The South Street "Riots" - Update: The Reason This is Stupid

The best way to sum up the general reaction to this is simple:

HOLY CRAP! TEENAGERS ARE GETTING TOGETHER AT ONCE TO JUST HANG OUT!



<--- This is how you and many others are reacting



Now, I'm just as guilty. A year ago, I was actually semi-headlining the group of people who thought this was the start of something big and horrible. That was actually as late as May of last year. Since then, the groups have come and gone.

So this past Saturday, on the first nice Saturday of the year, after a long , cold, snowy winter, the weather was awesome and people did what they normally do on those days: they go out and have fun. In this case, it was 3000 teenagers doing the same thing at the same time; going down to South Street to hang out.

I'm not going to hold back and I'm not going to be elegant: The fact that this is a crowd of basically over 3000 black teenagers is a little unsettling to a lot of people in this city. In fact, its unsettling to... everyone. White, black, hispanic, etc... its a pretty insane thing to witness and be stuck in the middle of. Would it be different if the skin color was different? I doubt it. Its still a large group of teenagers descending on a single area for seemingly no reason.

One thing I saw tossed around was "how is this different than when people go out after the Phillies win"? You basically just answered your own question. It's different for two key reasons: First, its about celebrating after a team basically everyone in the city loves win the biggest game in their career, and the city goes nuts. The second is that said reaction in understood, properly prepared for, and actually has a point.

So, these gatherings... what are we missing here? Easy: They're young. Look, if you grew up in this city during the last 25 years, you know that EVERYTHING shuts down in this city at 7PM, and there isn't anything interesting to do here unless you either have money or drink. Otherwise, your options are limited. So what you did was go down to South Street because it was the only place around where there was anything cool to do. Well, WAS, but you get the point.

Brian Sweeny of Philebrtiy said it best:

But have you noticed that both of the big flash mob incidents lately — the one at Macy’s earlier this month and the one on South Street on Saturday — have occurred in places that, not so very long ago, were vibrant hubs of the city but are now retail dead zones, symbols of civic failure?

God bless, you hit the nail on the head!

Official Statement from OurSpace.com Concerning the South Street Riots

An official e-mail was sent out from OurSpace.com concerning the events on Saturday:

Increase the Peace on OurSpace.com

Here at OurSpace.com we are pleased to report that the majority of our users have embraced the site wholeheartedly, using it to build new relationships and promote themselves in a constructive manner. To these users, we'd like to express our deepest gratitude. Thank you for positively representing our community.

As with any great opportunity, there is bound to be a small population who chooses to use it in an inappropriate way. Recent news reports have described shocking and appalling teen rampages happening in Philadelphia which allegedly have been linked to OurSpace.com .

View the report.

The OurSpace.com team would like to express our deep disheartenment with the recent events. We built OurSpace to be a positive venue for our users to represent themselves and their communities and do not condone the use of our site to incite violence, destruction, or harassment. We have taken these recent events and any potential ties to our site seriously and are investigating carefully. While we work hard to keep you and your site safe, we ask that you help us by reporting any threatening remarks, any organization of group violence, or other blatant misuse of the site by flagging the offenders or writing us using the OurSpace.com contact form.

-- OurSpace.com Team

Investigations on my end have met dead ends and no possible leads. Since they control the servers and could catch any data sent during that time that a user may had deleted, and its a short amount of time and, really, a fraction of data that would be easy to pinpoint, I think its safe to say that if they have some involvement from users, we'll see an answer soon.

South Street Riots: UPDATE! - Possible Sources, Size

On a forum posting on PhillyBlog by a user named Gladys Kravitz, Gladys states that she received an e-mail from the Bella Vista Town Watch with information for Lt. Gerry McShea of the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD):

"During the past two Saturday nights, thousands of African American youth, (roughly six to 10 thousand people, ages 12 to 18, by McShea's estimates) descended onto South Street. On Saturday, May 23rd, the crowd scene resulted in some vandalism. But late last Saturday night, May 30th, as an increased police presence pushed the teens off South Street, the crowd spilled over into neighborhoods, and some participants engaged in several robberies, a carjacking of cab, several assaults and also retail theft.

Police believe the crowds were responding to messages sent from an account or accounts on ourspace.com, a social networking site for African Americans. It was happening at 40th and Walnut for a couple months, and also Upper Darby, but is now centered on the South Street corridor.

After two weekends of unexpected chaos on South Street, the city is taking a "no-nonsense approach" to managing South Street crowds during the weekends leading up to the annual Greek Picnic on July 11, McShea said. Plans include a significantly increased police presence (including mounted state police officers) along South Street from Broad Street to Front Street, an on-site night court, and a curfew bus.

"At midnight, if we find anyone 18 and under still on the street, we're going to bring them in, and their parents will have to come and get them at the police district," said McShea. "Parents could also face a fine."

City officials are also reaching out to the Philadelphia School District and community officials to help diffuse the situation.

In past weeks, the crowds dispersed off South Street starting at and west of 12th Street.

"If anyone happens to see large crowds coming down the street, call 911 immediately, and then, after you've called 911, also call the South Street MiniStation at (215) 922-6706", said McShea. "We can dispatch from there."

"For business owners, when they see the surge, our advice is for them to just lock their doors", McShea said, adding police would attempt to direct the crowd away from restaurants with outdoor seating.

McShea suggested that residents outside at night should step inside if they see crowds of teens. What seemed to happen last week is that they singled out people and roughed them up for no apparent reason beyond the fact that they weren't with the crowd.

It's worth noting that the law in Philadelphia regarding Curfew are that minors must be inside at 10:30PM on Sunday - Thursday, and Midnight on Friday's and Saturday's. Fines are between $25 and $300.

Now, I think its safe to say that from here, its likely we won't see a crowd on South Street or 40th and Walnut anytime soon. That doesn't mean this is the end. What it means is that the methods used will be modified and that the crowds will, instead, go somewhere else. I can't predict where or how. But we could also see this come to a head Saturday.

I'll post anything more I find out about this as it develops.

Photos are courtesy of cowpaintings.

Is Social Networking As WE Know It Behind Saturday's Riots?

As of today, as of me typing this... there is NO EVIDENCE AT ALL that this was organized on a "Social Networking" website. None. Twitter, MySpace, Facebook... so far, nothing that anyone with a computer and an account on them can find readily, or ever with digging. A new name, called "Ourspace.com", was raised and has almost been debunked as of me writing this.

The police believe that these networks ARE to blame, and have taken steps to monitor them. A statment from "Spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore says police had noticed groups of teens gathering in the city in the last few weekends. He says officials will monitor the social networks to try to identify the ringleaders."

So are we seeing just this? Or are we too busy hunting down boogymen when, in reality, we should be hunting for something else?

One report states that teenagers were on cellphones making calls and texting during the event. This adds two things to what we see; the possibility of that this is being organized through cellphones, thus harder to track, or just a few people huddled in a mess they didn't creat. I sure was on my phone while I was stuck down there myself.

There is also the possiblity that, as I said, we're hunting the wrong thing down. Who's to say this isn't being done through something as simple as a message board? Its pretty easy to do: Create an online forum/message board that is marked as "private" and only approved users can either create an account or only registered members can access it. A word-of-mouth forum is entirely possible.

At the same time, we can't simply claim "isolated incident", either. Similar events have happened in Baltimore, MD at around the same time as similar events in Philadelphia that night. A pattern is emerging, and one is forced to question if these are, in fact, "Random events".

Right now, there are still questions with no real answers. Hopefully something concrete will arise.

So far, this is the only video found of the events from May 24th on South Street:

A Clearer Picture Emerges...

On Sunday morning at approximately 12:40 a.m., a tourist from L.A. asked my friends Adam Hostler, 20, and Danielle Lovier, 19, the way to Logan Square. They told him how to get there from Broad and Walnut, where they were waiting for a taxi. But before a cab came, a large crowd of males "pointed to us and ran" in their direction, says Adam. At least three of the males circled Adam and the tourist and punched them in their stomachs, arms and faces, while a few others recorded the proceedings on camera (Danielle was left alone). The mob moved on after chipping the tourist's tooth, stealing Adam's cell phone and leaving them both bruised.

The police on the scene told the victims that the attackers, most of whom were black, were out looking to mob white males and post videos of the attacks on YouTube. On Tuesday morning the Police Department confirmed receiving calls about incidents on Broad Street, and said one juvenile was arrested, but that it had no idea if the attacks were racially motivated, or if YouTube was somehow involved. We couldn't find any videos of the beatings.

-City Paper, May 27th

The timing places this event on the night of May 23rd/ Morning of May 24th, when the teenage mob arose the firs time a week earlier.

The same type of events seem to be happening in Baltimore as well.

Again, still nothing final here. No final links, nothing to actual connect anything... just a lot of patterns popping up. If you have info, please post it as a comment.

The Youth Are Revolting: Teenage Riots

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - May 31, 2009 (WPVI) -- A series of violent attacks and vandalism broke out in South Philadelphia overnight... and police say the culprits are juveniles and young adults.

The rampage started around midnight. Several dozen juveniles pulled a cab driver out of his taxi at 12th and South Street, then took off in the vehicle. They hit a car a few blocks away, injuring two people inside.

Other young people conducted similar attacks near Broad Street. Police say a woman who works in the Philadelphia District Attorney's office and her passenger were pulled from a Jeep and assaulted.

Another person was assaulted in a nearby McDonald's parking lot.

A mini market located at Broad and Catherine Street was also ransacked. Action News was there as store employees assessed the damage.

At least one person was hospitalized after being hit in the face and head.

Now, Philadelphia Police are asking for your help tracking down the suspects. Anyone with any information about these attacks is asked to call Philadelphia police.

SOURCE: 6ABC

----------------------------------

Youths rampage in South Phila.
By DAFNEY TALES
Philadelphia Daily News

Authorities are searching for a tech-savvy mob of teens who used online social networking sites to terrorize a South Philadelphia neighborhood Saturday night, police said.

More than 100 youths arranged via unspecified Internet-based means to meet on South Street near Broad about midnight, swarming the area and leading to a melee that ended only after the mob had hijacked a taxi, pulled a woman from her car and assaulted her, and ransacked a convenience store, police said.

Several people received minor injuries, including the taxi driver and the woman, a paralegal with the District Attorney's Office, police said.

A Daily News editor who was riding in a nearby taxi watched as the tide of youths swayed in different directions along South Street near 12th, as members of the group held cell phones to their ears or sent text messages.

It's annoying and frustrating that there doesn't seem to be any logic or reason to these events. No cause, no reason... just random occurrences where large groups of teenagers causing trouble.

For more information, please read my old post. Thanks!

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.

----------

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.

----

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.