"Flash Mob" Solution?
"Flash-mob" activities appear to represent as a bold new initiative by bored teens to shake up the world they live in and provide a little fun and entertainment for themselves. Challenging society to do something about it if they don't like it. Kids are entitled to their fun, after all. And adults recall that they were bored teens once, too, making fairly stupid choices to inject a little excitement into their lives. Enraging the mature people around them; their parents, police, the neighbours.
But that's how it goes. Somehow, though, teens from an earlier era, while they joined neighbourhood gangs, and hoisted cars for mischief and mayhem, driving them erratically until police stopped them and trooped them to their front doors, turning them over to their irate parents for discipline, never seemed quite as deliberately and profoundly contemptful of society as these kids are. Tweeting one another to show up for some fun.
Fun being comprised of terrifying people by their anti-social, self-entitled, sociopathic and deliberately vicious attitudes, quite obviously not giving a damn about those people whom their activities do harm to. Their utter lack of empathy for those whom they prey upon, their lack of concern for the destruction they cause, and the delight they take in availing themselves of 'free' goods looted from targeted shops are cause for real concern.
Because these young people present as a modern-day dilemma, and because they're 'just kids', society has attempted to be reasonable, to excuse their excesses, to adjust laws that protect society against its predators and criminal elements, to separate youth crime from crime committed by adults, with commensurately modest punishment meted out as disciplinary measures to turn the young people in the 'right' direction.
Doesn't work, though, because of course that too creates a further impression of entitlements, and contempt for the law that will not adequately and proportionately punish law-breakers simply because of their youth, irrespective of the severity of their crimes. No one in society feels comfortable in committing young people to long incarcerations where they will be exposed further to criminal elements and thought-processes, and their bitterness against society inflated through the experience.
What to do? Perhaps nip it in the bud. Perhaps impose a societally-protective, proactive youth-crime-de-stimulating limitation decreasing the potential for such current activities as "flash-mob" gatherings with their destructive intent and society-bashing values in the aftermath of which society feels helpless to react and the youth feel free to continue. Restrain them, keep them at home, and make it the law to do so.
Although imposing a curfew on young people with related penalties should they flaunt this by-law might seem like an imposition that tyrants use to truncate freedoms, sometimes it is justified, useful and needful. The mayor of Philadelphia has chosen to combat the growing incidence of marauding groups of teens and pre-teens in his bailiwick, as the duly authorized, democratically elected law-maker in his municipality by doing just that.
He has ordered that anyone in his jurisdiction under 18 must be off the streets by 9:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights in areas of the city plagued by collective youth outbreaks of casually organized violence. Caused, he stressed by a "relatively small number of complete knuckleheads". Mayor Michael Nutter (forget making anything punny of that surname) announced that increased police patrols are prepared to round up minors caught in the out-of-doors during curfew hours.
Their parents will be summoned to pick up their darlings, and could additionally face fines of $500 as a manner of public chastisement if their kids are picked up. To round out the penalties imposed upon the lack of parenting skills, charges of child neglect may snap them to attention if they fail to collect their children after notification.
Swarming kids up to no good to alleviate their burden or boredom have become a serious problem. Kids as young as 11 responding with alacrity and much feverish anticipation to the invitation to come out and join the mob to converge on some unfortunate venue to wreak havoc to their dear little hearts' content.
But that's how it goes. Somehow, though, teens from an earlier era, while they joined neighbourhood gangs, and hoisted cars for mischief and mayhem, driving them erratically until police stopped them and trooped them to their front doors, turning them over to their irate parents for discipline, never seemed quite as deliberately and profoundly contemptful of society as these kids are. Tweeting one another to show up for some fun.
Fun being comprised of terrifying people by their anti-social, self-entitled, sociopathic and deliberately vicious attitudes, quite obviously not giving a damn about those people whom their activities do harm to. Their utter lack of empathy for those whom they prey upon, their lack of concern for the destruction they cause, and the delight they take in availing themselves of 'free' goods looted from targeted shops are cause for real concern.
Because these young people present as a modern-day dilemma, and because they're 'just kids', society has attempted to be reasonable, to excuse their excesses, to adjust laws that protect society against its predators and criminal elements, to separate youth crime from crime committed by adults, with commensurately modest punishment meted out as disciplinary measures to turn the young people in the 'right' direction.
Doesn't work, though, because of course that too creates a further impression of entitlements, and contempt for the law that will not adequately and proportionately punish law-breakers simply because of their youth, irrespective of the severity of their crimes. No one in society feels comfortable in committing young people to long incarcerations where they will be exposed further to criminal elements and thought-processes, and their bitterness against society inflated through the experience.
What to do? Perhaps nip it in the bud. Perhaps impose a societally-protective, proactive youth-crime-de-stimulating limitation decreasing the potential for such current activities as "flash-mob" gatherings with their destructive intent and society-bashing values in the aftermath of which society feels helpless to react and the youth feel free to continue. Restrain them, keep them at home, and make it the law to do so.
Although imposing a curfew on young people with related penalties should they flaunt this by-law might seem like an imposition that tyrants use to truncate freedoms, sometimes it is justified, useful and needful. The mayor of Philadelphia has chosen to combat the growing incidence of marauding groups of teens and pre-teens in his bailiwick, as the duly authorized, democratically elected law-maker in his municipality by doing just that.
He has ordered that anyone in his jurisdiction under 18 must be off the streets by 9:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights in areas of the city plagued by collective youth outbreaks of casually organized violence. Caused, he stressed by a "relatively small number of complete knuckleheads". Mayor Michael Nutter (forget making anything punny of that surname) announced that increased police patrols are prepared to round up minors caught in the out-of-doors during curfew hours.
Their parents will be summoned to pick up their darlings, and could additionally face fines of $500 as a manner of public chastisement if their kids are picked up. To round out the penalties imposed upon the lack of parenting skills, charges of child neglect may snap them to attention if they fail to collect their children after notification.
Swarming kids up to no good to alleviate their burden or boredom have become a serious problem. Kids as young as 11 responding with alacrity and much feverish anticipation to the invitation to come out and join the mob to converge on some unfortunate venue to wreak havoc to their dear little hearts' content.
Labels: Social-Cultural Deviations, societal failures, United States
posted by Pieface @ 7:25 PM
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