{"id":198557,"date":"2026-03-20T00:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/198557\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T00:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:58:08","slug":"frustration-concern-after-jacksonville-teen-takeover-turns-violent-kids-arent-being-monitored-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/198557\/","title":{"rendered":"Frustration, concern after Jacksonville teen takeover turns violent: &#8216;Kids aren&#8217;t being monitored&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Community members in Arlington said they\u2019re frustrated, concerned, and looking for answers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/teen-takeover-shut-down-blue-012007972.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:after another teen takeover turned violent at Blue Cypress Park.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;after another teen takeover turned violent at Blue Cypress Park.&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">after another teen takeover turned violent at Blue Cypress Park.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">While 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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said seeing the park shut down after the incidents was frustrating, especially when it\u2019s something meant for the entire community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">McKenzie believes part of the problem comes down to supervision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Kids aren\u2019t being monitored, and sometimes kids do what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But others said what\u2019s happening goes beyond boredom or lack of structure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Joanna Ale, founder of TSI Cares Network, said these gatherings point to something deeper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">And she points out, organizing hundreds of people isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\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<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Still, for neighbors like McKenzie, there\u2019s concern about what happens in the moment, when crowds grow, and situations escalate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said being part of a large group can quickly lead to decisions teens wouldn\u2019t normally make.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\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":"Community members in Arlington said they\u2019re frustrated, concerned, and looking for answers after another teen takeover turned violent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[91938,28387,116,118,117,88872],"class_list":["post-198557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-blue-cypress","tag-first-coast-news","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-mckenzie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198557","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=198557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}