- City leaders and the downtown business community in Philadelphia
are wringing their hands and calling for "tough action" against
a horde of some 150 high school kids from eight of the city's decrepit
and failing high schools who rampaged late Tuesday afternoon through the
Center City district's shops, from the Gallery mall at 10th Street to Macy's
near City Hall, frightening tourists and suburban shoppers, and knocking
over shopping displays.
-
- By evening, police had reportedly locked up 15 kids
who were charged with violent offenses, such as beating other kids or bystanders,
or destroying property (Macy's claimed damages to its flagship store totalling
$700). Some of these kids were held overnight on lesser charges such as
shoplifting or disturbing the peace.
-
- I'm not going to diminish the seriousness of the incident.
Nobody should be trashing stores or stealing things, and certainly nobody
should be hurting other people.
-
- At the same time, the official response, which has been
to treat minor crimes like shoplifting or engaging in showball fights on
the sidewalk or in the interior mall of City Hall like major criminal activity
and to seek heavy penalties against these kids reeks of the growing police-state
metality that is poisoning our society, locally and nationally.
-
- Some
of the kids who were arrested by police were under 16, and yet six hours
after they were locked up, many, and perhaps all of them, had been prevented
by Philadelphia Police from even contacting their parents....
-
- For the rest of this story, please go to:
-
- http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
|
