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Philly's "flash mob" story goes national, and everybody's talking about race but us
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Philly's "flash mob" story goes national, and everybody's talking about race but us
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| Lawrence Kesterson, Philly.com online gallery |
Yes, Philly finally made the front page of the New York Times – did we even get that for Phillies' WFCship? – and it's for ... flash mobs.
Ah, well.
The Times covered this as a national story, using Philly's recent incidents as an example of the way the flash mob has mutated from its pillow-fighting, silent iPod dance party origins.
The article was pretty bland, consisting largely of canned quotes from various public officials and youth advocates: the former blaming kids and parents; the latter blaming the public officials.
But there was, I think, a buried lead:
The flash mobs have raised questions about race and class.
Most of the teenagers who have taken part in them are black and from poor neighborhoods. Most of the areas hit have been predominantly white business districts.
It's true: and it's a point the mainstream has stayed away from so far – with the exception of the Daily News' Stu Bykofsky, who brought up the topic in his column yesterday.
"Flash mobs" was the topic on "Tell Me More," NPR's newest attempt at having a non-white-people-focused show (I think their word is "multi-cultural," but it totally replaced "News and Notes"), and it was introduced with a tag line something like "Some see racism in the response" to the flash mobs.
I think that race – and class, and systemic poverty and the various Big Issues that plague our city – do matter in this discussion.
A particularly uncomfortable experience is viewing Philly.com's online gallery of the South Street incident, which juxtaposes scenes of bedlam – full of black faces – with scenes of white business owners and one (white) bruised worker.
I'm posting this in the hope (remote it may be) that I don't inadvertently invite a slew of racist comments. A discussion about these incidents is immature if we don't admit that race and class figure in somewhere. But, obviously, it's a starting point - not a destination.
I see two lines of predictable response shaping up.
There's the hard-line answer, as expressed by Mayor Nutter and Police Chief Ramsey, which goes like this: This isn't about race, class, opportunity, government, – it's about bad parenting. And if you can't keep 'em home, we'll lock 'em up:
Said Nutter to the NYT: "There is no racial component to stupid behavior, and parents should not be looking to the government to provide entertainment for their children."
Said Ramsey at a press conference: "It's not the government's responsibility to raise your child. It's your responsibility. When we get involved as police, it's too late for the tears."
It strikes me as wishfully simplistic: all bark and no bite. If there's one thing the city can't enforce, it's good parenting. Nutter and Ramsey can wipe their hands of this all they want – but they'll still have to answer to residents after the next incident. And unless something drastic happens, there will be another incident.
Which brings me to the second line of response: liberal denial.
This line of rhetoric emphasizes that these are just teenagers trying to have a good time, that the response has been overblown and the allegations of violence exaggerated.You want to point fingers? Point them at reduced library and pool hours, insufficient after-school programs, cuts in anti-violence programs.
I don't buy that, either. First of all, these are teenagers - not little kids. They don't want to go to a library, they want to party and be obnoxious (like a lot of us did and were). That's fine – it's the violence that changes everything.
Because, despite what I hear from a surprising number of progressive-types, these incidents have been violent – disturbingly, sickeningly violent. Last May, a 54-year-old man was pulled from his bicycle and critically beaten; a cab driver was assaulted. On Market Street a month ago, youths knocked over pedestrians. At least a few people seem to have been beaten in last weekend's incident on South Street. Sorry: but victims come first.
I don't think this is just about a lack of things do to: there's something deeper and much scarier at work here. I think that you have to connect these incidents to the attack at South Philadelphia High – and to Greek Picnic, and to a disturbing number of cases of kids committing violence en masse.
Frankly, I suspect something terrible is building. I don't like to say it. But, on the eve of another hot Philadelphia summer – we'd better be ready for it.
How? I dunno. But here's my two cents:
Have a couple police dedicated to monitoring social networking sites to look out for this stuff.
- Do what we do for adult white drunk weekend people: We know where they gather, and we post a ton of cops. Philly teens gather at predictable locations, if not at predictable times, right? How hard can it be?
- Consider closing off South Street and 40th street for a few blocks on weekends. You can hardly get through anyway, there's no parking, and the congestion of cars only makes it harder for cops to keep track of anything (especially bike cops, who are pretty effective on South Street).
- Give a serious and un-cowardly look at City Controller Alan Butkovitz' suggestion to curb students' use of city-issued SEPTA trans-passes. His suggestions are intelligent, reasonable, and – unlike yelling at parents or espousing social theories – immediately practical.
- Enlist SEPTA workers (insanely busy as we all know they are not giving change) to alert police to high numbers of teens getting on the system.
- Consider posting city-employed non-police security officers (a la University City) at a few corners along South Street to alert cops to developing problems. If the city won't pay, maybe South Street businesses can chip in enough to hire a couple of guards.
Enough: What do you think?
Race is indeed the giant elephant in the room that everyone wants to dance around. But there's a reason for that: Anyone who brings it up will be called a racist and then crucified by the apologists for the rioters. These are kids for whom their parents were never there, were constantly told that people who did well in school or waited there turn in line or were nice to others were suckers, that any interests outside of jewelry and baggy pants was gay, and that it was okay to assault whoever you wanted because you would never be disciplined. And I will be called a racist even though what I just said was the truth.
The businesses on South Street have been suffering for years, and many have just wholesale shut down already. I know this seems like a minor point to make when we're worried about violence, but closing off whole city blocks during summer, when those companies make their annual sales goals, is going to crush even more small businesses. There has to be a way to get at something systemic without punishing the neighborhood being affected even more. Can we look at the culture of violence in public schools, since as a city, we obviously can't enforce better parenting? What if we instituted a public service requirement for graduation, to counterbalance some sense of aimlessness? (Would that miss all the kids who skip school anyway?) What if we had decent scared-straight speakers in high school, who connected with students on racial/class grounds and were eloquent enough to make casual violence seem like a bad choice? Aren't there smaller, more cost-effective steps to avert a serious crisis? I agree that more cops in obvious places seem like a good idea, I just think these kids need to actually learn some other priorities or they will be a problem for themselves and the city as they grow into adulthood. School is, after all, where you can learn worthwhile things.
the city.... The core problem is violence, plain and simple. Whether perpetrated by bored teens, or by drunken adults, it needs to be dealt with summarily.
Over-react? Do you think the girl who got her teeth knocked out was over-reacting? How about the people who were trampled, as these bored young people ran down South? This isn't merely a bunch of youths, enjoying the freshness of Spring. While I'm glad you felt, at 5th & Bainbridge, that everything was hunky-dory, that simply isn't the case in other parts of
Let's not over-react. There is a central phenomenon of bored jerky kids annoying adults, and then there is an epi-phenomenon of thugs who use the gatherings for cover (as they do with Hip Hop festivals and Greek Picnics, ruining it for everyone). We are SO not about to descend into a maelstrom of race riots or class conflict--I just don't see that and I didn't see that from my home at 5th and Bainbridge as streams of young people walked around on the first nice day of spring. What I do see is an unnerving anachronism in media coverage--there were upwards of 2000 kids on South Street, most of whom did nothing except tweet and gather for attention. I think the appropriate analogy is the white Irish who behave no better during Mummers parades--there is a core group of revelers and a trailing tail of nasty drunken violent thugs. And yet the media never report on an angry, disenfranchised Irish mob threatening to erupt into full-scale class war and destroy the fabric of civilized life in Philadelphia. So why do it because these kids are black? Because it sends an antebellum frisson up white journalists' spines to see an all-black gathering? I would suggest that we focus on the components of the problem instead of forcing the event into a historical trope that is hardly relevant (i.e., the angry black mob). There is the core problem of bored teenagers disrupting normal business and scaring off paying visitors. This is a problem we already contend with on South Street every summer weekend night. Then there is the epi-phenomenon of nasty violent thugs. This is also a problem we contend with all year round in all parts of the city, or anywhere else there is human habitation frankly. If the police are going to make arrests during these events, the most effective arrests would be these people--not the random jerky teenager. And as for the rest of us, let's take a deep breath and give these tired old Heart-of-Darkness tropes a rest.
Let's see, we have a president telling a huge portion of the country to "bring it on." Here's a small sampling of the hate speech by our illustrious president toward the citizens in this country: Obama has “taunted” and disrespected Americans with his words “bring it on,” “go for it,” that “typical white people,” “shouting about the end of the world,” “ get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them,” “like the special Olympics” America has “this enormous, tragic history,” “America is no longer what it once was." I will agree that America is not what it once was. Never before has a president shown such disrespect - and we have a v.p. that's throwing the f' bomb around...with practically no one remarking about it. What kind of examples are these? The Democratic party has become a corrupt bunch of thugs...and are inciting our entire country - and infuriating us - with their ineptitude. Where can these kids find work? What hope do they have for the future? Their moms may work - or use crack - either way, they have a lack of supervision and modeling. Republicans will never give up. I love them for that. They have a strong belief that every American can have a future. Not a future that is mortgaged to the unborn. But a stable, secure future founded in a country that has some stability. America can offer nothing right now. This health care fiasco was a retarded attempt to address the Medicare/Medicaid problem. Piling trillions of dollars in this fiasco of a bill is no answer - nor is immigration reform. Your attorney general is attempting to address the over-reaching power grab by the present administration. States have the rights to checks and balances - they do it to protect our individual rights. In light of this - I ask that you call Governor and tell him that he has had his day in the sun...to accept that he is old and dying...and to shut his mouth and to fulfill the remainder of his term without interference or his own political gain. Call your Attorney General and offer full support. This is your American civic duty. Provide a model of responsibility, faith, and action to these kids. That's what they need. Bold action by ethical people. That's who we are.
Wow. I grew up on the Lower East Side when the drug trade got entrenched and it was very scary, but if you avoided where the gangs congregated you had a chance. There were safe blocks and unsafe blocks. I can't handle the possibility that a mob can just come out of nowhere and beat people up. I'm SO not visiting Philadelphia.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by LucindaLunacy, DJ Marilyn Thomas, Poliana, Yancey @YanceyG, philly news now and others. philly news now said: Philly’s “flash mob” story goes national – and everybody’s talking about race but us.: Lawrence Kesterson, Philly.... http://bit.ly/9nxu4U [...]
You don't suppose that there is some mass mind control going on behind the scenes? If so by whom and for what objective.Could it be the New World Order stir up chaos so as to make martial law and a dictatorship look like a good idea.stay tuned.
3rd idea make sense...stop subsidizing their ability to congregate...I don't know much about how the student passes work, but seems like something they could roll out during next school-year...maybe having fewer teens as a human shield/smokescreen would reduce the likelihood of violent individuals acting up.
The thing that sticks out for me is the fact the teenage crowd is so uniformly African American. My impression of the last decade or so has been that racial divides were being bridged, especially among the young. The fact that this crowd, supposedly organized through twitter and facebook and thus in public, is so uniform freaks me out. Did no white or asian teenagers get the tweets? Or did they get them and not respond? It's depressing to think that this generation is just as segregated as previous ones, despite the fact that digital communications hold the promise of enabling post-racial society. As for solutions, I think closing South street to vehicles is a great idea. Especially since I live there and the noise from car stereos drives me nuts. I also suggest stepping up enforcement of nuisance crimes--loud radios, littering, etc. I think the kids have the right to assemble, they just need to be policed better to keep the disturbance to a minimum.
Limiting Transpasses to time out at 4pm is a idea whose time has come. Why hasn't the mayor put this in place? It's not my job as taxpayer to subsidize unsupervised teens after school going all over the city. They need to be close to home where people who know them will watch them.
There are more flash mobs being called for this weekend according to reports made earlier this week on WPVI's website. NYC did zero tolerance, and that city now has their lowest murder rate in their recorded history. Zero tolerance/broken window theory works. Our pols have to stop pandering to the cheap votes of parents who don't want to be part of their kids' lives. Kids committing crimes need to be shunted into the system where they can get the help they need.
Random violence is the main reason I always carry when I have to go into Philly. It's too bad these savages didn't run into someone who was willing to defend themselves. Over reaction?? How stupid can you get. There was a story in the paper about the young woman who was a victim of these ghetto sissies. She was set on by several of these animals and sustained severe injuries. The police need to do whatever is necessary to crush these riots including using deadly force!
The Inky did tackle the race issue in the Sunday issue. Surprisingly blunt piece: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/89343497.html @Allitia, "Antibellum frisson," that is amazing. Though still a liberal apology; albeit a well written one.
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