Philadelphia is one of the latest cities world-wide to experience Flash Robs. In recent weeks, the city has witnessed several robberies and assaults. Similarly to flash mobs, people learned of and then participated in the mobs through social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and BBM. In response to these attacks the mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, has ordered a city-wide curfew for “youths” under 21 years of age at 12am and those under 18 at 10 pm. In areas deemed to be more violent, the curfew has been set as early as 9pm.
While these preemptive actions may very well be justified, there has been quite some controversy regarding the comment Mayor Nutter made last Sunday at his church regarding the attacks: “you’ve damaged yourself, you’ve damaged another person, you’ve damaged your peers and, quite honestly, you’ve damaged your own race.” In this class, we have seen time and time again how race has been linked to crime. While Mayor Nutter is attempting to solve a problem, he is also creating one. By being a public official and perpetuating this idea that a particular race is behind an act of violence he is, in my opinion, perpetuating more crimes. By saying that black people are disgracing their race, he is creating a population of “suspects” that can be viewed with suspicion and even hostility by others. This label, as the article points out, takes away from the good things that that same target population is accomplishing, such as the award-winning Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement. This is just an example of how stereotypes can perpetuate attitudes that encourage crime.
Curfews, surveillance, wire taps, phone taps, are all of these things necessary to curb crime and keep order, or are they just a way of government and authorities overstepping and boundaries and reminding us whose really in charge? I think we as the people put a certain amount of trust in people of authority and power, because they are trained, and their jobs are difficult, and they constantly put themselves in danger in order to protect society. Cops and people in authority are people just like you and I, and as people they are not perfect. They make their fare share of mistakes and screw ups just like everyone else. With that said when things like a curfew are implemented, it makes me very nervous. In a free country like America, things like a curfew shouldn’t really be used because that’s a little so similar to a dictatorship. It sounds like something they would do in Sadaam Hussein’s Iraq, or in Hitler’s Germany. I don’t live in PA and can’t imagine what it must be like to live in one of those neighborhoods, but if the mayor went to such extremes, and then I can only imagine how serious the situation really is. Would I give up my civil rights and personal liberties for my own personal safety? In a heartbeat! They could record any phone call and impose any curfew if that would ensure my personal safety. But I also feel the police should not have allowed it to reach such epic proportions to begin with. As far as the race thing goes, I mean if groups of Italian or Asian kids were doing this, then that would be the groups mentioned in the Mayor’s speech, they just happened to be black. I don’t feel it’s a “label”; it’s the facts and the reality of the situation.