after another teen takeover turned violent at Blue Cypress Park.<\/a><\/p>\nWhile the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office continues to investigate what happened Wednesday night, the people who use the park every day say the impact is already being felt.<\/p>\n
Carlton McKenzie walks in the park regularly. For him, this isn\u2019t just about one night of chaos; it\u2019s about losing access to a space he depends on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bad because it makes things bad for people like myself,\u201d McKenzie said. \u201cIf they come out here and the park is closed, we can\u2019t utilize the facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said seeing the park shut down after the incidents was frustrating, especially when it\u2019s something meant for the entire community.<\/p>\n
McKenzie believes part of the problem comes down to supervision.<\/p>\n
“Kids aren\u2019t being monitored, and sometimes kids do what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
But others said what\u2019s happening goes beyond boredom or lack of structure.<\/p>\n
Joanna Ale, founder of TSI Cares Network, said these gatherings point to something deeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe teens are looking to be heard,\u201d Ale said. \u201cSomething is off, something is wrong, and they\u2019re trying to tell us, maybe the only way they know how.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says instead of only focusing on punishment, there needs to be more attention on why teens are organizing in the first place.<\/p>\n
And she points out, organizing hundreds of people isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat job being able to organize a large-scale event, that\u2019s hard,\u201d Ale said. \u201cSo imagine what these kids could do if that energy was channeled in a positive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, for neighbors like McKenzie, there\u2019s concern about what happens in the moment, when crowds grow, and situations escalate.<\/p>\n
He said being part of a large group can quickly lead to decisions teens wouldn\u2019t normally make.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get with the crowd, sometimes you do things you wish you had not done,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd sometimes it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Cypress Park was filled with over 200 teens Wednesday night, and Jacksonville community members are concerned the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-198354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}