Mob appeal for teens: 'It builds them up'

This story was reported by staff writers David Gambacorta, Stephanie Farr, Valerie Russ and Christine Olley and written by Will Bunch. Contact them at gambacd@phillynews.com or 215-854-5994.

JOHN LADERER, 16, an Overbrook High student, was shopping in Center City Saturday night when he and some friends stumbled on the violent flash mob of fellow teens rampaging on South Street.

He said that his instinct was to get away but that he understood the impulses that motivated so many others to join the fray.

"It builds them up, like their reputation," Laderer said last night outside a forum on city youth violence arranged by radio station Power 99. "I think some people are just trying to be as hard as the tattoos they're getting."

Laderer has been there himself. Earlier this year, he said, he was arrested for possessing three bags of marijuana while hanging out with a friend. Initially, he said, he felt a rush. "My dad was lecturing me," he said, "but I thought, 'I just got locked up. I'm hard.' "

They want to be somebody - to be recognized. They're bored and desperate for something to do, and they can use Facebook and MySpace to see what's going on. Boys think it's exciting to watch other kids fight. And there's usually not a parent in sight.

As grown-ups struggle to understand why Philadelphia is the epicenter of the outbreak of spontaneous youth violence labeled as flash mobs, teens and social workers did their best yesterday to explain the alarming phenomenon.

There have been four major flash mobs - Internet-summoned throngs of rowdy and too frequently violent youths - since December, either in Center City or on South Street, where a teen mob forced businesses to shutter early last Saturday night.

The crowds, numbering in the hundreds or more, that at times have pushed around or punched strangers have inspired tough talk and harsh actions from civic leaders. Twenty-nine participants were convicted this week in Family Court of felony rioting, and some of these youths are behind bars as Mayor Nutter also talks of expanding the hours and scope of the teen curfew.

At the same time, the newest youth crisis has also sparked a push to understand the root causes - including events such as last night's radio forum, which featured Power 99 radio personalities Mikey Dredd and Uncle O and five kids who recited a litany of teen problems.

At its core, the answers they came up with are as old as American inner-city poverty and blight itself: Rowdiness and violence as coping mechanisms for the things that Philadelphia's worst neighborhoods lack - a list that includes youth activities, responsible adults, self-esteem and future prospects.

"If somebody texts one of those kids and tells them to come down to South Street, they would go down there to be a part of something because they are bored," said Rashida Ali-Campbell, 32, founder of LoveLovingLove Inc., a nonprofit, grass-roots organization that works with teens in the city's roughest neighborhoods. "The number of kids who are participating in so-called flash mobs are getting larger because there are less and less things for them to do."

"The word boredom . . . means you have no sense of purpose, your life has no meaning," Ali-Campbell added. "You are wandering around. You're like a lamb, so you'll follow somebody anywhere. Most of those kids who went downtown, they didn't know why they were going."

Raised in homes frequently with absent fathers and working mothers, teens are instead forming close bonds in neighborhood groups to replace the family, according to kids and adults who work closely with them. Unlike families, these gang-like neighborhood groupings are prone to fighting with each other.

"If you bump into another group, it's on," said a female student from Mastery Charter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Sometimes people just go there just to fight."

In a sense, it doesn't sound too different from the kind of gang violence that plagued Philadelphia and other large American cities throughout the last half of the 20th century. What's changed, of course, is the technology - especially social networking on the Internet - that allows much larger groups to form much more quickly.

"One group sends a Facebook message to another group to tell them to meet them there, and then they tell everybody else to come," the student added.

Not surprisingly, teens say there are a lot of adult misconceptions about the flash mob. For one thing, none of the teens involved used that terminology.

"Well, so far as I know, we get these mass text, or Facebooks or tweets telling us all come meet down South Street. But it's not for, you know, mobbing; it's to like have fun," said Kiki Adams, a Philadelphia high school senior who was at the mayhem on South Street.

"But you know teenagers," she added. "They get out of control. One person start actin' up so everybody else feel like OK we can do it."

The senior confirmed what other teens have also been saying, that the groups involved in the mob incidents have been previously unknown neighborhood party groups with names like AAS - All Adidas S---, or A.B.M. - All About Money - or the Platter Boyz. The groups, which have their own hoodies and post videos on YouTube.com, compete to see who can have the biggest parties or quarrel over boasts or taunts posted online, or "cyber chatting."

Getting arrested isn't an obstacle; it helps in getting a rep.

"You got some kids who think jail is where it's at," Laderer said, "because their dad is in jail, or their brother is in jail. They don't care."

Two months in a juvenile facility showed him otherwise. "It was terrible," Laderer said. "I kept thinking about things I wished I had done differently. I realized that this was a stain on my sheet, and not something good." When Laderer got out, he started working with the Youth Outreach Adolescent Community Awareness Program, or YOACAP, which helped organize the radio forum.

"I think part of the reason why they are doing this is they are trying to find an identity, trying to fit in with a certain group - and feeling like the media is blowing it out of proportion," said Ebony Joyner, program manager for YOACAP's Project Build.

"Young people do respond to boundaries," said Queen Mother Falaka Fattah, founder of the House of Umoja for young troubled men, who worked to end gang violence among teenagers in the 1960s and '70s. "It has to be a combination of adults letting the kids know we really love and care for them and to the young people understanding that there are consequences if they make the wrong choices."

Also, some kids and adults alike wonder if too much police presence in response to reports of flash mobs worsens things.

Molefi Kete Asante, Temple University professor of African-American studies, said that "rather than calling it a flash mob, I think that what occurred was young people just got out of hand in reaction to the presence of police."