\n\t\tMother pleads for son\u2019s charges to be dropped after Tampa teen takeover arrests\t<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cAnything to help the youth is something impactful,\u201d Shackleford said.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s event at the Jackson Heights NFL Yet Center stemmed from a chaotic scene last weekend. Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said these \u201cteen takeovers\u201d are a nationwide trend that can turn violent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just kids hanging out. This is chaos. That\u2019s something that\u2019s really causing the danger,\u201d said the chief. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s why the department is hosting this alternative. <\/p>\n
One teen shared what she believes the takeovers are really about.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I honestly think that people are attracted to drama, so they probably go out there to be in a chaotic crowd, which they think is fun, but they don\u2019t know that safe places like this is also called fun,\u201d said Kyra Lecount. <\/p>\n
TPD and community supporters turned Friday\u2019s event around fast. Chief Bercaw said alternatives for the youth can\u2019t solely come from the police, and it can\u2019t stop here. <\/p>\n
Shackleford said it starts at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an insult to the parents. A lot of parents weren\u2019t raised to know what to do for their children. So starting at home and having a mentor for the parents is a good start to keep the connection going,\u201d Shackleford said.<\/p>\n
Bercaw said parents getting involved and advocates stepping up are how to help prevent teen takeovers like last weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a community concern, not a law enforcement concern. We all have to come together,\u201d Bercaw said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 It\u2019s a teen takeover, with a purpose, under police supervision. Tampa police hosted an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-273266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273266","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=273266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}