I guess Ms.Abiori thinks that the white girl should sit there quietly and take any abuse her kids want to heap on her...if you respond...or laugh, its OK to kick the crap out of her. Really? I wonder what she thinks the consequences should be for a 3 on 1 attack?
Perhaps the judge will be able to explain it to her in a way she'll grasp.

What's the over-under on the grandmother's age? 30?

Interesting spin. I wondered what portion of the local print media might push it.

An interesting story.
Did you note how they mentioned the victim had not been charged. I'm not sure what crime they author of that piece thinks she committed ?

And has the grandmother thought through her theory all the way ?
That if you mouth off to someone they are justified in attacking you ?

Apples not falling far from trees.

The grandmother says nothing about the attack being justified ... she's quoted as saying "they should never have hit anyone."
Her problem seems to be that the attack was portrayed as random, picking out some innocent victim. If you read the entire story, it certainly appears that the local TV stations played up the racial aspect and portrayed the victim as a complete innocent.
You get a different picture of things from the story than the edited one provided on TV.

This kind of attitude is why grandma's little angels are looking at jail time. You don't get to assault people in a 3-1 fashion because of their attitude, and that's giving the attackers side of the story full credence. Interesting that one of the comments on the Skanner site calling for more "discussion" is from John Canda. You can't call for increased personal responsibility on one hand, and then in a situation where even if the girl who got jumped was mouthing off, put out a comment implying that is some sort of mitigating factor. I'm sick and tired of the so called "voice of the community", be it the Skanner, ministers, or civic outreach workers(who may I add sure as heck don't speak for all of us) refusing to acknowledge poor behavior and choices should lead to consequences. It also diminishes their effectiveness in truly egregious matters, like the Campbell shooting. You can only cry wolf so many times before people stop listening.

The grandmother said what she said. I copied it verbatim from her supporters at the Skanner.

If the victim said something unfriendly to the assailants, that doesn't change the picture much for me. It's still assault on public transit.

The DA is trying to make an example out of these defendants in a high-profile case. An example that is entirely appropriate.

"this attitude says a lot about why the whole thing happened."

Great, then you can explain Yashawnee Vaughn's family, she get's killed at 14 after being gone for 3 days and her step-brother is riding dirty on MAX with a gun at 11.

No one is saying that teens with poor impluse control and judgement should get off scot-free, AND many more crimes that created much more grievous bodily injury than this one have not created the same level of outrage, bail amount or media coverage. We know that that the savages vs. Innocent makes for better story. But yes, as the parent of a good kid who wept over this incident, it was not as "random' as portrayed in the media. Portland teens are about 2 degrees apart. Which may explain the family's reluctance to come forward and their relative calm when discussing the incident. I would have been on Joe Donlon's lap screaming had my child been attacked. Remember the woman holding court withKGW about the Grant HS incident framing it in racial terms? Except she was lying? But the feeding frenzy for black savages vs. Innocent is so pronounced that KGW didn't even bother with verification before running it as a lead.

Pops had some good advice on this sort of thing. "Fools fight over words."

I think he may have been making a statement about not talking smack to fools as well as telling me it was dumb to let someone bait me.

Either way. Solid advice. Simple. Something tough kids might understand.

It really should NOT be up to the bloggers to dig into this story. Sadly, the comment section of the "O" is usually far more accurate and more revealing than anything written by their highly trained professional "reporters".

What a pity there seems to be no real reporters left in the city to actually do an in depth, on the record INTERVIEW to do an entire series on the family tree of Grandma Sandra Abiori.

But if you can only do cut and paste, you can't expect much from the "O"'s current versions of Jimmy Olson.

After having read a little more on the webs about this issue. It's entirely possible the girl shot off her mouth and provoked those girls.

So the grandma might think they were baited. And that should come at a price. If so that entire family is a bunch of easily manipulated tools. My conjecture.

A couple of winters ago, while riding TriMet, I reached up to wipe my runny nose. A group of black teen girls were passing and one got in my face, yelling, "Do I smell bad???" plus a string of foul language. I was so stunned by the venom and aggression I couldn't respond and thankfully her friends pulled her along as they looked for seats.

Gang assaults are never justifiable, period, Rebecca. Those attackers are pure savages, and deserve some judicial behavior modification.

That said, individual responsibility is also at play, here: most incidents involve willing participants. When someone gets in your face, such as "What you lookin' at, bitch?" the appropriate response is something like "Nothing, I was just spacing. It's been a long day". More often than not, that'll defuse the situation.

I... honestly do not know where people are getting all these evil teen horror stories from, but as a professional teen I have to say I rarely, if ever, see that from my peers, and I have to wonder whether or not if we were talking about an adult if the idea of asking for it or deserving a beating would have even come up since adults aren't forced under the "disrespectful lazy punk" stigma teens are

Max, is "individual responsibility" really to just say "Nothing" as "appropriate response" after being sweared at with no justification?

I'm not saying I'd say more or something soothing too, but I might quickly size up the situation and take on the responsibility to inform the perpetrator it is not acceptable. Not taking on social responsibility is some of the reason we have this kind of social irresponsibility. As Hilary said, "It takes a Village" since parenting is lacking.

Lesson for kids: There's a big world of mouthy and annoying people out there. If you can't make your way through life without overreacting to every little perceived insult, then (one way or the other) you are going to have a tough time of it.

I witnessed a relatively minor disagreement on a TriMet bus the other night. As with so many problems in Portland, it started with bikes.

The bike rack was already full. A touchy young adult male (probably drunk, or maybe otherwise disturbed) wanted to bring his bike inside the coach, and started to do so.

This is not permitted, and the operator said no. The fellow would not have it. He blocked the doorway, and unlimbered his vile tongue on the operator.

Our driver was one of the good ones, he held his ground and had a zinger for every insult. This guy was just wasting our time, he was too dumb to get that he just wasn't making this trip.

I'm a wuss, but I got fed up and quietly walked up to the front just to show solidarity with the operator. Finally the guy gave up, and shambled off. Nobody else on the crowded bus did anything but stare.

The bullies count on nobody doing anything. They know the operator is isolated, and pick on him or her. Sometimes the operator is up to the task, and other times they are not.

Bullies need to know that while the operator may be enjoined from enforcing the rules (yes really), they aren't going to skate with everybody else. That's the deterrent which maintains civility.

I'm glad I'm not on this route every day. Getting tired of bullies... but they are well aware that TriMet buses are their playground, even while MAX gets all the press.

Frankly, I'm sick of the "Courtier Press" and it's relations with the royal court of TriMet.

Time honored tradition:

Blame the victim!

Basic Life Lessons #203 and #204:

"You can't hit your sister just because she called you a jerk."

and

"You can't go around calling people jerks."

We're still working on those at our house, but hopefully the young 'uns will eventually be tame enough to go out into public.

Is there an objective test for when any "Diversity" advocate has gone too far?

Back in the good ole days of the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was told to be the bigger man and walk away.

The logic discussed here and in the Skanner article is "If you are White and respond negatively to a minority hitting on your boyfriend then you caused the fight, therefore you are at fault for your injuries and those who caused you bodily harm should walk free and be regarded up there with Rosa Parks."

There is no excuse for physically assaulting someone. The moment you throw that punch is the moment you are guilty regardless of what was said, whether it was the "n" word or not.

Otherwise, how are we to treat you? Like an animal with no impulse control because that one word will set you off?

If this standard is set then can I physically beat the living hell out of someone who calls me a honky? Or am I not entitled to that because honky implies systemic power and privilege, while the "n" word and other racist words to asians, latinos and others are given a free "beat the hell out of the white man" pass because my being white somehow implies power even if I am on unemployment and completely powerless?

PDX Nag - Yes. The test is if you apply the same standard to everyone.

I'm tired of the racial grievance industry in Portland. I have nothing to feel sorry about, and certainly not the color of my skin. I will not back down or shuffle away to the back of the bus to placate loudmouth aggressive minority youths or anyone else.

Ah yes..the Melanin Machine writes, and...in the immortal words of Omar Khayyam..
..."having writ, moves on...nor all your piety nor wit, shall cancel half a line, nor strike a word of it..."

It's way beyond time for people to quit being obsessed with the color of their skin.

Can the parents/legal guardians of the 3 teens be sued by the victim and her family?