Spur Posse

The Spur Posse was a "suburban clique" of former and current Lakewood High School students from Lakewood, California. The members of the group, estimated to be between 20 and 30 individuals, admitted to "competing for 'points' in a long-running game of sexual conquests." Accusations of sexual assault and misconduct against the group was filed by seven girls in 1993.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department initially charged nine members of the group with 17 felony counts, but "the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to file charges against four youths, dropping 15 charges, concluding that the sexual encounters had occurred with the consent of the girls." National media attention of the case soon followed, and several members of the group went on talk shows to discuss the Spur Posse and its sexual values. Eventually, prosecutors controversially dropped all but one charge. One member of the group was convicted with lewd conduct with a minor under the age of 14 and spent less than a year in the Dorothy Kirby Center, a juvenile detention center in Commerce, CA.

Mike Weber
Dana Kawamura The group initially consisted of 14 members of the high school's football team who would congregate after school to play basketball wearing San Antonio Spurs caps, naming themselves after their favorite team. The group's leaders, brothers Dana and Kristopher Belman, devised a scoring system as a "source of friendly competition among members" that awarded "one point for penetration, only one point allowed for each girl."

alt=Exterior of Lakewood High School|thumb|Exterior of Lakewood High School in California

In March 1993, seven young women, including an 11-year-old, filed complaints against members of the Spur Posse, accusing them of sexual misconduct and assault over the span of 5 months in 1992. The Los Angeles District Attorney office declined to file 15 of the 17 charges, pursuing only one of the boys "for allegedly having sex with a 10-year-old girl." District Attorney, Sandy Buttitta, in a written statement wrote, "Our conclusion is that there is no credible evidence of forcible rape involving any of these boys...Although there is evidence of unlawful sexual intercourse, it is the policy of this office not to file criminal charges where there is consensual sex between teen-agers...The arrogance and contempt for young women which have been displayed, while appalling, cannot form the basis for criminal charges.” They appeared on the front page of the New York Times and Newsweek and posed for Sassy, a teen girl's magazine, and Penthouse. The local paper listed upcoming television appearances, under headlines as the Posse Premiere and The Spur Posse on TV. Billy Shehan reported to Newsweek that a senior staffer from Night Talk With Jane Whitney took them to a strip bar, Goldfingers, in a limo.

Public reaction

alt=Neighborhood in Lakewood, California|thumb|Street view of a middle-class neighborhood in Lakewood, California.

The scandal divided the community of Lakewood, with some condemning the actions of the group and others claiming that the situation was blown out of proportion. Rev. Ginny Wagener, executive director of the South Coast Ecumenical Council, did not view the Spurs as an isolated incident, stating that "society promotes male dominance and sexual promiscuity. It's in the culture."

A member of the Spur Posse was targeted in a racially motivated attack by a white supremacist group, Fourth Reich Skinheads. According to the prosecution, a juvenile set off a pipe bomb on one of the homes of a Spur member, "chosen because it was owned by a black man, while the Spur Posse member allegedly was picked because he is part Mexican and part Asian."

Members of the group and some of their families were shunned by their community, unable to find employment because of their infamy and continued to have run-ins with the law. In 1996, Spur Posse members Dana Kawamura and Ronnie Breceda "were arrested in connection with the near fatal stabbing of a young man at a New Year’s Eve party in Seal Beach. Kawamura and Breceda have been charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon." The article was also included in a different form in her 2003 book, Where I Was From. Didion's essay detailed the dark side of California suburbia tying moral decay to the deterioration of economic opportunities. Gustavo Arellano, in an essay for The Los Angeles Times, writes that Didion "unmasks the misogyny and racial animus of Lakewood’s white population."

The Spur Posse was covered at length in Susan Faludi's book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, including their formation, their fame and appearance on talk shows, and the aftermath. HBO planned to adapt the book "into an anthology of one or perhaps two films dramatizing the stories of some of the men depicted in the book" in 1999.

The X Files mentions the group in an episode, "Red Museum." Fox Mulder, played by David Duchovny, says "I think the Spur Posse just rode into town" after seeing a group of hostile teenagers. Dana Scully, played by Gillian Anderson, later quips, "kinda hard to tell who's the villain without a score card."

In 1995, Law & Order broadcast an episode, "Performance", based upon the case.

The group was mentioned in Spin Magazine's "Soy Un Perdedor: The 50 Worst Moments of the ’90s".

The main villains in the 1999 horror film, The Rage: Carrie 2, were based on the Spur Posse.

Spur Posse is mentioned in the Bratmobile song Brat Girl.

A made for TV movie, Restless Virgins, recalls Spur Posse's "sex for points" system that aired on Lifetime in 2013.

Public reaction

See also

References