Curfews don’t work. Curfews are largely an American law enforcement oddity that have come under scrutiny since the rash of “flash mob” crimes racing across the nation. More on the flash mobs in a minute, but the curfews to thwart them brings back some of those good old-fashioned, Philadelphia childhood memories – which curfews were a part of.
The curfews never bothered us; there was nothing worth getting into at that time of night anyway. There comes a time of day, that as a youth, you are best off at home. You know how it goes, the curfew meant the younger of us had to be in, and the older would do what the older do. This of course did not mean the curfew itself could not be used as an outlet for youthful vigor.
Our little hang out was two miles from the neighborhood. As curfew time approached, a police officer would park his car, sit, and watch us. We would head home early wanting to play it safe. Day after day, this cop would come, sit, and watch – as if he was waiting for time to expire and round us up on a curfew violation.
It was not hard to figure out what to do about this cop. So, we tested it during heat of the summer day. Nine minutes later, the slowest of us arrived huffing, puffing and dripping in sweat after suffering through an essential two mile sprint through the humid summer Philadelphia city streets. (Pretty darn impressive when you think about it; kids, two miles, less than 9 minutes, through city streets, in the summer heat – not bad at all).
That evening was like any other. The cop pulled up, turned off his lights, and sat watching us, hoping that would be the night we would lose track of time so he could nab us. No such luck.
We sat and waited longer than usual.
“You guys are not going to make it home before curfew!” He yelled out.
“Shut up!” We yelled back.
Duke counted down to the 9-minute mark and in a flash, the mob of us was gone. The cop tired to follow, but there is no keeping up with a bunch of kids rifling through thin alleys, parked cars and across railroad tracks. Not to mention crossing the railroad tracks meant you better live there. No cop wanted a trumped up curfew violation that bad.
Ah, the good old days!
The curfews never bothered us; there was nothing worth getting into at that time of night anyway. There comes a time of day, that as a youth, you are best off at home. You know how it goes, the curfew meant the younger of us had to be in, and the older would do what the older do. This of course did not mean the curfew itself could not be used as an outlet for youthful vigor.
Our little hang out was two miles from the neighborhood. As curfew time approached, a police officer would park his car, sit, and watch us. We would head home early wanting to play it safe. Day after day, this cop would come, sit, and watch – as if he was waiting for time to expire and round us up on a curfew violation.
It was not hard to figure out what to do about this cop. So, we tested it during heat of the summer day. Nine minutes later, the slowest of us arrived huffing, puffing and dripping in sweat after suffering through an essential two mile sprint through the humid summer Philadelphia city streets. (Pretty darn impressive when you think about it; kids, two miles, less than 9 minutes, through city streets, in the summer heat – not bad at all).
That evening was like any other. The cop pulled up, turned off his lights, and sat watching us, hoping that would be the night we would lose track of time so he could nab us. No such luck.
We sat and waited longer than usual.
“You guys are not going to make it home before curfew!” He yelled out.
“Shut up!” We yelled back.
Duke counted down to the 9-minute mark and in a flash, the mob of us was gone. The cop tired to follow, but there is no keeping up with a bunch of kids rifling through thin alleys, parked cars and across railroad tracks. Not to mention crossing the railroad tracks meant you better live there. No cop wanted a trumped up curfew violation that bad.
Ah, the good old days!
The fact of the matter is that a certain “mob” mentality is developed as a survival tool. Someone is slower, clumsier, or unluckier than you; if nothing else – not as smart as you, allowing for your increased safety. To us, it was the law of large numbers meets the uncertainty of inner city life. If something were to go wrong, it would go wrong for someone other than you; comforting.
Art of the mob
Just as it provides safety, the mob contains power through its spontaneous and overwhelming rapidity. All of a sudden, “they” are all places at once making the individual insignificant.
Art of the mob
Just as it provides safety, the mob contains power through its spontaneous and overwhelming rapidity. All of a sudden, “they” are all places at once making the individual insignificant.
For the better, flash mobs have taken the form of art. Have you ever seen one? “Have you ever felt one?” is a better question. All eyes and attention is given to the spontaneous performers that seem to keep coming out of nowhere. You wonder if the person next to you is one of “them.” The performance is not that great, but you are taken back by its random suddenness. Their sudden appearance calls directly to your individuality in ways too infrequently felt. Through your subconscious runs a fairly harrowing thought; that even though you as an individual are in the majority of on lookers, both the spontaneity and organization of the flash have given them complete control. Oddly, you like it. The feeling of a group of people stealing control becomes enticing because they have done it solely to put a random smile on your face. Then they disperse, leaving you with a sense of pleasant victimization. A flash mob in art form is a cool thing to witness, but the feelings they leave with you are very telling. What happens when that flash mob changes their intent from one of an expression of art to an expression of deviance or even violence?
Political Black flash mob enabling
As far as signs of the times go, flash mobs have evolved to become perverse tools of social destruction inflicting group will upon the individual. Their mobbing is as much an act of defiance as it is unlawfulness. The inner city youth flash mob that was once a tool of protection and self-defense, is now notorious for cowardly acts of violence and criminal activity; textbook offshoots of inner city frustration - sense of frustration accented by the irony of the economic victimization of the very demographic that voted for their own socio-economic imperilment through unconditional racial-political support.
It is not uncommon to see Black unemployment at 50% and higher in inner cities with skyrocketing and disproportionate increases in social support programs like “food stamps.” Hope and the belief in self is what gets many of us out of the inner city – not affirmative action and government dependency. Today, the youth see the loss of hope and question the very potential of their own future. The flash mob has allowed them to lash out with a sense of safety and misguided anonymity against those whom they feel has wronged them; Whites. How do we explain to them that the modern Black, Democrat, liberal, political machine of today is just as oppressive as the Whites of yesterday were? To create, and now even force dependency upon the state on inner city Blacks is the problem – a problem no one wishes to address.
Interestingly, race is being largely down played in today’s newfound flash mob. The fact of the matter is that they are Black, inner city youth striking out against those whom they feel are responsible for their current plight of hopelessness. What we are missing in trying to grasp this new wave of social disorder is (and I have said this before); the Black community often identifies itself with whom it annihilates! On a very small and relatively insignificant level, this has started anew. It is described as attaining “epidemic proportion,” but it is not. At the same time the severity is exaggerated, race is at best passively addressed. While article titles now contain “Black Flash Mobs,” the articles fail to detail demographics and allow the “Blackness” of the flash mobs to only be identified through videos embedded in the article content – if you do not watch the video, you do not see the flash mobs are entirely comprised of Black youths. (It is a shame how uncomfortable we are with race realities compared to how aggressively we pursue the truly unsubstantiated claims of racism). The flash mobs are Black, frustrated youth – get over it!)
Inept law enforcement ideology
Law enforcement is now struggling with the spontaneity of the flash mobs. As in England, the contemplation is an assault on Social Networking – even though Social Networks have had very little to do with the flash mob incidents here in the US. Curfews have been and are being implemented – even though not a single flash mob incident has occurred during the hours of implemented or even proposed curfews. Long story short – American law enforcement agencies are products of political agenda and unable to adapt to that which is larger and more flexible than they are. Because of this, the “tools” who are implementing the tools law enforcement will not be able to combat this “threat” effectively without encroaching upon very well established constitutional rights of the American people.
The reason law enforcement will not be able to preemptively mitigate flash mobs is that these flash mobs are reflections of the current plight of Black, inner city youth and their lack of a promising future directly caused by the collapse of the American economy. If a law enforcement agency can correct this, they can stop the flash mobs. To quell the surge in flash mobs, all Americans must be delivered from the failing economic conditions this administration has delivered them to. More Black Democrats must begin speaking against the direction of modern liberal machine as Maxine Waters has finally started to do. More Black leaders must call this for what is as Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter has done. The Black inner city community must understand that their definition lies not in whom it attacks and annihilates, but by whom it embraces, loves and cherishes. None of which can be provided through law enforcement agencies that have been left holding the burden of the Black flash mobs. Fix the economy, solve the flash mob dilemma; unfortunately, this is not the direction the Obama administration is heading.
Talks of new stimulus, unsustainable spending levels, unmanageable national debt, downgraded credit ratings, persistent and increasing unemployment have become trademarks of the Obama administration – a course from which they refuse to yield. While the Obama led administration is devoutly supported by the Black inner city and now serves as its own antithesis against the very community that supports it the most. This unconditional racial support to the Obama administration because Obama is Black has delivered the Black inner city communities to a new level of desperation and despair. The flash mobs are simply a symptom of the larger and largely self inflicted Black social disorder.
As far as signs of the times go, flash mobs have evolved to become perverse tools of social destruction inflicting group will upon the individual. Their mobbing is as much an act of defiance as it is unlawfulness. The inner city youth flash mob that was once a tool of protection and self-defense, is now notorious for cowardly acts of violence and criminal activity; textbook offshoots of inner city frustration - sense of frustration accented by the irony of the economic victimization of the very demographic that voted for their own socio-economic imperilment through unconditional racial-political support.
It is not uncommon to see Black unemployment at 50% and higher in inner cities with skyrocketing and disproportionate increases in social support programs like “food stamps.” Hope and the belief in self is what gets many of us out of the inner city – not affirmative action and government dependency. Today, the youth see the loss of hope and question the very potential of their own future. The flash mob has allowed them to lash out with a sense of safety and misguided anonymity against those whom they feel has wronged them; Whites. How do we explain to them that the modern Black, Democrat, liberal, political machine of today is just as oppressive as the Whites of yesterday were? To create, and now even force dependency upon the state on inner city Blacks is the problem – a problem no one wishes to address.
Interestingly, race is being largely down played in today’s newfound flash mob. The fact of the matter is that they are Black, inner city youth striking out against those whom they feel are responsible for their current plight of hopelessness. What we are missing in trying to grasp this new wave of social disorder is (and I have said this before); the Black community often identifies itself with whom it annihilates! On a very small and relatively insignificant level, this has started anew. It is described as attaining “epidemic proportion,” but it is not. At the same time the severity is exaggerated, race is at best passively addressed. While article titles now contain “Black Flash Mobs,” the articles fail to detail demographics and allow the “Blackness” of the flash mobs to only be identified through videos embedded in the article content – if you do not watch the video, you do not see the flash mobs are entirely comprised of Black youths. (It is a shame how uncomfortable we are with race realities compared to how aggressively we pursue the truly unsubstantiated claims of racism). The flash mobs are Black, frustrated youth – get over it!)
Inept law enforcement ideology
Law enforcement is now struggling with the spontaneity of the flash mobs. As in England, the contemplation is an assault on Social Networking – even though Social Networks have had very little to do with the flash mob incidents here in the US. Curfews have been and are being implemented – even though not a single flash mob incident has occurred during the hours of implemented or even proposed curfews. Long story short – American law enforcement agencies are products of political agenda and unable to adapt to that which is larger and more flexible than they are. Because of this, the “tools” who are implementing the tools law enforcement will not be able to combat this “threat” effectively without encroaching upon very well established constitutional rights of the American people.
The reason law enforcement will not be able to preemptively mitigate flash mobs is that these flash mobs are reflections of the current plight of Black, inner city youth and their lack of a promising future directly caused by the collapse of the American economy. If a law enforcement agency can correct this, they can stop the flash mobs. To quell the surge in flash mobs, all Americans must be delivered from the failing economic conditions this administration has delivered them to. More Black Democrats must begin speaking against the direction of modern liberal machine as Maxine Waters has finally started to do. More Black leaders must call this for what is as Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter has done. The Black inner city community must understand that their definition lies not in whom it attacks and annihilates, but by whom it embraces, loves and cherishes. None of which can be provided through law enforcement agencies that have been left holding the burden of the Black flash mobs. Fix the economy, solve the flash mob dilemma; unfortunately, this is not the direction the Obama administration is heading.
Talks of new stimulus, unsustainable spending levels, unmanageable national debt, downgraded credit ratings, persistent and increasing unemployment have become trademarks of the Obama administration – a course from which they refuse to yield. While the Obama led administration is devoutly supported by the Black inner city and now serves as its own antithesis against the very community that supports it the most. This unconditional racial support to the Obama administration because Obama is Black has delivered the Black inner city communities to a new level of desperation and despair. The flash mobs are simply a symptom of the larger and largely self inflicted Black social disorder.
Granted, our mob antics were more out of deviance than anything else. Times were hard, and often during the summer months we were simply bored an unchallenged. Before long, the large group of Black youth mobilized as we sought out opportunities outside to the constricting boundaries of our own neighborhood. Most of us were uncommonly smart, highly fit, and athletic. We set forth not to harm, but felt the power of numbers as we swiftly moved against the Philadelphia backdrop. Pedestrians would yield the right of way to allow our trouble free passage. Police would stop, radio, and watch. Store owners would come to the front entrances of their businesses. Rapidly we would stroll through seeking only to get where we were going safely. The larger and far more aggressive kids from other neighborhoods would allow our passage in numbers as they were caught off guard by our sudden appearance. Challenges to change our course never ended well for them because we were organized and they were not. An older youth would brandish a weapon and become instantly swarmed, never getting a swing of a knife, or bat, or even having time enough to bring a gun level to fire a shot towards us. The only rule we were breaking; never leave our own neighborhood. Our vicious defense of self was the only tool we armed ourselves with; a tool we utilized without remorse on those who attempted to bring harm to us. Not a single trip was ever stopped, or diverted by any opposition – ever. The power of a mob is nothing less than incredible; the force of a mob is almost unstoppable.
We roamed free because we could. We determined that our borders were to be defined by us and only us. If a few of us wanted to go to Burger King (which was two neighborhoods away) would gather up and go. Going alone or in small numbers usually meant someone was not making it back, or stopping at the hospital before coming back if he was lucky. For us, the days of harm were over when we mobbed. We liked it and we used the mob to access opportunity denied through political zoning , wards, and biased law enforcement strategies. The only harm brought to another was in defense of those seeking to harm us because our deviance delivered us past their doorstep.
We roamed free because we could. We determined that our borders were to be defined by us and only us. If a few of us wanted to go to Burger King (which was two neighborhoods away) would gather up and go. Going alone or in small numbers usually meant someone was not making it back, or stopping at the hospital before coming back if he was lucky. For us, the days of harm were over when we mobbed. We liked it and we used the mob to access opportunity denied through political zoning , wards, and biased law enforcement strategies. The only harm brought to another was in defense of those seeking to harm us because our deviance delivered us past their doorstep.
Today, that which motivates the mob is different. To them, we have thrown their future of opportunity away while accusing the other of doing so. One blames the other through defending their own guilt in plight of the Black inner city community. Lost is the future of these kids. This is our fault, but the hammer will come down on them, not us. These “delinquents” will be rounded up one by one and their current acts of deviance will only further hinder an already bleak future. Many will see this as mere justice, but in the end, they will have been victimized by those of us whom have decided their future with our faulty voting premises and deliberate racial alliance to that which hinders our own people. This is not to say that Whites want better for Blacks than Blacks want for themselves, but that the Black political leadership selected by the Black community is particularly hurtful to the Black community.
So there you have it; flash mobs is a nut shell and how to solve the problem. While this will not be heeded, it is important to understand what is happening nonetheless. For the inner city Black, liberalism is the problem because White liberals (who “hate” racism) are getting ahead and Black inner city liberals are falling further behind because the liberal agenda is to deliver Blacks to full dependency on state as other pursue freedom and liberty. Stop one, you stop the other. The White liberal overlooks this because it does not fit their class provided definition of racism.
How shallow, sad, and ignorant.
So there you have it; flash mobs is a nut shell and how to solve the problem. While this will not be heeded, it is important to understand what is happening nonetheless. For the inner city Black, liberalism is the problem because White liberals (who “hate” racism) are getting ahead and Black inner city liberals are falling further behind because the liberal agenda is to deliver Blacks to full dependency on state as other pursue freedom and liberty. Stop one, you stop the other. The White liberal overlooks this because it does not fit their class provided definition of racism.
How shallow, sad, and ignorant.
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