Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 14:44:26 -0800
Reply-To: Ari Ollikainen <Ari@OLTECO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari@OLTECO.COM>
Subject: URBAN LEGEND!! Re:no vanagon, or jag content
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 7:56 AM 11/7/98, richard <juju34@TEXOMA.NET> wrote:
>A police officer who works with the DARE program passed this warning
>on.....
>
>If you're ever driving after dark and see an on-coming car with no
>headlights turned on, DO NOT flash your lights at them! This is a common
>gang member "initiation game" that goes like this: the new gang member
>under initiation drives along with no headlights and the first car to
>flash their headlights at him is now his "target". He is now required to
>turn around and chase that car and shoot at or into the car in order to
>complete his initiation requirements.
>
>Make sure you share this info with all the drivers in your family!! Stay
>safe!!
>
Please have some level of skepticism about what you hear and/or
read before blithely passing it on!
This is an URBAN LEGEND that made the rounds first on the West Coast
in 1993, and then spread across country...
Copyright 1994 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
January 23, 1994, Sunday, City Edition
SECTION: METRO/REGION; Pg. 31
LENGTH: 625 words
HEADLINE: Police label gang story a hoax; Rumors of motorists killed in
initiation rite spread from coast to coast
BYLINE: By David Armstrong, Contributing Reporter
BODY:
Companies are warning employees about it, police departments are inundated
with calls about it, and relatives are telling loved ones about it.
The object of the widespread talk is a bizarre new gang initiation that
requires prospective members to drive in a car with no headlights on, wait
for the first friendly motorist to flash a high-beam signal as a warning,
and then follow and kill the helpful driver.
All across the country, the story goes, innocent drivers are falling prey
to this senseless rite of passage.
There is only one problem with this gang story: It isn't true.
From New England to California, police departments have been flooded with
reports of the initiation and calls from nervous residents concerned about
driving at night.
The rumor is so out of control in Massachusetts that State Police yesterday
said they would issue a bulletin notifying law enforcement agencies across
the region that the gang initiation story is false.
"We have been getting calls about this from small towns and cities," said
Lt. Pat Greaney, commander of the State Police Special Services Section.
"We have confirmed it is a hoax. We have no incidents."
The rumor gained credibility in Massachusetts when the Lynn Police
Department was duped by an unknown prankster and issued a memo in late
November on police
department letterhead warning of the gang initiation.
The memo found its way out of police headquarters and has been faxed,
copied and passed along by the general public, said Lynn Police Capt.
Joseph Rowe.
"It's like that shampoo ad where you tell two friends and they tell two
friends and so on," he said.
The panic escalated to the point where several companies issued dire
warnings to employees about the initiation.
"This thing is really gone. It's taken on a life of its own,"said Lt.
Robert Morrill, commander of the Brockton police detective squad."Everyone
is hearing about it, but we know of no incidents."
The rumor began in September in California and quickly spread to other
states. On Sept. 25, a small Mississippi police department broadcast a
national advisory regarding the alleged gang initiation after receiving a
call from a resident who heard the rumor on his CB radio.
Late last year, according to police in Massachusetts, the rumor made its
way to this area. In the past two weeks, police have been flooded with new
reports of the initiation story.
The rumor has incidents occurring in Braintree, Brockton, Fall River and
Taunton. Police in all those communities said yesterday they have had no
such incidents.
Greaney said police in Wendell, a small town in western Massachusetts,
contacted him Friday seeking information on the gang initiation.
Wendell police called after a bus company in the area produced a flier
warning its drivers not to signal any vehicles traveling at night without
lights, Greaney said.
Rowe also said Lynn police have seen an increase in calls regarding the
rumor in the past two weeks. The department recently received six calls
on the gang story in one day.
"We were hoping it would die a slow death," he said.
No one is exactly sure who started the rumor or why.
In California, police said the rumor was sent by fax all over the state.
Soon after the faxes appeared, the rumor was widely disseminated on
electronic bulletin boards, police said.
Lynn police said the information they used for the inaccurate memo arrived
by fax, falsely labelled as an "alert" from the Illinois State Police.
While the gang story is only a tall tale, police said motorists should
still use caution on the road.
"Given some of the incidents of violence that occur over nothing today, I
wouldn't get involved with anyone on the highways or roadways anyway," Rowe
said.
OLTECO Ari Ollikainen
P.O. BOX 3688 Networking Technology and Architecture
Stanford, CA Ari@OLTECO.com
94309-3688 415.517.3519
