A Death in the 'Family'
As published on page one of the August 21 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
A few days after the fatal stabbing of a local high school student in downtown Keene last month, Margaret Green stopped by Central Square.
With a master's degree in grief and bereavement, and still mourning the death of her own mother, Green, 57, knows a few things about loss. And she had a message for the young people who were gathering by the dozens in the square and on Dunbar Street, at the spot where 17-year-old Craig Metivier was killed on the evening of July 24.
"I just wanted to tell them how very sorry I was that they lost their friend," she said.
It was a brief visit. They were grateful but distant, Green recalled.
"I felt that I was definitely in a different culture," she said.
She later went back and took a small group of teens to breakfast at Lindy's Diner, where they lingered for hours.
"They were very sensitive and insightful about what happened," she said. "You just have to meet them where they are. ... I can prejudge situations easily. I have to tell myself not to make assumptions."
It can be easy to make assumptions about the teenagers and young adults who while away their summer in public places downtown -- most notably gathering near the Keene Skate Park on Gilbo Avenue on any fine night, music pounding from a car stereo, hoots of laughter rising in the air.
The group favors large T-shirts (on the boys) and dark shades of eyeliner (on the girls). They often sport tattoos, facial and body piercings or unusual haircuts. Many believe marijuana should be legalized, while at the same time speaking candidly about the devastating effect harder drugs such as heroin and cocaine can have on a life and a community.
They are also generally local kids, having come up through the region's schools, often hailing from families with deep Monadnock Region roots.
And then, the generalizations start to break down.
In age they vary from young teens to people in their 20s. Some will be back in school soon, some have graduated, and some have dropped out. Some go home to sleep at night; others don't have permanent homes.
Some have jobs; others are still looking -- with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Some are in regular cellphone contact with mothers through the day; others are estranged from their parents.
But there is something that ties them together, something that their clothing, piercings and tattoos represent. And, as Green discovered, it's not about keeping the outside world at bay -- even if that is an unintended consequence.
In the weeks that have passed since Metivier's murder, the consensus at the skate park bleachers has held that the group exists for one overriding purpose: mutual support.
"We're more than a community -- we're a big family," 21-year-old Justin E. Robinson said.
The word "family" comes up a lot.
Robinson is behind the portrait of Metivier taking shape on the back of one of the ramps at the skate park. He works on the painting in the twilight hours after his job with UPS, using a small paintbrush and a scrap-paper palette.
He started the project the week after an outbreak of spray-painted messages memorializing the slain teen caused damage to public and private property downtown. A misunderstanding landed Robinson -- who has been previously charged with criminal mischief and criminal contempt -- briefly in handcuffs.
It got sorted out, but he took pride in the near-arrest for the sake of commemorating a friend.
"We're all here for one another. Even all the people who think we're hoodlums; if one of their kids were killed, I'd paint them up, too," he said.
Members of this circle of friends profess a variety of musical tastes, but the Detroit-based hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse is widely popular.
Lyrics to the band's songs -- with titles that include "Guts on the Ceiling" and "Imma Kill U" -- are dark and stunningly, graphically violent. But they also touch on the joys of friendship and the undesirable consequences of murder and betrayal. They take a particularly brutal attitude toward those who abuse children.
In the early 1990s, the band, with its tongue-in-cheek carnival theme, dubbed its fans "Juggalos" and "Jugalettes." Some, but not all, of the skate park crowd embrace the labels.
But even among those who do, there's a sense that it's about more than the music.
Being a Juggalo "means that you've got plenty of family; it means that they've got your back," 21-year-old Travis Bowne said.
Graham Colson, 18, suggests the idea has transcended music, to the point where he said he doesn't like to talk about the band when explaining Juggalos.
"We're all kind of -- I wouldn't say the outcasts of society, but we're kind of like 'The Outsiders,' " Colson said, referring to the 1967 young adult novel by S.E. Hinton.
But Robinson, the 21-year-old working on the portrait of Metivier at the skate park, said he rejects the title because of the impression it can create.
"When cops see us they want to label us and say, 'You're a Juggalo, you're not a person,' " he said.
But Keene police Lt. James F. McLaughlin said officers make a point not to judge people based on their appearance or affiliations.
Juggalos have been considered a criminal gang in some parts of the country. But that designation doesn't fit the local residents who identify with the name, according to McLaughlin.
For the purposes of police work, a gang is a group of people with an organizational hierarchy who identify as part of a group, wear the same clothing or symbols, and have come together with a criminal intent. That last point is the most important part of the definition, McLaughlin said.
"You could take that definition without the criminal purpose and it would describe the Boy Scouts," he said.
The police are aware of the group, McLaughlin said, but haven't found its members any more prone to criminal activity than their peers who dislike or disregard rapping clowns.
"If you look at the people we arrest, the majority are males between 18 and 25. ... Some enjoy the Insane Clown Posse, but are they over-represented? No," he said.
Metivier was popular with adults and kids alike, and his sudden violent death, at such a young age, in a downtown widely assumed to be a safe place, would have been hard enough for his friends to bear.
But the tragedy was compounded by the fact that the morning after the killing 19-year-old Ethan Wilson, another member of the circle, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
Among the boys' friends Wilson's role seems unquestioned. Weighty discussions of why, and how, and whether anyone else is to blame, and when -- if ever -- Wilson could be forgiven have been a part of the group's internal dialogue for almost a month. But there hasn't been any further violence.
Metivier's death served as a wake-up call for at least some of his friends, who report that their circle has grown closer since the tragedy.
"Everybody solved their issues and said, 'We're family and it shouldn't be like this,' and all shook on it," 19-year-old Samantha A. Scott said.
This unity is impressive, according to Luke Martin, a Christian outreach minister who visits with the skate park regulars. Martin, 39, said he comes from a rough background and also experienced the murder of a friend when he was young.
"If something like this happened in New Haven, Connecticut, or Hartford, Connecticut, it could turn into a really violent situation," he said. "I think these kids are handling it better than a lot of their same-age peers in different regions."
Scott, who described the group's truce, expressed concern that things could get worse in the future. But Robinson is staying positive.
"The one thing we can do," he said, "is learn from this and try to make our community better."
tagged with: Craig Metivier, feature, Insane Clown Posse
<< Redistricting will change Keene House seats Volunteers clean up their act >>