The scene’s a quiet, leafy, White Rock Lake-area neighborhood, one home in particular lit up, decked to the nines for Halloween 2012. Throngs of well-mannered, costumed kids with parents troop through as usual for their candy fix. Most tentatively pick out one or two or three pieces off a pile on a big round tray, politely say, “Thank you,” move on.
Then four trick-or-treaters show up, including a tall guy with a moustache who looks 20 but says he’s 12. The four pounce on the offered candy, driving the tray into the driveway gravel as they pick it clean. Walking away, one of them swipes a battery-powered “zombie hand” that flashes on and off, part of the home’s holiday decor for a dozen years.
A couple of groups later, a young boy accompanying four cheerful girls looks sullen. The girls explain that, a little earlier, the aforementioned “12-year-old with a moustache” had hauled off and slugged their friend in the jaw, and he’s embarrassed and angry.
This little Halloween tale involves three ethnic groups, and it doesn’t matter which group did what to whom. But it leaves one party feeling it can raise hell with impunity, and two others smoldering and resentful. The neighborhood turns off the lights early.
