Police May Find Their Hands Full This Summer As Teens Continue To Plan Takeovers Across Various Cities

The law enforcement veteran and InVest USA founder discusses a
disturbing new trend fueled by social media and angry, fed-up teens.

It’s one thing to be in disagreement with what’s happening in the world today. It’s another when you actively try to do something about it in the worst way you can possibly imagine. Which, sad to say, a lot of teenagers seem to be doing now.

I was reading this report over at Fox News about a disturbing trend that’s bound to grow this summer, showing teens in full “takeover” mode as they form large mobs in cities across the United States.

Across cities like Chicago, Washington D.C. and others, these large gatherings could bring up a number of factors, including creating situations where violence and threatening innocent people could take place.

These are essentially crowds who talk with each other on social media and then engage in forming large groups. We’ve seen a number of these incidents over the spring season, and now it’s spilling over into summer, where we could see more fights that lead to arrests, weapons charges and discussions surrounding potential emergency curfews.

Amy Swearer, who serves with Advancing American Freedom, made it clear what’s motivating these kids to partake in such activities. “So many of these incidents are fueled by two things: social media and boredom. That’s it.”

It used to be that, when we were kids, we would find all sorts of things we could do over the summer. But very few borderlined on trouble. These days, however, that isn’t the case. “There is potential for this to escalate, and to really damage some good progress that we’ve made in cutting back on that post-COVID violent crime spike,” Swearer continued. (Keep in mind that, during this era, a lot of that hatred was fueled by the “defund the police” campaign that emerged following the death of George Floyd.)

But social media plays a tremendous part in this trend, as kids film videos and post pictures in an effort to not only gain popularity, but raise awareness of such meet-ups. Hence, making a situation even worse by motivating others to take part.

“There are massive accounts that are just dedicated to showing the chaos and the carnage and the street takeover events, where it’s almost like a social media clout thing,” Swearer added. It’s a matter of gaining “clout,” just for those “hit” numbers.

A lot of these kids think they’re getting attention – but it’s the worst kind. They’re now creating even more work for our law enforcement, with arrests and charges brought up like crazy. That creates a huge burden for their parents as well, who not only have to pay for these crimes, but also assure that their kid learns their lesson from this. Which, sadly, most of them don’t. If anything, this needs to serve as a wake-up call to parents.

When you’re a bad parent, it easily has a reflection on your children. I’m sorry, it just does. It doesn’t matter if you’re too “busy” to take care of your kid or think handing them a tablet with Fortnite installed is the solution. It isn’t. Being a loving, caring parent is.

And because of this, parents will likely be stuck with the bill for what these teens do. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro made this clear on Friday, noting that the parents wouldn’t just face fines, but could also be in the hook for a six month jail sentence in Washington, D.C. That’s right, they serve the time for their kids’ penance.

“If the evidence shows the parent knew or should have known, permitted or failed to prevent participation, we’re gonna charge them,” she noted.

So I’ll say it now. If you’ve got a kid, please take care of them. I can’t say this enough. You may not be the perfect parent (hell, who is?), but it’s never too late to be a good one. If you see something “off” about your kid, talk to them. Find out what’s fueling them about this. Take a closer look at their online activity.

Because, otherwise, you may have someone ramming a police cruiser and creating the kind of devastation that you’ll both be paying the price for.

This is a good time to connect with your kids. Have a cookout, go to the park, something. Anything. Leaving them to their own devices and believing nothing is wrong is never a good idea.

About Michael Letts:
Michael Letts is the Founder, President, and CEO of InVest USA, a national grassroots non-profit organization that is helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. He also has over 30 years of law enforcement experience under his belt, hence his pro-police stance for his brothers and sisters in blue. Those interested in learning more about Letts can visit his official website here.