The South Street Saturday Gatherings: What Is Going On?

UPDATE!!!!!

I want to apologize for the last two updates. So far, there is no concrete evidence of a social networking system was used for this. None at all! At this point, this really is just speculation and rumors, both on the part of the media, the police, and myself.

To that degree, I do apologize.

The fact is, there is nothing publicly visible on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, or any other social networking site that we can see. Nothing. Nada. Everything have been in reaction to it.

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More details are emerging about the organization of this event. Tips have led to of a Social Networking website for blacks called "OurSpace.com" being used to organize the events of Saturday night. No word yet as to the details, as they are scarce and nothing has been found yet.

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A user on PhillyBlog named "cowpaintings" posted that there is some rap group that is posting in some form, shape, or fashion that they are having an "Afterparty on South Street", thus the reason for the large number of people. The police were already well-aware of the event, yet the crowd was not put under control and steps to prevent it were not taken.

No word yet on who the rap group is, but it appears to be a group with local ties.

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The day did not start off well.

I was awoken at 10AM by nothing more than myself, yet I felt angry and annoyed. The rest of the day were lessons in frustration in multiple ways, and by 10PM, I had had enough and was on a train headed to Center City. The plan was simple: Go down to South Street where it would be fairly vacant and freak out anyone there with my "freak" attire. It isn't a habit or ritual for me. In fact, I'm normally just lying around the house getting ready to go to bed. A friend gave me a call, I told them what I was going to do, and as I approached South Street, I noticed a large group of teenagers standing around, almost as if there was a parade.

A parade. On South Street? At 10:30PM on a Saturday Night? Something was wrong here.

As I walked down South Street from 4th Street, the crowd thinned out at times. The group were largely black teenagers, with ages ranging from 15 towards 20. Some older men, but not much. Teenagers... a sea of teenagers. It was interesting, stunning, hilarious, terrifying, and annoying all at once. The crowd got worse and worse towards 6th and South, where police were there in mass as, for seemingly no reason, large portions of the crowd began to run around, causing havoc.

I walked by a sex shop with the workers by the windows, door locked, keys visible, left to wonder what was going on. I asked, "So, what's going on down here?" "Well, it seems someone posted something on MySpace or something to gather all these teenagers here. It happened last week, too, but no one really seems to know why."

As I walked towards the crowd at 6th and South, not caring about the volume of people or such, just wanting to get away, a herd to kids ran straight for me. I buffered them against my arm, some of them getting a little bumped on their way. I asked what was going on. No answers, just confusion.

I gave my friend a call back to let them know what I found and told them I would send them a text when I got home. Only a block from South Street, on Locust, the police were trying to get past traffic that was backed up. There didn't seem to be many people down there, which was nice.

I don't have any answers, and I'm sorry that that's the case. I'm writing this at 1AM and I saw a post on a forum around 12:30AM that said it was still going on.

EDIT: Word came in that this same group of people stole and crashed two cars and that this went on until around 3AM.

Photos are courtesy of cowpaintings.