Said the grandmother of Ezra Blount, Tericia Blount, quoted in "10-Year-Old Boy ‘Trampled’ at Astroworld Fighting For His Life: ‘It’s Horrific’
Astroworld victim Ezra Blount has been placed in a medically-induced coma to combat brain swelling" (Rolling Stone).
November 9, 2021
"He kept screaming, 'I can’t breathe.'"
"But everyone was pushing. It was so tight with no exits. His dad couldn’t breathe at all and passed out. We don’t really know what happened to Ezra after that... He has injuries to his kidney, to his lung, to his liver. Basically every organ has damage. He had cardiac arrest. His heart is weak and has damage as well. And his brain has swelling, and he’s in an induced coma. They’re just trying to keep him comfortable and trying to figure out a plan for him. They tried to take him off the medications that were paralyzing him, to keep him still, and they had to put him back on. We’re just at that place right now, just hoping for the best in spite of all the negative information.... I’m a nurse, but it’s still horrifying to see Ezra like this because that’s a part of us there.... Why couldn’t this have been prevented? I’m just angry and sad and upset. Why didn’t Travis Scott stop? Wasn’t he watching the ambulances and people performing CPR? Doesn’t he care about the city of Houston? The mayor gave him the key. This is the city he’s from. Why wasn’t he looking out for the people?... Ezra is so wonderful. He’s a joy to be around. He loves music, skateboarding, school, his mom and dad. He loves to perform. He’s just an all-around entertainer...Why did this have to happen to our grandson?"
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50 comments:
The show must go on
One could ask, why on earth would you allow a 10 year old boy to attend a rap concert with 50,000 in attendance, for a show with a rapper KNOWN for his rowdy shows?
zipity said...
One could ask, why on earth would you allow a 10 year old boy to attend a rap concert with 50,000 in attendance, for a show with a rapper KNOWN for his rowdy shows?
11/9/21, 8:02 AM
^^^THIS^^^
Why was the kid there?
Amen, zipity
Thanks Zipity, if only it had been a country music concert, then it would have been completely safe.
If you are screaming, you can breathe.
People who actually can't breathe are very quiet vocally. They are usually gesticulatory.
They're always wiping out a few thousand at Mecca too. Crowds add up to a pretty large push with each layer adding its little bit to the sum. I'd suggest moving upward. Use three dimensions to keep the flow's divergence zero.
So not old enough to buy the CD (if Tipper had her way) but old enough to attend the concert...
Btw, news reports give his age as nine, not ten.
Was the N-word flying with abandon? Bitches? Hos?
I quote:
7-1-3 to the 2-8-1, yeah I'm riding
Why they on me? Why they on me? I'm flyin'
Sippin' lowkey I'm sipping lowkey in Onyx
Rider, rider when I'm pullin' up right beside ya
Pop star, lil' Mariah
When I text a cute game, wildness
Throw a stack on the Bible
Never Snapchat or took molly
She fall through plenty, her and all her ginnies
Yeah, we at the top floor, right there off Doheny
Oh no, I can't fuck with y'all
Yea, when I'm with my squad I cannot do no wrong
Yeah, saucing in the city, don't get misinformed, yea
They gon' pull up on you (brr, brr, brr)
Yeah, we gon' do some things, some things you can't relate
Yeah, 'cause we from a place, a place you cannot stay
Oh, you can't go, oh, I don't know
Oh, back the fuck up off me (brr, brr, brr)
***
A regular Gershwin...
Mr. Scott comes off as a morally deformed sadist who loves watching people suffer. He offered no sympathy whatsoever.
My parents took me to concerts when I was 10, all classical. The rowdy ones were like Victor Borge. So far no deaths.
So how did his continuing the show prevent emergency people from doing their job? The real problem seems to have been overcrowding and a lack of security. BTW, this is bad, but it in the 1940s you had 400 people die in the nightclub fire at the Coconut Grove in Boston:
"Gangland boss and bootlegger Charles "King" Solomon, also known as "Boston Charlie", owned the club from 1931 to January 24, 1933, when he was gunned down in the men's room of Roxbury's Cotton Club nightclub. Ownership passed to Solomon's lawyer Barnet "Barney" Welansky, Welansky was known to be a tough boss who ran a tight ship: hiring teenagers to work as busboys for low wages, and street thugs who doubled as waiters and bouncers. He locked exits, concealed others with draperies, and even bricked up one emergency exit to prevent customers from leaving without paying."
@zipity
Exactly. Certainly my parents would never have allowed me to go to a concert at such a young age. I wouldn't have even thought to ask.
We've taken our kids to a couple of shows for a ska band that ended up having a children's TV show for awhile. (Yes, this is a real band.) So their shows are an odd mix of punk rockers and former punk rockers who bring their kids to shows. We checked the venues before we bought tickets for our kids to make sure there was a balcony we could watch from. Kids aren't safe in general admission pit areas.
Perhaps the father wasn't experienced at attending concerts either.
The family getting Benjamin Crump as their attorney but also saying the police should have gotten involved is really something.
Blogger Spiros said...
Mr. Scott comes off as a morally deformed sadist who loves watching people suffer. He offered no sympathy whatsoever.
11/9/21, 8:34 AM
Pretty sure his lawyers told him to zip it. Any giving of condolences could be seen as taking responsibility and he sure won't do that.
I'm going to differ from the crowd here not blame the victims. I've been caught up in a crowd at a Cal football game of all things. It's something you don't see coming and by the time you realize what's happening it's too late. You literally can't move in any direction. If you want blame anyone blame the promoters. They should have had security keeping the crowds back. They should have pulled the plug on the soundboard as soon as they realized they had a bad situation.
If little Ezra were a white boy attending a Jonas Brothers concert would you guys be so glib? Just asking. How can you be so harsh in your thinking when kids got killed for the crime of going to a concert? Think about it. I've seen this all over the right wing blogoshere and it troubles me. I'm are right as anyone here so don't start the name calling. How about some compassion and concern for your fellow man?
Ol' Remus would say: Stay away from crowds.
Daniel12 said...Thanks Zipity, if only it had been a country music concert, then it would have been completely safe.
I’m not aware of a country music concert where people were crushed to death and members of the audience danced on the ambulance in full view of the dead. The only country show I can think of with crowd deaths was the one in Vegas where where a guy shot people from his hotel room. The shooter’s actions had nothing to do with the behavior of the attendees or the performers. So if that is what you were referencing with your comment you aren’t a very logical thinker are you?
Decades ago I attended a Doors concert. Outside the hall ... the area around and in front of the closed entrance doors where I was waiting ... was crowded, tight and full of people. I was near those doors feeling the full effect of the jerks trying to compress their way to the front. Thankfully the guards responded and opened the doors early.
I haven't felt that powerless or scared since.
From what I've read, Travis Scott can fill up a stadium in just about every major American city, and I never heard of him to just now. Who's the stranger in a strange land: me or him?... He seems to have had a record of encouraging his crowds to behave badly. That will definitely be held against him in the civil suits and might even land him in jail. I've read that some efforts are being made to boycott his music but that he's getting increased play on Spotify. I hope he goes broke, but, in this strange land, maybe it will add to the luster of his outlaw brand.....The Rolling Stones decided that they didn't want the blue meanies to enforce security at their concerts and instead made use of Hell's Angels for crowd control. I don't think they suffered any loss because of this bone headed decision.
'If little Ezra were a white boy attending a Jonas Brothers concert would you guys be so glib?'
So edgy those Jonas Brothers.
I think everyone here has compassion for the kid.
But I also think the adults in his life failed him, and they should be condemned for it.
10-year olds shouldn't be at rap concerts.
If little Ezra were a white boy attending a Jonas Brothers concert would you guys be so glib?
Is there a history of fights and shootings at Jonas Brothers concerts?
Why, yes, yes there is! A history of shooting music videos. (and a gun-type shooting while they were playing golf).
Ireland Baldwin has her father's masterful sense of public relations. She tweeted something about how unfair it is for people to jump the gun and blame Travis Scott for this tragedy. With daughters like that, Alec doesn't need enemies. The Travis Scott story completely eclipsed the Baldwin tragedy. "Thanks daughter dearest for linking the two and keeping me center stage."
Travis Scott is 2021's Derek Chauvin.
Why is it such a killer point that 10-year-olds shouldn't be at concerts? If he wanted to go and someone was willing to take him, then what's the problem? Most 10-year-olds have spent time in crowds of one type or another.
"How about some compassion and concern for your fellow man?"
You're in the wrong comments section. The one you want is two blogs over.
Interested Bystander
If little Ezra were a white boy attending a Jonas Brothers concert...I wouldn't be surprised because 14 and under are their audience. A vulger rapper on the other hand, who has been arrested twice previously for inciting riots at his concerts and pled guilty to public disorder charges at concerts in 2015 and 2018 is a bit different. So much for playing the RACE CARD again. It wasn't about RACE. Get over it. https://www.the-sun.com/news/4018529/travis-scott-previously-arrested/
Compassion and concern don't preclude discussions of fatally poor judgement.
@Interested Bystander
I'm not being "glib." Its horrible that this little boy has suffered like he has and may die. A few weeks ago in another thread in this blog I mentioned that I had seen babies and toddlers being taken on hikes in carriers by their parents on rough trails where, if the parents stumbled and fell, the children could have been seriously injured. I said that small children shouldn't be taken on hikes. That it was irresponsible. That was in response to a post by our hostess about a young child taken on a hike who died. I wasn't being harsh, I was being realistic. Some activities are not appropriate for small children. Saying so is not "condemning" the children, its stating a fact. Perhaps, "compassion and concern" is best served by stating obvious truths so that future tragedies don't occur?
I'm going to differ from the crowd here not blame the victims. I've been caught up in a crowd at a Cal football game of all things. It's something you don't see coming and by the time you realize what's happening it's too late.
Which would seem to me to indicate that small children shouldn't be taken into crowded venues. Crowds are inherently dangerous.
Interested Bystander said...
If little Ezra were a white boy attending a Jonas Brothers concert would you guys be so glib?
*******
I dunno....are the Jonas Bros known for coming "off as morally deformed sadists who love watching people suffer"? Are their lyrics lewd and crude gibberish?
How many unaccompanied white ten year olds are allowed to go to concerts with 50,000 people?
How is lamenting a kid's death and placing blame on Scott and the boy's irresponsible parents NOT expressing compassion and concern?
“I can’t breathe” is what George Floyd said. It was written on a lot of protest posters after his death. On T-shirts too.
How about some compassion and concern for your fellow man?
If I were meeting the family, I would express compassion for their loss and never mention that they are responsible for their son's safety.
But they are. This needs to be expressed, especially in the face of people like you who wish us to be silenced. Part of living in a healthy society is discussing the values we want the society to follow. We live in a time when a woman wanting to marry and have a family is denigrated. When men are denigrated for acting like men. For "white" people (including Hispanics and Asians, apparently) to be ashamed of themselves. When pointing out a biological fact will get you fired or silenced.
And, yes, if the Jonas Brothers incited the crowd to ignore safety personnell, leap over safety barricades, charge the stage, and form mosh pits (as Scott is apparently known to do), and a 10-year-old white boy died there, I would say the same thing. Race is irrelevant.
What a nightmare. Stupid fucking people pushing from behind. I hate crowds. Music crowds especially.
If little Ezra were a white boy attending a Jonas Brothers concert would you guys be so glib? Just asking. How can you be so harsh in your thinking when kids got killed for the crime of going to a concert?
There’s a world of difference between deploring the parents’ bad judgment and saying that the kid had it coming, which thought I don’t see expressed here. I for one would be equally glib about a white kid getting trampled at a Jonas brothers concert with lousy security and too many people in attendance.
Simple technical solution: pressure sensors on the barricades. Pressure exceeds a certain threshold and the power to the sound system cuts out and a pre-recorded message plays explaining why the power was cut.
I think everyone is horrified by what happened and the loss of life and the number of people injured. We still haven't heard the extent of the madness, all the people with heart attacks and overdoses, etc.
I couldn't help but think today though of how this is a culmination of the Black Lives Matter movement, even including the lawyer Ben Crump if Birches's comment is correct, and "I can't breathe." The bravado of displaying disdain for social order and the police has come back full circle to harm the very people who were advocating for all that. You can't make this stuff up.
Interested Bystander, where are you seeing callousness or glibness on this thread? I can't speak for what you've seen elsewhere in the blogosphere, but I don't see anybody being glib about this tragedy, or any reason to believe the reaction here would be any different if the young man had been white (honestly, until your comment I hadn't read enough details to know what race the young man was).
I would not bring my child to any concert of that size. It's not outside the bounds of polite commentary to suggest that it's a mistake to allow a young child to go to a venue like the Astrodome. Not for a country music concert, not for a rock concert, not for a rap concert. And certainly not for a concert by someone who has, not once but twice, been convicted of inciting a riot and disorderly conduct at prior performances.
That's by no means to say that the fault is all on the family. First, of course, nobody deserves to die or be horribly injured just for attending a concert. Certainly I'm sure everybody here has a great deal of empathy and compassion for Ezra and the other victims; noticing that it is unwise and dangerous to bring your young child to a dangerous event is not a display of a lack of empathy.
It is also certainly true that Travis Scott, the Astrodome, and the concert organizer bear the lions share of blame for these deaths and injuries. I'm quite certain that as a result of this tragedy, there will be new regulations and codes adopted to limit how many people can be on the field at a concert, how many security must be present, what kinds of physical barriers and emergency procedures are in place to prevent the madness of crowds from actually killing innocent concert goers. There will also be very large legal judgments against all involved and responsible.
As soon as shit goes bad everyone turns into nanny state helicopter parents.
If you are screaming, you can breathe.
I noticed that as well.
How many times have we heard the CAN'T-BREATHE report? George Floyd, Eric Gardener, and now this Ezra kid.
How many times did the boy cry WOLF??
What the hell is a ten year old doing at a concert?
Sorry this happened, but it's not a safe place for children. Too loud and too crowded.
I wrote that before reading the comments.
For some reason I thought this was a country music concert until I read the comments just now. Is it worse to leave my initial reaction or to change it?
"Doesn't he care about the city of Houston?"
Well, he's a rapper, so probably not.
Every time I've attended concerts (of classical music, or of what passes for it in these latter days), I'm almost sure to notice (particularly, older) folks thinking to be sly and positioning themselves advantageously toward the front of the lines waiting to enter the hall. Amusing, not life-threatening.
In Baltimore they call this the ghetto lottery.
Howard said...
As soon as shit goes bad everyone turns into nanny state helicopter parents.
***********
What part of not allowing an unaccompanied ten-year-old boy to attend a concert with a 50,000 person audience is "nanny STATE helicopter parent(ing)"?
Howard, you dullard, has it occurred to you that we almost never hear stories like this PRECISELY BECAUSE 99.999% of **parents** (not nannies) are not so stupid and irresponsible as to put their kids into such risky situations?
I'm a hotel worker, third shift. A few months ago a guest came off the elevator dressed only in his skivvies, screaming that he couldn't breathe - - I called 911. He stumbled around the lobby, then outside, then back in, where he collapsed onto a couch, still crying out that he couldn't breathe. The EMT's took him to the nearby hospital - - dead of a "widow-maker" heart attack.
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning... (Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est").
Not only has he been convicted twice in recent years for precisely this behavior (see yelling fire in a crowded theater, updated), he was permitted to plead down from serious to lesser charges.
This is what happens when we don’t enforce laws, especially against repeat offenders.
At least GG Allin told his audience to kill him. And so they did.
Not only has he been convicted twice in recent years for precisely this behavior (see yelling fire in a crowded theater, updated), he was permitted to plead down from serious to lesser charges.
This is what happens when we don’t enforce laws, especially against repeat offenders.
At least GG Allin told his audience to kill him. And so they did.
"He kept screaming, 'I can’t breathe.'"
The irony!
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