I see my buddy Big Mick is posting here. I've got a story about American youth out wandering at 3 AM to tell you.

My oldest daughter (age 24) announced on Thanksgiving that she was going to a "Midnight Madness" shopping event in Commerce at the Citadel. Commerce is an industrial burg next to East LA, with a big outlet shopping mall in an old tire factory (The tire factory had a babylonian facade, hence the name "Citadel"). Commerce also has a casino a couple of blocks down Telegraph Rd.

My wife had a fit over that, even when she said her girlfriend was going too.   Well I had to go along to ride "shotgun" for the two of them. We got there, got parked and got in line. There were long lines in all stores. Not one argument did I see, an occasional inquiry about where the end of the line was, but that's all. Most of the shoppers were teens or twenties. Most were Latinos (probably Mexican, but I didn't do a survey). My daughter's blond friend was easy to spot. All of the racial/ethnic groups who live within an hour of the place were represented. Some were dressed like punk rockers. We got some pretty good bargains and left at a little after 3 AM. I didn't notice a big security presence, although there was some of what's normal for an LA mall. No drunks, no one hit on the young women in our group, no problems.

So please keep the British and Irish Yobs out of LA.

Joe