Unamusement Park

On February 16, 2010, a violent flash mob of about 150 teenagers descended on the Center City commercial area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They robbed stores, vandalized property, fought amongst themselves, and attacked bystanders at random. According to the available evidence, the mob was 100 percent African-American.

Try finding that in a newspaper, though.

No, the racial makeup of this small-scale riot wasn’t worth reporting — or rather, it was well worth not reporting. Even the handful of online news outlets that mentioned race at all would only admit that most of the teenagers were black, and that was only so they could excuse them of their criminal misbehavior, citing racist store owners and police. (White, of course.)

Ten teenagers have since been convicted of rioting, a felony. An article at philly.com, “Flash mob teens face the music at Family Court” (March 23), also makes no mention of race, but between this picture of a rioting suspect’s parents…

… and the reference on page 2 to a 15-year-old Simon Gratz High School student with a 2-month-old son, I think we can safely say these aren’t Asian kids.

I suppose we’re lucky to even hear about this. Similar attacks in May, June, and December of 2009 got even less coverage. What little information is available about the May and June flash mobs (including this video) suggests they were 100 percent African-American, too. (The strongest evidence of all is the fact that no one will report the race of the rioters.)

By the end of March, though, not even* the mainstream media would be able to ignore the reality of black flash mob violence in Philadelphia.

*I’m disgusted I had to write that: the problem was so bad, not even the mainstream media — y’know, the people who are supposed to keep us informed? — not even they could pretend it doesn’t exist.

March 3: Center City flash mob

From ABC Action News (unstable link): “16 charged in violent Center City flash mob” (March 4, 2010). The article not only omit the races (or rather race) of the perpetrators, it also blurs their faces in the video.

The blurs are black.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office announced Thursday that 16 people will be charged with felony rioting after a violent flash mob incident in Center City on Wednesday. …

Police say, at around 4:30 p.m., a mob of about 50 to 100 people suddenly converged in the 1400 block of Chestnut Street when a fistfight broke out, and then the crowd began running towards 11th and Market and the Gallery.

… Police say the group was on a rampage, dodging in and out of traffic and causing all sorts of havoc. Fortunately, city and SEPTA transit police have had a beefed up presence in the area since last month’s flash mob incident and were able to move in quickly before the teens could move into the Gallery where they were believed to be headed.

Second verse, same as the first: big black mob, no mention of race. I include this example of lower-class black dysfunction for the sake of completeness, and as a prelude to the main event. See below.

March 20: South Street flash mob

From The New York Times (March 24, 2010): “Mobs Are Born as Word Grows by Text Message.”

It started innocently enough seven years ago as an act of performance art… [But] these so-called flash mobs have taken a more aggressive and raucous turn here [in Philadelphia] as hundreds of teenagers [sic] have been converging downtown for a ritual that is part bullying, part running of the bulls: sprinting down the block, the teenagers sometimes pause to brawl with one another, assault pedestrians or vandalize property.

The police responded immediately, cracking down on violent flash mobs by — um, announcing plans to “step up enforcement of a curfew already on the books, and to tighten it if there is another incident.” Another incident? You mean a fifth black riot in two months?

In the past year, at least four of the flash mobs have broken out in the city, including one on Saturday [March 20] in which roving teenagers broke into fights, several onlookers were injured and at least three people were arrested.

Here’s a picture of the Saturday night riot.

“It was like a tsunami of kids,” said Seth Kaufman, 20, a pizza deliveryman at Olympia II Pizza & Restaurant on South Street. He lifted his shirt to show gashes along his back and arm. He also had bruises on his forehead he said were from kicks and punches he suffered while trying to keep a rowdy crowd from entering the shop, where a fight was already under way.

“By the time you could hear them yelling, they were flooding the streets and the stores and the sidewalks,” Mr. Kaufman said.

The flash mobs have raised questions about race and class.

What questions would those be? “Why do poor black people insist on ruining America in every conceivable way?” Or perhaps: “If all the white people moved out of Philadelphia, which they probably should, how long until the city succumbs to barbarism, like our very own backyard Liberia?”

The next three sentences deserve a Pulitzer Prize. No, really. That’s how bad race reporting is, these days.

Most of the teenagers who have taken part in them are black and from poor neighborhoods. Most of the areas hit have been predominantly white business districts.

In the flash mob on Saturday, groups of teenagers were chanting “black boys” and “burn the city,” bystanders said.

Not to worry, though. Race is definitely not a factor:

Mayor Nutter, who is black, rejected the notion that race or the city cut in services was a factor.

“I don’t think people should be finding excuses for inappropriate behavior,” Mr. Nutter said. “There is no racial component to stupid behavior…”

Unfortunately, there are racial components to both stupidity and criminality. That’s why Unamusement Park will never feature a series about violent white flash mobs: because they don’t exist.

Why do we even have newspapers anymore?

If you want the truth about black flash mobs, you need to turn to the Internet. No, I don’t mean me, although when I finish this series, it should serve as a guide to black flash mob violence in 2010.

As early as March 21 (the day after the South Street riot), A Race Against Time had the real story, complete with links, photos (of black people, obviously), and even — gasp — races.

Thousands of black teenagers swarmed a South Philadelphia neighborhood Saturday night… Several white workers were attacked…

A similar “flash mob” took place on the same street last May, in which black teenagers looted a convenience store, carjacked and crashed a taxi cab, and pulled white motorists from their vehicles and assaulted them. In addition to the two South Philly incidents, mobs of black teenagers have attacked pedestrians in the Center City neighborhood three times in the last three months.

Police say the black teenagers are using social networking sites to coordinate their mayhem. The flash mob last May was organized via the website OurSpace, which is “an online social location that provides African Americans a superior way to connect with others whom share similar experiences and perspectives.”

In the comments: “These thugs are like a bunch of out of control animals, and many whites turn on their own race to stand up for them.” Sounds like a fair comparison to me.

BucksRight has honest coverage, too. You can tell just from the title: “Racist, Violent Flash Mobs Paralyze Philadelphia.”

On the other hand, here are some more mainstream news outlets that decided the race angle wasn’t worth reporting.

1. From philly.com: “Police struggle with ‘flash mob’ on South Street” (March 21).
   

   Philadelphia police said a “flash mob” with thousands of teenagers and young adults [sic] swarmed South Street last night causing businesses to close early and bringing law enforcement from across the city to control the crowd.

   Thousands of people, apparently all (or nearly all) the same race, yet no mention of that race in the article. I think it’s fair to say this qualifies as a cover-up.

2. From AOL News: “Texting Spurs Sometimes Violent Flash Mobs” (March 25).
   

   Last week, the fourth mob of the year broke out in Philadelphia, with unruly teenagers [sic] fighting and injuring several onlookers while chanting “burn the city.”

   “Burn the city,” and? Something about “black boys,” right? Blatant censorship.

3. From Mashable: “Violent Flash Mobs Becoming a Problem in Philly” (March 28).
   

   Flash mobs are usually associated with randomized fun (or pantlessness), but in Philly, they’re basically akin to randomized violence.

   Because they’re made up of what kind of people?

The face of white victimhood

The very best you’ll find in the mainstream media is “Another Flash Mob Rocks South Street” (March 22) from the Philadelphia Daily News, which features a timeline of the riot, as well as a full account of Seth Kaufman’s beating. (He’s the pizza deliveryman, above.) The article is no longer available online, but American Renaissance has a copy. (If you haven’t bookmarked AmRen yet, do so now. Better yet, subscribe.)

Inspired by Twitter messages to “come to South Street,” police say hundreds — business owners say thousands — of young teens [sic] stampeded down South Street in waves, jumping on top of cars, knocking over pedestrians and fighting and cursing.

… Saturday’s was the sixth flash mob to hit the city since last May: three on South Street; two in the Gallery, including one that spread to Macy’s; and one along Market Street East that spread to the area near City Hall.

… One youth [sic] was overheard on his cell phone saying: “Bring baseball bats to South Street.”

There is also a list of people injured. (More victims, including a police officer, surfaced later.) One of them in particular stands out.

About 11 p.m. a 27-year-old woman was walking on South near 15th when a large group of male and female juveniles [sic] ganged up on her, kicking and punching her until she fell to the ground, where they continued to kick her in the face and head. [Sound familiar?] She was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital, where she was treated for bruises, abrasions and a large laceration on her upper lip. She has since been released. No arrests were made.

The 27-year-old woman is Anna Taylor — photo here.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has the whole story, in their article “Flash Mob Victim’s Untold Story” (via American Renaissance). Here is the worst of it:

Taylor’s mother, Peggy, a Germantown social worker, said her daughter needed so many stitches inside and outside her mouth at Hahnemann University Hospital after the assault that “we just couldn’t count them.”

Just kidding. Here is the worst of it:

The blow that Taylor absorbed was so powerful that she lost a front tooth and its root, and the roots of nearby teeth still may die, her dentist told her. The punch also split her upper lip so severely that much of it was hanging from her face and she was unable to speak, Taylor said.

Kidding again!

[T]he young man [sic] who hit Taylor was laughing as he punched her and said, “Bam, there’s another one,” according to Taylor. “It was frightening.”

Question: what kind of “young man” would laugh and taunt his (white, female) victim while bashing her face in with his fist?

Taylor’s attacker was described by Philadelphia Police Lt. Frank Vanore as an 18-year-old black male.

As the French say, quelle surprise. (They also occasionally say: look out, minorities are burning down our city — except, y’know, in French.)

This leads to my next question: how many times do ghetto black people have to do exactly this sort of thing, and much worse, before we’re allowed to say “hey, this is what ghetto black people do. It’s what they always do, whenever large numbers of them are allowed to congregate without strict supervision. They will never stop doing these things. They will not learn, and they cannot be tamed. We should really just stay the hell away from them. Give them a little corner of the country to fuck up with their crime and violence and illegitimate kids and low IQs — our very own backyard Liberia — and let the rest of America try to repair the damage they’ve already done.”

The face of black fake victimhood

Raina Kelley is a fanatical black activist who plays the race card at every available opportunity and consigns anyone not sufficiently pro-black to the “lunatic fringe.” If it were up to me, I would ignore Ms. Kelley’s ruminations on race, for the same reason I would ignore a profoundly retarded woman’s ruminations on the smell of her own bowel movements. Sadly, I do not have that luxury.

Ms. Kelley decided to weigh in (not a fat joke) on the matter of violent black flash mobs, in a Newsweek article entitled “Did Black Kids Ruin Flash Mobs?” (why yes, yes they did) and subtitled “Hardly. How the media got the story wrong” (well, fuck).

(Similar stupidity may be found in a March 28 article at philly.com, “What’s behind ‘flash mobs’?” However, I refuse to subject myself to critiquing more than one black crime apologia.)

Let’s hear her out.

Is it just me or are flash mobs more dangerous when it’s black teenagers doing the mobbing?

It’s not you. Blacks are inherently more violent than whites, so white flash mobs (dancing, having pillow fights, pretending to be zombies) are less dangerous than black flash mobs (robbing, looting, viciously assaulting).

News of violent flash mobs in Philadelphia has now hit the front page of The New York Times, complete with a photo (on the second page of the Times story) of a group of black male teenagers ostensibly [sic] en route to run amok.

So, to recap:

1. black male teenagers demonstrably run amok in a violent flash mob in Philadelphia, because that’s what black male teenagers like to do in their free time
2. The New York Times reports this
3. RAAAACISM!

The problem here, according to Ms. Kelley, is that the cover-up of black flash mob violence was incomplete. 90 percent suppression of the unflattering realities of black crime wasn’t enough. Only 100 percent suppression will do.

Here we go again. Just like freeway-shooting and looting, violent flash mobs will soon enter the modus operandi of scary young black men.

This is the point in the article where you’re supposed to share a hearty chuckle with Ms. Kelley over these “scary young black men.” Ho ho, scary young black men indeed. Why, only a Republican would think such a thing! That is why I wanted you to read about Anna Taylor first: so that you may now recall how the black man who punched her face apart was laughing as he did so.

Think of “Bam, there’s another one” as the punchline to Ms. Kelley’s hilarious joke.

I’m not looking to excuse their behavior, only to explain how ingrained racial stereotypes kick in to criminalize behavior by black youths that is tolerated in more diverse crowds.

Please remember what behavior we’re talking about here:

The blow that Taylor absorbed was so powerful that she lost a front tooth and its root, and the roots of nearby teeth still may die, her dentist told her. The punch also split her upper lip so severely that much of it was hanging from her face and she was unable to speak, Taylor said.

Of course Raina Kelley is looking to excuse their behavior. That’s the purpose of her article: to remind us that it’s not their fault — it’s never their fault. They’re just poor black teenagers! In fact, they’re the real victims here — victims of horrible white people! You’re just picking on them because they’re black!

Meanwhile, Ms. Taylor’s face was so full of stitches, inside and outside, that her mother couldn’t count them all.

Time and time again, crimes committed by African-Americans have been presented as the first of a wave of race crimes, only for the phenomenon disappear without a trace.

Again, this was the sixth violent black flash mob in Philadelphia since May 2009 — and don’t worry, we’ll see plenty more before this series is through.

Maybe that should read “start worrying.”

And where is the concerned hand-wringing over the future of flash mobs after tea-party protesters shouted racial epithets at congressmen?

Hoax. And not a flash mob. And non-violent. And probably not even against the law. Oh, but it was the Tea Party, and they’re racist, and boo hoo I’m another whiny black.

When a 2009 Valentine’s Day pillow-fight flash mob in San Francisco caused flooding of nearby businesses, wasted tens of thousands of gallons of water and cost the city nearly $20,000 to clean up, no one brought in the FBI to monitor social media and certainly no one thought to institute a curfew, as they are in Philly.

Where, indeed, is the uproar over a Valentine’s Day pillow-fight, that wasted tens of thousands of gallons of water? Let’s talk about that, and get over all this anti-black propaganda about how, at about 11 PM on March 20, Anna Taylor was walking on South Street when “a large group of [black people] ganged up on her, kicking and punching her until she fell to the ground, where they continued to kick her in the face and head” until… well, you can imagine the rest.

In fact, I will ask you to do so right now.

It is a wonder any of us get through our teen years without a stint in jail [says the black woman]. So it really isn’t shocking that flash mobs would appeal to these poor African-American teenagers in Philly — their neighborhoods are extremely violent, their schools are bad, and the Great Recession has cut what few after-school and employment programs they had by 93 percent.

No, it really isn’t shocking that poor, probably low-IQ blacks would participate in this kind of behavior. What kind of behavior, again? Ask the pizza deliveryman:

He lifted his shirt to show gashes along his back and arm. He also had bruises on his forehead he said were from kicks and punches he suffered while trying to keep a rowdy crowd from entering the shop, where a fight was already under way.

This is all rather tedious, I know, but Ms. Kelley isn’t done excusing black criminals yet.

The cycle is always “here’s the last brand of urban warfare,” and when that brand turns out not to exist, it’s only quietly noted while the impression that urban youths often attack white people without provocation remains.

Technically, the impression that remains, after reality intrudes on a white liberal’s fantasy world, is that the “niggers” you’ve heard so much about often attack white people without provocation.

In a column last year about a study confirming that 70 percent of people of all races harbored an unconscious preference for white people over black people…

Good for them. Personally, my preference for white people over black people is fully conscious — and perfectly rational, too.

… I wrote: “We are a nation of people deeply influenced by the stereotypes endlessly perpetuated in our culture. …

Does she perhaps mean “perpetuated by black people, who just can’t seem stop themselves from behaving like animals“?

… So it is not difficult to believe that we have automated this stereotyping to the point where it happens not in our conscious mind but in its operating system.” The continued use of the “flash mobs used to be great until black kids ruined them with violence” narrative [read: observation] relies on those same automatic assumptions about young black people and will only further perpetuate the popular, but unfair [sic], racial stereotype of black men as sociopathic thugs. We’re here, we have no fear, get used to it.

You heard the woman. Sociopathic black thugs are here, they have no fear, and we’d better find a way to deal with them.

Quickly and permanently.