Tuesday, August 9, 2011

File this under the "It's about damn time" department.

Philadelphia mayor talks tough to black teenagers after ‘flash mobs’.

Mayor Michael A. Nutter, telling marauding black youths “you have damaged your own race,” imposed a tougher curfew Monday in response to the latest “flash mob” — spontaneous groups of teens who attack people at random on the streets of the city’s tourist and fashionable shopping districts.

“Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer,” Mr. Nutter, the city’s second black mayor, said in an angry lecture aimed at black teens. “Pull your pants up and buy a belt ‘cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.”

“If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ‘cause you look like you’re crazy,” the mayor said. “You have damaged your own race.”

Mr. Nutter announced that he was beefing up police patrols in certain neighborhoods, enlisting volunteers to monitor the streets and moving up the weekend curfew for minors to 9 p.m.

Parents will face increased fines for each time their child is caught violating the curfew.

The head of Philadelphia’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, J. Whyatt Mondesire, said it “took courage” for Mr. Nutter to deliver the message.

“These are majority African-American youths and they need to be called on it,” Mr. Mondesire said.


Of course, if they were serious about deterring flash mobs, they would encourage concealed carry, not punish it.

LATER: Sultan Knish has an interesting take on flash mobs and the London Riots here.

4 comments:

Bob said...

The Sultan Knish link goes to AOL email.

Anonymous said...

Nutter, he of Bloomie's mayors against guns, talks tough? And pigs fly under their own power.

Anonymous said...

Careful, Mr. Mayor. Don't want to damage their self esteem!

Anonymous said...

And what would have been the public reaction if Mr Mayor had been a WHITIE and said the exact same words?
Come to think of it, since Mr Mayor Hizzonor spoke, have things actually become better? Or not?

B Woodman
III-per