Roving gangs of teens have police on alert in Center City
24-hour breaking news, sports, weather, entertainment, and more with coverage from The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.
Roving gangs of teens have police on alert in Center City
Police are monitoring large groups of roving teenagers in Center City.
Police said they had been alerted that youths planned to gather in the area in response to a dust up earlier in the week at the food court at the Gallery.
The message for the gathering apprently had been spread via the Internet, police said.
Security guards were posted at every entrance to the Gallery Mall on Market Street and reportedly were not letting anyone under the age of 18 in.
Police reported groups of 100 to 200 teens in the areas of Market Street, Sansom Street, Chestnut Street and Broad Street starting around 2 p.m..
One woman who was Christmas shopping reported she had been punched in the face by a girl after she found herself in the midst of 70 to 100 youths on Market Street. The blow bruised her face and knocked out a lens to her sunglasses.
Police have set up a command center at the Gallery.
Six police vehicles responded to a Wendy's on 15th and Chestnut when a call came that there were 100 teens inside. The officers dispersed the group.
In the midst of the confusion, a man robbed a bank at 18th and Market Streets about 2 p.m.
Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.
Comments (61)
Crime is always related to money and this is the root of things. Nevertheless, there is hope! make money facebook (HTML deleted)— php- Just set the police loose on them with nightsticks and firehoses. Problem solved.— teddyartboy
- Roman Catholic and Hallahan are both schools located near Center City, yet you never hear about them roaming the streets in packs looking for someone to assault. Gosh, I wonder why that is?— The_Unknown-Poster
- Plenty of the usual stupidity on here and then some. I will say though that this is a problem though I have encountered at Market East a couple of times over the past few years because of truant kids (who usually are black).— MG77
- animals— Murphy1120
Comment removed.- This is why we need to add crime cameras in the city. We catch these kids on film and then they can be arrested and prosecuted. They are making choices that should send them to jail. To bad they won't be able to tweet while their getting beat up in prison.— lane103
- Former Philadelphian, living in North Jersey. My wife and I were thinking of another holiday shopping trip to Center City and the Reading Terminal Market. After reading of roving youths downtown, we will take a pass.— gxel
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Frinkie: Agreed. Not allowing government funding for unwanted / unqualified pregnancies only breeds (pardon the pun) more of this................— Liberty4All
- Isn't it ironic that this occurred on the same day 1 of the defendants was sentenced for the murder of the Starbucks manager at the 13th & Market ST subway concourse.... It seems that these out of control 'yutes' need to have prison terms dealt to them. Yeah, close the Gallery - it's a cesspool.— Liberty4All
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- No wonder there were cops, security and kids everywhere. The Gallery is gross, can't they move the Market East Station elsewhere.
- saw the same thing in Baltimore's Inner Harbor last July 4, despite the presence of 2,000 police and police cadets all over the place....nice job of parenting here...this begins at home...it doesnt take a village..it takes caring parent(s)...by age 5 or 6, without a set framework, you're screwed...the schools can't fix kids who arrive aimless and purposeless...so add 5-7 years and you get a teen who abides no one and no rules— frinkie
- Them Amish and Devon Kids are a nuisance.— jtw
- I have a license and carry a gun. Perhaps this is why I welcome this warning, so I can avoid this area. The last thing I would want to do is to be forced to draw a weapon to defend myself from a gang of underage punks.— DonQ
- We need martial law right now. Terrible to say but I think that could be the only thing that saves this city. It's spiraling out of control.— tr88
- I guess Philly will need to create a task force or committee (all with benefits, of course) to study this phenomenon. The ousted BRT members can apply.
- FMT, are you justifying their behavior. I can only feel sorry for your kis.
- It's incredible that there are still people who believe that " all they need are jobs" or "only poor, black people commit crimes" palaver. Those theories were discredited years ago. That kind of thinking went out with Jimmy Cagney and the Dead End Kids movies. Did workngirl ever stop to think that they can't be so impoverished if they're organizing by cell phone and internet - unless workngirl is the type who believes that one is deprived if one doesn't have cable tv. Which she might be. They do this because they are mean bullies, or being directed by mean bullies in the absence of responsible parenting,coupled with the fact that the Philadelphia Police Department is pathetic, the courts in Philly even worse, the Probation Officers just collect their paychecks, the same goes for the social workers and the school district is the worst of all. Meanwhile the politicians just keep giving the tax money away without demanding results. The only result they want is for the police, social workers, teachers etc to vote for them. This is why Philly is so screwed up.— Morroe
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- And people constantly complain that the teachers can't control the kids. If the cops can't handle them, what do you expect fro educators?!— sabelotodo
- Wonder what all the tourists thought of teenage gangs roving around on Market St? Great image for the city, right? A Philadelphia public school is about the WORST neighbor you can have. Locating charter schools in Center City is one of the dumbest ideas ever. At lunchtime, the Bourse is packed with kids from the school across the street---how they can afford to eat there daily is beyond me.— nephillygirl
- Don't let the facts get in the way of a good argument, guys. Incidents like this still happen plenty, for sure, but less often than 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Again, don't get me wrong; I think we're way too lenient on these violent incidents (and way too harsh on everything else) but they're simply not as frequent these days.— Nutburgers
- I do have a serious question: At what point do we institute some type of military response to what is happening across the city? Center City merely sees bank robberies and face punching. In West/North/Southwest/NorthEast/Kenso/Etc. it's murder. And please spare me the "oh please, it's isolated incidents" garbage response. Why are we even tolerating one of these incidents? What the hell has happened to us?— ignatius
The gun nuts are right about this one. Get a conceal carry permit, shoot the knee caps, enough crips hobbling around will get the message out. No need to become a statistic if you have a family to live for that needs you around in one piece for a while longer.- Comment removed.
"I'm not a murderer. I'm not a monster. I'm a kid who made a mistake". That's what a "kid" who murdered Sean Conroy in the subway said at his sentencing yesterday. He got 1- to 20! These roving punks are ALL capable of making the same "mistake" and killing another innocent citizen. No family structure. No parenting. No hope!— Nihilist- Comment removed.
- This city really is going to hell in a hand basket. I'm sure these roving bands of hoodlums are really helping stores downtown with their holiday sales. The gallery and most of the market and chestnut street from Broad to about 6th should be bulldozed. Perhaps we can start over again and make Center City someplace actually attracts civilized people.— jfar86
- Comment removed.
- The natives are restless .— Joe R.
- if no ones gonna be accountable for anything in philly , then why waste time writing these articles?— karona
- Comment removed.
- This is and will continue to be a problem. The police should be on alert when schools get out early or not and in popular hang out spots. Who wants to have to deal with annoying teenagers who have no home training and just want to hurt people for "fun". I blame the parents because if you raise your children to respect others and have morals, values, and manners then this wouldn't happen. Yes, teenagers like to have fun but what they're doing is not fun!— reevee
- Comment removed.
- eicholson i really dont think color of skin matters. what matters is if they are caught that the justice system shows no mercy on them. Also , being that they are apparently children, why arent they in school? The parents should be held accountable for their kids also !!!— karona
- No they should be in jail if the law enforcement in the city had any control.— dentite11
- Yeah Workingirl, if there were a million jobs open to these kids, Im sure they would jump on them and none of them would be delinquents. Yeah.....thats the reason these kids look for trouble....... And the drug selling would stop too, because after all...theres just no jobs available...... Hey..a little green man just ran by with michael jackson too.....— sjmatt99
- Comment removed.
- I'm blue. Like the Avatar people. Don't hate.— NeverSunnyInPhiladelphia
- What a way to show your Christmas spirit.— tl8125
this problem is underpublicized- I personally witnessed these mobs the evening of the july 4th fireworks. Jobs won't help. Parenting might. Bottom line, the city is no longer safe - you can be a victim at any time. So get a gun, a carry permit and protect yourself.- Once again, here come the buttheads with their comments...— Jerryiz
- Animals. Plain and simple.— BarbaraPhila
- Yeah - they're just little darlings having innocent kiddie fun that we all did at that agae - like attacking people on the street for no reason, looting, and beating people to death on the subway to impress their friends. Coddle criminals and they commit crime again. Punish them hard and they will realize their actions have negative consequences. Makes too much sense for this city though.— rstone
- Amish punks from out of town I bet.— mark2004a1
- Amish punks from out of town I bet.— mark2004a1
- What does "monitoring" mean? How about we try breaking the crowds up and dispersing them?? This will be a rotten commute home.— nephillygirl
- hey NeverSunnylet's guess what color you are!— eicholson
- We did similar stuff in the suburbs when school was out...including vandalism but minus the assault...except now they have the internet to organize larger-scale "event" pranks. I'd say the punch and the robbery were both isolated incidents and the gatherings are nothing more than kids being annoying a-holes.— FMT
- Send in the State Police on horseback.— rcthompson
- Comment removed.
- knock down the Gallery, build a parking garage— dragoon6
- South Philly High must of got out early today????— Dadair1
- Jeesh, this city is spiraling down quick. They better work on getting some jobs in this area for poverished people or its going to get worst and continue to spread like a virus. Teenagers...soooo annoying— workngirl
1
Popular Posts
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners: