Damarion Spann, 18, said he wanted to go immediately after seeing an Instagram flier calling for a massive gathering on a beach near downtown Chicago. Thousands of others joined him that night on the sand, blasting music and dancing. Now cities across the U.S. are moving to stop the events, punish the people who show up, and tighten the screws on young people already boxed in by curfews, police, and the usual machinery of control.
Who Gets Watched
The gatherings, hyped online and captured in videos on social media, have led to shootings, theft and vandalism, and officials are under pressure to prevent similar events over the summer. Over the July 4 holiday weekend, several thousand young people converged in two spots in Raleigh, North Carolina, and nine people, including an adult who was not part of the gatherings, were shot and wounded. In Pensacola, Florida, a 19-year-old was shot and killed. In Newport Beach, California, more than 400 people were arrested after the police chief said teens launched “explosive mortars and other projectiles” at officers ordering them to disperse.
That’s the hierarchy in plain sight. Young people gather, and the state answers with surveillance, arrests, and the threat of punishment. Communities and police across the country are trying to identify organizers, fine parents of those involved and impose curfews. In Detroit, officials said they “thwarted” 19 gatherings so far this year by monitoring time and location changes as young people coordinated across social media, said Teferi Brent, director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood and Community Safety.
Brent said, “We have eyes on all the behaviors and activities of those who have expressed interest in trying to take over and we have done a good job of being way ahead of the curve and being able to prevent a lot of these things.” The language is blunt. So is the power behind it.
What Young People Say They Need
Spann said the events are misunderstood and that curfews and limits on group size at malls and movie theaters have made it harder for teens to gather, adding to a feeling of disconnection they trace back to remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic. “You feel like a young person who has freedom, who’s not being held to something,” he said. At the event he attended, he was able to catch up with people he hadn’t seen since 8th grade.
He said the events are a direct result of a cascade of school closures across Black neighborhoods in Chicago over the past couple decades. He also said officials removed nets from basketball courts to deter gatherings and that his mom often talks about how much easier it used to be to hang out outside without fear of gun violence. When Spann goes to malls in more affluent areas with his mostly Black group of friends, shoppers often stare and security guards question them. To avoid scrutiny, Spann and his friends sometimes sneak into outdoor shopping centers or downtown areas in smaller groups at staggered times. By contrast, in the same spaces, Spann said, “If I’m with my white friends, I feel like I belong.”
Jeffrey Bernstein, a psychologist and author, said the allure remains strong despite the dangers and the threat of tickets or arrest. “The kids still do it because they feel like it’s their second family,” he said, adding that it “really takes over as their primary sense of connection.” He also said, “They’re getting things from their peers that they can’t get from their parents.”
What They Call Order
Other places have taken harsher approaches. In Florida, state officials said prosecutors can apply racketeering laws, typically used against criminal gangs or organized crime, if takeovers appear to be facilitated by “an organized network.” That’s the apparatus reaching for the biggest hammer it can find. Melissa Milchman, executive director for the nonpartisan organization the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, said, “What we know about adolescent brain development is that the stakes are not going to be what prevents a young person from engaging in risky behavior.” She added that mass arrests often ensnare those who are going for innocent fun without preventing others from breaking the law.
In Newport Beach, the police chief said teens launched “explosive mortars and other projectiles” at officers ordering them to disperse. More than 400 people were arrested there. In Raleigh, nine people were shot and wounded over the July 4 holiday weekend, including an adult who was not part of the gatherings. In Pensacola, a 19-year-old was shot and killed.
Blue Island, a south Chicago suburb, has taken another tact: fining parents or guardians and using the funds to cover cleanup after events, including debris left behind or damage such as cars dented from scores of teens clambering over them while fleeing police. The bill gets passed down. The cleanup, the fines, the arrests — all of it lands lower.
What People Built Instead
Some cities are trying to meet that need directly. In St. Louis, officers have started to bring some teens to community centers instead of jails so their parents can pick them up, and in Baltimore, officials have tried leaning on public schools to provide alternative programming. In Chicago, Spann received a $11,000 grant from the city and partnering nonprofits to host an event for his peers at the end of the summer, in an effort to give his community more places to gather.
Detroit had already planned to use $1.5 million from the city’s budget for summer programming and violence prevention programs before the takeovers. In response, the city launched an office of youth affairs, met and listened to students at schools, and created a youth advisory board made up of teens and young adults. Brent said, “We have brought them to the table and made them a part of our structure in regards to identifying what the needs and concerns are of the young people in the city.” Detroit also formed a late-night basketball league as an alternative hangout spot for teens and young adults, with jerseys and sneakers provided by the city.
Cameron Chandler, 21, said, “This league just helps me find something to do.” He said he had never participated in a takeover, but after practice he stumbled on one near his home. “There were a lot of cops and some people got arrested,” Chandler said. “You just have to think, ‘that could easily be me.’” Daveion Page, 16, said he was bored in April and turned to his phone to create a post promoting a teen takeover. Hundreds of teens flocked to a site downtown and fights broke out by the end of the night. At another takeover in May, a 14-year-old was shot and wounded.
Page later said, “I just wanted to get out of the house, have fun, enjoy time with my family and my homeboys and my homegirls, too,” while standing with Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield and other city officials at a news conference. He said young people might respond if there were more safe places to gather. That’s the whole story, stripped of the polish: young people looking for space, officials rushing in with policing, fines, and managed alternatives, and nonprofits and city offices trying to patch over what the system keeps breaking.