kids who go to shows just to look like idiots and start fights with people who can whoop their ass alone?

    Richard @ December 6th, 2009 at 12:05 pm

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