Posted on 08/09/2011 7:02:46 PM PDT by annie laurie
Mayor Michael Nutter took a hard line against youth mob violence yesterday — chastising the black community in particular— from the pulpit of his West Philadelphia church.
“This nonsense must stop,” he thundered at Mount Carmel Baptist Church. “If you wanna act like a butthead, your butt’s gonna get locked up. If you wanna act like an idiot, move; we don’t want you here anymore.”
Nutter’s remarks were met with riotous applause as he addressed absentee parenting, peer pressure, and a sense of entitlement and disregard for consequences that seems to permeate teens who participate in violent swarms. The remarks came on the heels of the latest mob attack on July 29 in Center City, when two men were assaulted by 20 to 40 teens.
“Parents, if you don’t know where your kids are, you’re gonna find yourself spending quality time with them in jail,” he said, calling absent fathers “walking ATMs” and “sperm donors.”
“Please talk to your children because things are going to change,” he warned. The city said on Friday that it would ramp up enforcement of the teen curfew with a beefed-up weekend police deployment, and Nutter is expected to announce more serious measures involving both community groups and the court system at noon today.
Some in the black community agreed with Nutter’s assessment, but say extra enforcement measures aren’t enough to deal with the complicated sociological problems that have fostered a culture of violence.
“A black man may not have an opportunity to take care of his children. There are no jobs,” said security officer Douglas Jordan, 49. “More police will solve nothing. You have to get to [the kids’] hearts. Throwing their mom in jail ... is just going to cause more havoc.”
Silent majority
While Nutter admitted that “99 percent” of Philadelphia teens are law-abiding kids, he said the other one percent are doing irreparable damage to their peers — and to their race. “Some of them have made chains on our wrists,” he said. “I am forced by the stupid, dumb, ignorant actions of a few to take actions tomorrow that will affect many.”
“If you wanna be aggressive, we’ll be aggressive and we’ve got the biggest, baddest gang in town,” he said.
— Additional reporting by Yotam Dror
Good for Mayor Nutter. I’m in the burbs of Philly. Even more remarkable was that the local NAACP lead backed him up.
Give this Mayor credit for trying to ge a HANDLE on the problem.
I hope he actually means it!
If you are out of work, you have time to be home spending quality time with your young thug.
but say extra enforcement measures aren’t enough to deal with the complicated sociological problems that have fostered a culture of violence.
What would Jesus Christ say to this? Would He just dismiss their sin, mayhem, criminal behavior, murder, robbery, arson, theft, rape, hatred, and violence as "complicated sociological problems?"
Of course not.
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."
Galatians 6:7
There are no jobs, but somewhere these kids are getting money for mobile communication devices. And if lack of jobs and money is a problem why are they not just robbing these victims, but physically attacking them too? Or not robbing them at all? Sounds like pure vicious hate. Mr Nutter should address that, and tell them to stop the hate crimes now.
They have to many houses to visit to spend much time with each of the thugs they spawned.
Things have been really bad in Phillthy for years. I don’t think Nutter has any other choice than to crack down or lose the city altogether.
Isn’t Philly working on free cellphones for the poor? I thought that was the story making the wires last week.
Some local governments give out cell phones
for free to low income
Yeah, I saw this earlier today on Drudge. Right words only 30 years too late IMHO! No hope for the big cities in this country. The current residents will burn them to the ground in due time. If you are white and still live in one of these cesspools, RUN REALLY FAST!
Beautiful!
Courageous leadership. Mayors, man up.
Right! Not for someone who can't keep his pants from falling down, never washes his hair and doesn't speak correct English.
Another FReeper mentioned today they can get about 40 cents cash per dollar of food stamps.
A principled Black man of character DARES to tell the truth.
He is SO gonna get it from the race pimps like jessie jackson and al sharpton. Dr. William Cosby (a super-liberal) DARED to call out the Black Community for encouraging sloth and anti-intellectualism and the race pimps attacked him unmercifully!
Philadelphia is already lost. Where have you been?
“...complicated sociological problems that have fostered a culture of violence.”
ITS CALLED LIBERALISM PERIOD
The Democratic Party has been destroying the Black community for 40 years now
“The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor”- H.L. Mencken
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