Philly Mayor Sets 9 p.m. Weekend Curfew For Minors After Violent Flash Mob Attacks

[Severus Snape]

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has announced a tighter weekend curfew in Center City and University City, as he continues grappling with the threat of violent "flash mobs."

Earlier this month, CBS station KYW reports, Nutter condemned violent attacks saying, "I'm disgusted by this. This is just asinine, destructive behavior we can not tolerate," Williams said.

Nutter laid out a plan Monday to control the mob violence by instituting a temporary curfew for two key areas - Center City and University City - on Friday and Saturday nights, according to KYW.

Anyone under 18 in those areas must now be off the streets by 9 9 p.m., KYW reports.

Nutter also emphasized the importance of parental responsibility. When parents come to pick up curfew violators, the mayor said, they'll be told to keep track of the child.

"If you don't even bother to pick up your child, we are immediately calling the Department of Human Services, and you can then be taken to court for other violations including neglect of your child," he warned.

More on Crimesider

August 9, 2011 - Philly Mayor Michael Nutter condemns flash mob violence.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20090027-504083.html

Here are some victims of these awful attacks:



Another victim, but this video is directly from CBS so it can't embed here:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/ca...art=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6135158

And a video (about two months old), showing that the issue has yet to be resolved:



This has been going on for ages now, and the problem has yet to be resolved. I honestly think those kids should be arrested and treated like adults, I don't care if they're minors. In my honest opinion, the police shouldn't hesitate to use gun power to handle these flash mobs--they prefer this tactic exactly for that reason: to confuse and render the usual police reaction impractical. The problem with my solution would be the possibility of erroneously injuring innocent people, but I think that would be preferred to letting the mobs do it without any consequence.

This curfew idea is really akin to putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. Those children are sociopaths--I honestly don't care to hear their life story. There is no fathomable reason to target innocent civilians and brutally attack them. Anybody who thinks this permissible is best either locked away from society or else terminated--although I can't see the latter being a popular option. In any case, my point is, these kids would do best completely removed from society altogether. This is deviant on a massive scale--and the problem is that it's not just one nutter. It's an entire bunch of them!

Is rehabilitation and reintegration of such a deviant bunch even possible anymore? The entire thing would be less challenging if the transgressions were less severe, and if the perpetrators were much younger (younger children are more malleable). However, the greater part of these teenagers are already in their mid to late teens, with a select few being either pubescent (11-13) or legal adults (the eldest in one of these episodes was 19). By now, their personalities and habits are, for the greater part, already established. The pubescent lot may yet have a chance for rehabilitation, but the latter ones don't have such a bright prospect, especially if they come from "problem" families where either one of their parents are criminals/drug users/etc.

Relying on the parents to make a difference in the children's lives is completely moronic in and of itself--if they were competent parents, their children wouldn't be wandering the streets like urchins and wreaking havoc, now would they? Unfortunately, the only way to put a stop to any such misbehaviour is through drastic measures. The police force should consider the use of tranquilizer guns, I dunno. Obviously, we don't want to kill them, but we do want to set an example--and I think tranquilizers might be the answer. It might be expensive, but it will be a worthwhile and much-needed control on these barbaric mobs. Perhaps even the threat of them will prove to be enough to force those kids to desist:

Unfortunately, a lot of people are "softies" who are going to advocate for these monster kids through sob stories and god knows what else. While I would normally be sympathetic to someone whose childhood was not the ideal (especially since I can identify with such brokenness in family life), the entire circumstances change when the person in question is choosing to harm another innocent human being, especially in the most cowardly way of them all: group violence.