Westchester Teens Are Clever Like A Cue From NYC Squatters

Nothing made Gothamist laugh more this morning than this Times story about partying teenagers in Rye. The kids were having a party and a neighbor called the police to complain about the noise. In anticipation of the police visit, the teens, perhaps well-schooled in police procedure (police can't enter without a search warrant during noise complaints), turned off all the lights in the house and laid low, in hopes that the police would leave:

The police could see the partygoers inside as they shined their flashlights through the windows, and parents were summoned one by one as the officers traced the license plates of cars parked near the split-level on Fulton Avenue. But even the parents could not coax their children from the house.
"It was strange," said one parent, who spoke on the condition that she not be named. "The kids wouldn't let us in. It was a scene with parents knocking on the windows, saying, 'You'll never drive again,' threatening to get them out."
Finally, at 3:15, one of the partygoers opened the door and the police and about two dozen parents entered to find 50 juniors and seniors from Rye High School and empty beer cans and liquor bottles in every room, said Detective Lt. Joseph A. Verille of the Rye police.

There's nothing like overprivileged suburban teens and their parents. Then, to prove that even though Dawson's Creek has ended, the tradition of precocious, SAT-word-throwing-around kids still exist, the Times notes that a senior at the teens' school called the plan "somewhat nervy and audacious," but she's probably annoyed she wasn't invited.

It turned out the parents of the kid who threw the party were out of town. Typical. For more about teenagers who throw parties when their parents are out of town: House Party, Kids, Risky Business, Pretty in Pink, Drive Me Crazy, Say Anything, and Teen Wolf.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on May 14, 2004 12:54 PM

Comments [rss]

Alice

They forgot to mention the reason the cops were so pissed off. The drunk sixteen year old kid who gave them the finger straight into their flashlights for a good minute. and then how that cop threatened the kid when he finally got inside

Sterling

In high school we had police scanners; at least 50% of the time the cops intended to raid a house party, there was nobody there. (And we were dumbass rural public school kids.)

ayieee!

PLEASE,

Put these horrible movies to rest!

It's bad enough we had to gaze upon the "House Party" poster when the movie came OUT, but now to resurrect it? And the John Hughes films?

*shiver*

Leslie

Weird Science!!!

Jen

Olive - good call - I was totally thinking Sixteen Candles but thought Pretty Pink (and, hell, the whole John Hughes oeuvre is about parents not being around) instead. It's a case of the Fridays.

olive

sixteen candles?

Andy

if anyone should be accused of navel-gazing, it's the Times. With the amount of attention it devotes to certain topics (Westchester hoodlums, Ivy league grads) that are hardly newsworthy, much less worth a mention in a paper of such stature, you'd think you were reading a suburb version of the New York Observer.

crew of Captain Obvious

Haha captain obvs, way to go even if said blogger tries to play it off as some kind of postmodern farce.

Irony is for suckers.

Ben

For me, the best part of the article is the Rye mom's comment that they have both kind of people in town: lawyers AND attorneys. That's anti-other kind of rich person bias.

hy

i can definitely vouch for that "westchester teens" bit--i.e. don't mess with us, we've all done "mock trial" and our parents are all lawyers. :)

but then again, you're up against suburban cops, who really have nothing better to do than wait several hours just to bust a high school house party. well, at least they didn't get all atf-waco...

Brian Van

Getting busted for a house party is so lame. I remember that the noise ordinance in town was effective at 10pm, and every time this one guy threw one of his monster parties, the cops were there at 10:10pm. However, I think this story is hilarious.

I think the only lesson learned here is that the kids also should have had trash bags ready for all the cans and cups so that, when the doors opened up finally, there would be nothing for the cops to say.

I do find myself wondering why the cops stayed around so long. Should they have left the premises? Did they really have a reason to stick around if they arrived at a quiet house with no lights on? Sure, they knew there was a party happening, but why siege a dark, quiet house for 3 hours? Why was it condsidered "defiant" for the kids to stay indoors and be quiet? Maybe they were right to do that - isn't that what they're SUPPOSED to be doing at that time of night? Could this incident be considered police harassment?

Nic Wolff

And of course, for more about teenagers who throw parties when their parents are out of town but then realize that they should have died a month ago when an passenger jet's engine was sucked back through time and landed in their bedroom, see Donnie Darko. Damn that movie is weird.

Jen

That's what I'm talking about - it's totally meta.

Captain Obvious

What's really funny, is when people who are from jersey, move to NY start blogs and write about 'overprivileged suburban teens and their parents', food, and how much they like pricing out the few working people who used to be able to afford living in this city.

That's comedic gold.

jake

that is so fresh! kids using their knowledge of their constitutional rights to fight the man! it's ridiculous that we persecute teenagers for drinking- it just forces them to do it behind closed doors and be even more irresponsible about it. that's why i think the drinking age should be lowered to 15.