Never mind the insurrection-hawkers at Sturgis; the Sioux Empire Fair is plagued with rampaging gangs of cheapskate youths!
Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Captain Adam Zishka says, “If there are problems, we’ll enforce it.”
Zishka says parents are dropping off their kids during the evening. He said the youth sometimes engage in bullying, mostly verbally.
He says that many of the youth aren’t buying food or going on rides, and simply roam the grounds for hours.
The verbal abuse from some youths has even been directed at deputies as well as other kids.
Zishka said one of the supervising deputies was told by a 16-year-old that he would break into the deputy’s mother’s home and assault her, then break into his house and assault the deputy’s wife [Todd Epp, “Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office Dealing with Swarns of ‘Unattended Youth’ During the Evening at the Fair,” KELO Radio, 2021.08.09].
In response to this breakdown of civility and consumption, the Sioux Empire Fair Board yesterday imposed a 9 p.m. curfew on unaccompanied minors (as announced on its Facebook page). So, kids, if you’re going to see Randy Houser or Jameson Rodgers, you gotta bring Mom or Dad or your older cousin Charlene.
And for Pete’s sake, buy more funnel cakes. The Fair board won’t harass paying customers.
Not much has changed since I was an unaccompanied youth at the Sioux Empire Fair some 55 years ago. I’m not sure why the crackdown now. The quoted piece says these youths “sometimes engage in bullying, mostly verbal.” I take that to mean the usual nonsense that occurs between male youths. As long as it doesn’t result in fisticuffs, or worse, I’d just tell the kids to move on. Why they have to go on rides or buy funnel cakes to walk the fairgrounds is my question. Eat a funnel cake and then go on some overpriced ride, and you’re gonna hurl, which wouldn’t look good if you were doing what we were doing: check out the “chicks,” and not the feathered ones.
The immaturity of these youths is fully outdone by the immaturity of the Fair Board and authorities in Sioux Falls who allow the Fair to go on during a pandemic. Of course, they have only to look at the Governor as a model for bad behavior and poor judgement. Perhaps the bullying the youths exhibit was learned from Noem’s constant barrage of contempt for Biden or her sliming of a Madison Howard, a 16 year old who took her picture. Let the kids roam the Fairgorunds. It’s the adults who deserve to be giving a timeout.
Donald, as often happens, is thinking the same thing as moi.
We did the same thing, when we could hitch a ride to Sioux Falls to raise some hell, as teens.
Be thankful SF isn’t as rough a town as Chicago.
Given the propensity of some parental comments excusing the verbal behavior directed at fair goers (deputies), it is no wonder youths of today act the way they do.
well..when I was a kid, you had to be pretty careful about to whom you smarted off to and on what topic…even if your target was another kid, an adult might intervene and start cuffing you around or just chew your behind like an army drill instructor..There were a lot of WWII combat vets around and they were a bit unpredictable in their response to smart alecks. You couldn’t complain about some adult you didn’t know disciplining you and your buddies. You were told you deserved it for your irresponsible behavior and that you were stupid for not noticing who was around when you displayed your wit. In those days, all adults were empowered to enforce social norms.
Arlo is spot on on this one. Remember it well.
This happened at the Olmstead County Fair (Rochester) also. Lots of money spent on law enforcement. Little *&(*&G)(‘s
Arlo, I agree. Smart off to the wrong person, and you were going to hit the ground. But, it’s probably the wrong way to solve the problem. I’ve found kids do listen to elders better than they do to people their parents age. I guess the problem is not many oldsters are wandering around the fairgrounds at night. It might be better to hire old people to walk the fairgrounds to intervene and deescalate situations.
Donald…I’m not suggesting we go back to the “good old days” which weren’t all that good…but there were also a number of m”dutch uncles” around town…older fellas who would wise a kid up in a quiet non threatening way..your suggestion is a good one.