If Romeo and Juliet Had Lived ...

One of the great stories in Western literature is that of Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers whose family feud led, ultimately, to their double suicide.

What if, however, Romeo had received Friar Laurence's message in a more timely fashion and he and Juliet had been whisked away from Verona without the bite of poison and dagger? That is, what might have happened if the most famous teenage couple of the Renaissance had lived?

A partial answer comes by way of the Rocky Mountain News, which reports a recent response by police in Commerce City, Colorado, to a domestic call involving a 21st-century teenage couple:

When Mom wears one set of gang colors and Dad wears another, conflict over how to raise the baby can cause irreconcilable differences.

At least that's what happened for one Commerce City couple.

Commerce City police were called to a disturbance Saturday at a Hollywood Video on East 64th Street, where a man reportedly was harassing his ex-girlfriend, who was working there.

The man knocked over a computer and a magazine stand and yelled obscenities at her, witnesses said.

He left the store before police arrived.

When officers questioned the woman, they learned that the two had been together for four years and were the parents of a child.

When police asked the woman why the two had separated, she said they have "different ideas about how the baby should be raised," according to a police report.

When officer Daniel Swift asked the woman what she meant by that, she said that the two belong to different street gangs.

"They could not agree on which gang the baby would claim," Swift said.

Whether Montagues and Capulets or Crips and Bloods, doesn't Romeo Jr. deserve an identity?

H/T: Chuck Muth