Author Topic: Parkour Being Blamed for Teens Death... (Read 12861 times)

Andy Keller · « **Reply #60 on:** November 05, 2009, 10:41:54 AM »

I have to respectfully disagree with anyone who is recommending people go to his funeral.

Funerals are ceremonies that only happen once. They are very serious events. Unless the family openly invites everyone from the parkour community, I feel that no one should go unless they knew Ken personally. Also, a lot of times, funerals are attended by only close relatives and friends. Other people involved in the deceased's life would attend the viewing.

As others have said in this thread, we MUST respect the family in this situation. Even if we had a chance to influence the news station, I would decline the opportunity at the request of the family.

We all have the right intentions here, but we must be careful that the actions brought about by those intentions are also right.

Tehfishy · « **Reply #61 on:** November 05, 2009, 11:02:47 AM »

Quote from: Andy Keller on November 05, 2009, 10:41:54 AM

I have to respectfully disagree with anyone who is recommending people go to his funeral.

Funerals are ceremonies that only happen once. They are very serious events. Unless the family openly invites everyone from the parkour community, I feel that no one should go unless they knew Ken personally. Also, a lot of times, funerals are attended by only close relatives and friends. Other people involved in the deceased's life would attend the viewing.

As others have said in this thread, we MUST respect the family in this situation. Even if we had a chance to influence the news station, I would decline the opportunity at the request of the family.

We all have the right intentions here, but we must be careful that the actions brought about by those intentions are also right.

Of course I wasn't saying we should all just crash a funeral >.> I'm not heartless. Just want people to pay respect.

Corndogg · « **Reply #62 on:** November 05, 2009, 11:03:33 AM »

Currently there is NO PROOF that this is a parkour related death.

For those that decry the media for incorrect parkour portrayal, why are you letting yourself be led around by the nose and jumping onto the media's bandwagon that this is a parkour related death? Makes absolutely no sense, and your speculation only hurts the perception of parkour.

As Andy said, do NOT push your way into the family's mourning. Please post your support and condolences here or on SFPK and leave it at that for now. SacPK has already been contacted by media and has declined, this is not the time to play the blame game or have knee jerk reactions or fuel media ratings, we need to respect the passing of a fellow human and traceur.

Thanks all.

SafeNSure · « **Reply #63 on:** November 05, 2009, 11:22:39 AM »

100% seconding Corndogg's statements and opinions on this one.

Let's continue stressing and promoting safe, progressive training and practice (possibly in small, close-knit groups of supportive traceurs), as we have always done, and leave out any blaming game.

Sympathy to the family and respect for their terrible loss is just plain human and thus should come natural to everybody...

Ozzi · « **Reply #64 on:** November 05, 2009, 04:03:59 PM »

Quote from: Beretta on November 04, 2009, 10:26:14 PM

Thanks Mark and everyone else for keeping this civil and remembering that the story here is that a promising young man lost his life.

I did know Kenny personally, though not very well, and I have friends that were close to him. This is a true tragedy. A young man is dead, a family and community are in mourning and the ripples of this continue to spread across the seas and cascade back upon themselves.

Of course the members of our community found the media coverage objectionable and I personally agree with a lot of what people are saying. That said, the media coverage is not a tragedy. Kenny's death is.

I hope everyone will take some time to think about and appreciate what truly matters in life. Hug those you love, tell them you love them, show them you love them, smile at strangers, stop to hold the door open for someone, practice random acts of kindness large and small. Take care how you impact those in your community. You never know who is suffering, or how they are suffering, but all of us suffer at some point in this life. Though you may not have known Kenny, though you may not be able to comfort his family in any way, you can use your strength to benefit those around you today.

My thoughts are still with the friends and family of Kenneth Ta.

You more than anyone knows that I so, so agree with you. But I think this thread was either miss-named or it was really to post about what the media did in regards than the actual fact of the matter.

I really wish you guys get the simple fact that as bad is it might look on parkour, weather or not it was, a teenager just lost his life. One of whom some people in this community know. They trained, jammed, and maybe even hung out with the kid. So let aside what this might do for parkour for a sec. If it is not this it will be something else that will try to go agaisnt parkour anyway!

BearMills · « **Reply #65 on:** November 05, 2009, 04:39:09 PM »

very true it may not have been a possible parkour death... There are millions of ways he could have falled... A car almost crashed into him he falls over the rail stuff like that.

AlexIsDesu · « **Reply #66 on:** November 05, 2009, 04:53:18 PM »

I hope people dont freak out and ban it in the USA -_-

Sezon · « **Reply #67 on:** November 05, 2009, 05:12:19 PM »

Quote from: Blue/Strike on November 05, 2009, 04:53:18 PM

I hope people dont freak out and ban it in the USA -_-

*Buys tickets and packs for France*

andrew le · « **Reply #68 on:** November 05, 2009, 05:26:01 PM »

man.... as everyone stated before, my condolences to the family and their loss.

but after reading the article and watching that little snippit of a video this truly hurts me to see in the media. its not even that they have pointed a finger at parkour for possible cause of death, but more or less the angle they have chosen to spin on our discipline.

one smudge and the entire window looks cloudy....

Alec Furtado · « **Reply #69 on:** November 05, 2009, 05:35:25 PM »

Quote from: Cody Goodman on November 04, 2009, 11:41:25 PM

This is what the guys from the wfpf need to show MTV so they'll know that people could die if parkour isn't portrayed in the correct way.

That's still admitting parkour was responsible for this, which is total speculation at the moment.

Mods, please just lock this until we get the final report. Then open it up with the actual report and we can start from there.

BearMills · « **Reply #70 on:** November 05, 2009, 05:42:59 PM »

Quote from: Blue/Strike on November 05, 2009, 04:53:18 PM

I hope people dont freak out and ban it in the USA -_-

how can they ban movement.... Parkour has to have one of the lowest fatalities rate.... Cheerleading causes more deaths so doing that would make tons of people revolt and there is no possible way that would ever happen.

Trevor McDowell · « **Reply #71 on:** November 05, 2009, 05:44:02 PM »

Cheerleading is actually the most dangerous sport in the world. Well last time I checked anyways.

Corndogg · « **Reply #72 on:** November 05, 2009, 05:44:26 PM »

How about:

We will leave this thread open, but any further speculation on the cause of death will result in your entire post being removed.

Thanks all.

BearMills · « **Reply #73 on:** November 05, 2009, 05:46:50 PM »

Matthew Wang · « **Reply #74 on:** November 05, 2009, 06:42:38 PM »

Alright, it's sad to hear about something like this. Best of wishes to the family.

I've skimmed the first two pages and just want to say this based on what I read (Corndogg, I read your warning, but this isn't specifically about the cause of death. But if you feel the need, please go ahead and remove this):

It looks like we're trying to avoid the fact that Parkour could be the cause of the death. Yeah, no one here wants to know that parkour is actually related to the death of someone. But we need to be open to all possibilities. Our motto is to be prepared right? Well, we need to be prepared for when this may really happen. The reality is that we actually have a pretty high chance of death when doing roof jumps. The professional traceurs and teams who make roof jumps all the time could easily slip and fall 5 stories to the cement below.

I know the media may be protraying Parkour incorrectly, or may even have their facts all wrong from the start, but again. The possibility is there. You can't just shun it away because we believe that every sensible traceur will know the dangers of rooftops. That is the reality, there is always a chance that something can go wrong.

Again, be ready for anything.

BobTheKing · « **Reply #75 on:** November 05, 2009, 10:46:47 PM »

Ozzi, in response to what you were saying...with all due respect, I started the thread, and sincerely hope you realize I do feel very badly for what happened to Kenny.

When we saw our footage on the news, it caused quite a bit of commotion in our group (as I am sure you can imagine). The post was originally designed to bring the parkour community's attention to the fact that there was a media attempt (unsubstantiated and misguided) to direct blame at Parkour for this specific tragedy. Please realize, it was not my intention to minimize the tragic loss of a young life in any way.

The fact that the thread turned into a tidal wave of support from the Parkour community paying their respects and voicing their concerns for Kenny and his family is demonstrative of how special our community really is, and I am proud to be a part of it. Additionally, I would like to encourage others to continue to freely voice their emotions and post their respects. I completely agree with you that the important issue here is a teenager just lost his life.

Quote from: Ozzi on November 05, 2009, 04:03:59 PM

You more than anyone knows that I so, so agree with you. But I think this thread was either miss-named or it was really to post about what the media did in regards than the actual fact of the matter.

I really wish you guys get the simple fact that as bad is it might look on parkour, weather or not it was, a teenager just lost his life. One of whom some people in this community know. They trained, jammed, and maybe even hung out with the kid. So let aside what this might do for parkour for a sec. If it is not this it will be something else that will try to go agaisnt parkour anyway!

Brett Robert · « **Reply #76 on:** November 05, 2009, 10:57:00 PM »

Quote from: BobTheKing on November 05, 2009, 10:46:47 PM

The fact that the thread turned into a tidal wave of support from the Parkour community paying their respects and voicing their concerns for Kenny and his family is demonstrative of how special our community really is, and I am proud to be a part of it. Additionally, I would like to encourage others to continue to freely voice their emotions and post their respects. I completely agree with you that the important issue here is a teenager just lost his life.

I feel the same way, Bob. We are a special community and I really appreciate how much compassion everyone has.

Ozzi... I miss you man!

Cody Goodman · « **Reply #77 on:** November 07, 2009, 10:01:17 PM »

Quote from: Alec Furtado on November 05, 2009, 05:35:25 PM

That's still admitting parkour was responsible for this, which is total speculation at the moment.

Mods, please just lock this until we get the final report. Then open it up with the actual report and we can start from there.

Alec, actually it's admitting that the misunderstanding of what parkour is was responsible. The way that news media is wanting to portray parkour, as an extreme sport, could very likely cause many injuries or in some cases death.

Yow · « **Reply #78 on:** November 07, 2009, 11:13:35 PM »

For all I've read the cause isn't confirmed yet so I will keep my assumptions to myself for now.

Yes the media portrays parkour in a very negative way but that is why WE should do our best to prove them wrong. No matter how angry you get with them for doing wha they do but the best way to make things better is by demonstrating the rest of the people out there that traucers are no "thrill seekers" or "stupid people doing stupid things".

Dylan Antonsen · « **Reply #79 on:** November 08, 2009, 11:31:38 AM »

they way they act when talking about parkour pisses me off in an extent, and the way that random lady said it's terrifying that kids think they can do parkour without dying annoys the hell out of me.

The poor kid, and if it WAS parkour, then it's yet another reminder you need to train as much as freaking possible, and learn from this.
Either way, I feel extremely bad for the kids family, and friends, losing a young child is one of the most horrible things that can happen to a family.

News:

Author Topic: Parkour Being Blamed for Teens Death... (Read 12861 times)