They are among their school's most celebrated citizens when a number of them entice a mentally retarded girl into one of their homes and rape her with a baseball bat. As with the more recent events here, the community's reaction in Our Guys is first one of surprise and denial, then of growing outrage. A bone-chilling portrait of kids desperate to compensate for woefully incomplete interior lives and imaginations emerges between the lines of Lefkowitz's painstakingly researched book. For years prior to the rape, the main characters of Our Guys misbehave in a community that, time and again, serves more as their enabler than as their conscience. Class disruptions go unpunished.
Parents defend their offspring against the authorities.
Scrapes with the law are not taken seriously. On closer inspection, though, the difference melts away. So, too, it seems power and control are involved when a person dons a mask, walks into a place of business and puts a gun to someone's head. More than anything else, Lefkowitz's book suggests why their conduct wasn't attended to sooner. In Glen Ridge, at least, the sociology of the place prevented anyone in a position of responsibility from taking effective action, and no one saw the danger until it was too late.