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OK, it’s time to stop making politically correct excuses for teen-mob violence in Philadelphia. I know, I know. The economy sucks and the inner city is getting hardest hit by budget cuts. Summer jobs are more scarce in Philly than clean streets. But give me a break.
These mobs that are beating up people and stealing their cell phones and stealing stuff from department stores can’t be shrugged off because times are tough. Only about 25 percent of teenagers nationwide are employed this summer, according an article by Annie Lowrey on slate.com, but presumably almost all of the other 75 percent are not kicking the crap out of folks. These are not kids who would be content to swim in their neighborhood public swimming pool. These are vicious street thugs who are not the victims, but the bullies.
It’s also time we stop whispering that these marauding mobs are black kids, as if it is somehow the fault of all black people. These punks have been committing black-on-black crime for years and the only time white people get excited about it (and that includes me) is when their violence spills over into white communities. Teen thugs like this don’t respect each other or their own community, so it is no surprise they don’t respect the rest of us either, black or white.
We worry about al-Qaida attacking us here at home, and rightly so. We have an entire federal agency — Homeland Security — and billions of dollars dedicated to the so-called War on Terror. But in the meantime, those of us who live in Philadelphia are trying to defend ourselves from another kind of home-grown terror that is much more of a real threat to our daily lives, whether you live in the inner city, shop in Center City or even take public transportation.
When you have to be warned not to so much as look at a bunch of street kids for fear they misinterpret it as a stare and use it as an excuse to beat the living crap out of you, then we are in deep trouble. When you have to be afraid to eat at an outdoor café because a bunch of teen thugs might want to use you as a punching bag for their amusement, then we are in danger of losing tourism and killing business in a town that can ill afford it. When you have to be afraid that carrying a cell phone might make you a target, what the hell does that say about who really controls the streets of this city?
Please don’t toss those crime statistics at me. Don’t insult my intelligence by telling me things are not out of the ordinary or this too will pass. I don’t care what the hell the crime statistics show, but I sure can measure the fear on the streets today. I know if a large group of loud, inner-city kids shows up, I’m finding someplace else to be. And that doesn’t make me feel good about myself because I know many inner-city kids themselves are victims of this senseless violence and are getting unfairly lumped in with the street punks simply because of their color or their hip-hop clothing. It stinks that a lot of us feel this way. As far as the teen mob violence fading away when the weather gets cold, I’m not content having to pray for winter. Besides, we all know these same punks then take their violence inside school walls and threaten teachers and their fellow students.
I don’t have the answers. I only know it seems to be getting worse. I used to think it was the drugs, but even drugs don’t explain what is happening. It doesn’t explain the coldness in the hearts of some of these kids that don’t seem to feel a thing when they are stomping on some poor victim. It’s not even just a boy thing anymore. You can’t blame it all on upsurge in testosterone to explain the girls who are joining in the chaos and digging the violence as much as the boys.
No kid is born bad, they say, and maybe so. But some of these street mobs are composed of kids so young and so violent even the juvenile court system is overwhelmed by them. It is as if through years of neglect and rage, we have raised some poisonous weeds that are threatening to kill anything beautiful around them. There is no belief system, no compassion and even no fear of dying. They are living for that violent moment of pouncing on the unsuspecting victim and picking them clean like a bird of prey.
We have heard a lot about how the technology of social networking has made it difficult to prevent these roving bands of young thugs from meeting to plan their violence, but this is beyond a Twitter or Facebook problem. When you can send out a message within minutes that can summon a group of teenagers hell bent on creating havoc, the medium is only a small part of the problem. The real problem is there is a teen mob out there only too ready to be told where to meet so they can feast on you or me.
How do we reason with kids who don’t value anything, even themselves? How do we stem the violence of kids who have already lost their souls? SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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