City leaders, parents react to violent teen takeovers in Center City Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Violent teen takeovers in Center City Philadelphia are raising new safety concerns for those who frequent the area.

Recent clashes left a police officer bloodied and some teens arrested and cited.

“It’s sad. It’s super sad. Something needs to happen. They need to be taught a lesson,” said Shatia Lucas of West Philadelphia.

Lucas is one of many people calling for accountability after the back-to-back nights of unruly crowds in Center City.

Hundreds of teens descended on the area, leading to arrests, citations, gunshots and injuries to a Philadelphia police sergeant.

Center City Philadelphia chaos involving teens leads to 2nd night of arrests

“Great summer this year with so many great events. To see this type of thing happening is disheartening,” said 1st District Councilmember Mark Squilla. “As a city, we have to share that this is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Commissioner Kevin Bethel calls what happened disturbing.

Investigators are reportedly working with social media teams trying to be proactive to disperse crowds and stop events before they happen.

In a statement, Bethel says this is not a ‘kids having nothing to do’ problem, vowing there will be consequences.

“Despite a strong police presence and intelligence efforts to prevent these gatherings, we saw young people, some who appeared barely 10 years old, fighting, gridlocking traffic, and creating disorder that escalated to a sergeant being assaulted. Young people can enjoy their city without taking over the streets,” wrote Bethel.

There was a noticeably larger police presence surrounding City Hall Tuesday afternoon. Officers were seen on foot and bike patrolling the area and dispersing gathering teens.

Parents tell Action News they want to see legal ramifications for the teens involved and their parents.

“If the kids are out here acting unruly and causing disruption, the parents need to be held accountable, and the parents need to be charged as well as the kids. Once you send that strong message, the parents will get it and know where their kids are at,” said Darryl Richardson of West Philadelphia.

Shatia Lucas believes school and administration need to be involved in the disciplinary actions.

“They need to be reprimanded in school too. When I leave my job, I’m a representation of my job, so it’s the same thing for them. When they are leaving their school and coming down here acting crazy, they need to be getting in trouble in school,” said Lucas.

Action News did reach out to the mayor’s office to see if she has any comment on this situation, but we are still waiting to hear back.

Read the full statement from Commissioner Kevin Bethel:

“This past Labor Day weekend was, by almost every measure, one of the most peaceful we’ve had in years. That makes the behavior we saw from some young people especially disturbing. These teen takeovers aren’t just a Center City problem – they’re an issue across Philadelphia and in cities nationwide.

Despite a strong police presence and intelligence efforts to prevent these gatherings, we saw young people-some who appeared barely 10 years old-fighting, gridlocking traffic, and creating disorder that escalated to a sergeant being assaulted. Young people can enjoy their city without taking over the streets. This is not simply a “kids have nothing to do” problem. There are positive things for young people to do, and some are making a deliberate choice to create chaos.

But this cannot be solved by police alone. Parents and caretakers have a responsibility to know where their children are and what they’re doing. At the same time, there has to be accountability. If you come into any neighborhood in Philadelphia, and assault people, damage property, block streets or attack police officers, you should expect to be arrested. We are not going to allow a small group of people to create chaos without consequences.

We will continue putting resources where they’re needed, holding people accountable for crimes and keeping our approach to young people focused on both accountability and intervention.

I’m meeting with our City partners, in particular, the Office of Public Safety under Adam Geer, to discuss a comprehensive approach to this matter. We owe it to the overwhelming majority of young people who want to do the right thing – and to everyone who lives, works and visits Philadelphia – to make sure a small number don’t dictate what our city looks like.”

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